Monthly Archives: August 2023

The Promises and Challenges of Generative Artificial Intelligence

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used in some form for several years. Typical applications of AI include advanced-analytics and machine learning algorithms used to perform numerical and optimization tasks like predictive modeling. Generative AI, in contrast, has matured quickly due to enormous financial investment. According to a recent article by McKinsey and Company, generative AI has the potential to change how people create and the very anatomy of work. Read on to learn more about the potential and challenges of this new form of artificial intelligence. 

 

The Potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence

What Generative AI is and Why it Matters

 

In the article, generative artificial intelligence is defined as AI that is typically built using foundation models and having capabilities that earlier artificial intelligence lacked. Generative AI can generate content, which earlier AI couldn’t do. A foundational model is based on deep learning, akin to the neural layers in the human brain. The foundational model uses (is trained) on vast amounts of unstructured and unlabeled data to perform tasks immediately, or that data can be refined to accomplish specific tasks. Generative AI has the potential to add value and increase revenue in businesses across all sectors; when applied across industries, the use cases for generative AI could deliver a total value of $2.6 to $4.4 trillion of economic benefits per year. 

 

Generative AI could change the anatomy of work altogether, eliminating certain mundane tasks that take up a good part of each workday. It was forecast that AI might automate 50% of tasks between 2035 and 2070; the estimate has since been adjusted to nearly a decade earlier than that. Call centers, sales, banking and other industries have the potential to use generative AI in imaginative ways to improve processes, cut costs and increase revenue. 

 

Use Cases for Generative AI in Various industries

 

Generative AI, with its power to speed processes and generate  content, will play a vital role in the knowledge economy–academia, banking, finance–as well as in business departments like marketing and sales. 

 

Some examples:

 

  • Sales and Marketing: gathering data for marketing campaigns, crafting personalized emails according to market segments and demographics; and generating sales leads. Improvement in SEO can help increase conversions and lower cost through optimization for “page titles, image tags and URLs” along with supporting specialists in creating content and distributing it to customers. 

 

  • Customer Service: Faster access to customer information; the ability to resolve customer service requests on first contact; ability to help more customers during the workday. The economic value could cover 30 to 45% of current function costs.

 

  • Software development: writing code, creating numerous architecture designs, and processing data. 

 

With Possibilities Come Risks

 

The uses of generative AI may only be limited to the imagination of the users. With this potential comes possible risks that businesses and society need to grapple with. Do generative AI models come up with accurate information, free of bias? What about explainability–is it clear how the model provides its results? There is also the risk of bad actors manipulating the tool to produce more frequent and more sophisticated attacks, even producing fake audio and video content (“deep fakes”). Other concerns have to do with the security and privacy of data, including that which identifies individuals. What challenges will actually emerge, remain to be seen.

 

While generative AI has tremendous capacity to transform, it disrupts at the same time. For more guidance on harnessing generative AI, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

Make Cloud Work for Your Business

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Cloud computing, with its many “as a service” offerings, is an option for replacing outdated on-premise infrastructure with a flexible, pay-as-you-go, Internet-based form of computing. Read on to learn about saving costs and supporting business innovation with Cloud computing

 

Cloud Helps Convert Capital Expense to Operating Expense

 

Cloud has helped many businesses, especially small to medium-sized businesses, move their computing from possibly aging on-premise infrastructure to a cloud service provider’s (CSP) infrastructure. Thus, the CSP handles the operation and maintenance of servers, hardware and software. Small to medium-sized businesses can switch from capital expenses (including the depreciation of equipment) to a flexible subscription-based computing model that allows the company to scale provision up and down as needed. Organizations can respond easily to  demand fluctuations and use the cloud to  support business innovation. Companies are able to monitor their usage, learning the compute cost for each of customers and adjust usage as needed. 

 

“Everything as a Service”  Can Help Streamline Costs

 

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS),  Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service(SaaS) are three primary cloud service offerings, and the range of new ones has grown over the years.  “As a Service” offerings have grown, and are expected to continue growing, over the next few years. In 2022, Gartner predicted that IT spending would exceed $1.3 trillion, and expand to $1.8 trillion by 2025. Everything as a Service (XaaS) brings together multiple offerings into one package, and investment in XaaS is slated to be the top category. In addition to the most common offerings listed above, XaaS can include Database as a Service (DBaaS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) and many others. 

 

Considerations for Cloud Adoption

 

When considering XaaS or any other cloud offering, a business needs to consider the business case for its use. What are the company’s goals, short- and long-term? What new products or services do they hope to roll out, and how will the cloud help? For example, a company might want to strengthen its disaster recovery plan, and invest in Disaster Recovery as a Service. What the offerings have in common is the flexibility and scalability of cloud, the ability to purchase more (or fewer) computing resources according to business needs. With this flexibility comes the need for a strong internet connection and network. Businesses subject to data-privacy and security regulations will need to ensure that their prospective provider follows the same regulations.

 

Cloud computing holds great potential to simplify infrastructure and convert capital expense to easily-managed operating expense. For more guidance on migrating workloads to the cloud and maximizing its benefits, contact your trusted technology advisor today.