The Dawn of AI Revolution in Business
Photo @emilianovittoriosi on Unsplash.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is ushering in a revolutionary era for the business sector, transforming the way companies operate from the ground up. Unlike previous technological revolutions which mainly benefited big tech companies and focused on the consumer market through social media and app stores, the current AI boom is tailor-made for reinventing enterprises' internal processes and enhancing productivity.
This was described clearly in an article in the Wall Street Journal published on the 14th of February this year which details insights from leaders in the field who congregated at the Journal’s CIO Network Summit in Menlo Park, Calif., revealing how AI's potential is being harnessed to transform business operations in profound ways.
According to Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst, while the tech boom of the 2000s leveraged social media and app stores to scale startups for the consumer market, generative AI differs fundamentally. It does not serve to create a user platform but rather, provides a "transformation advantage," making it particularly suited to reshaping large organizations by streamlining processes and boosting efficiency. Taneja emphasizes AI’s capacity to revolutionize not just business functions like marketing and customer support but also entire industries, including healthcare.
More than a year after OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT, companies continue to explore and implement AI to reinvent various roles, such as in customer service and software development. These implementations are showing promising results in increasing efficiency and introducing new operational methodologies.
Examples of AI application in business include Ally Financial, where Chief Information Digital and Data Officer Sathish Muthukrishnan developed an AI tool that accurately summarizes conversations between callers and customer service agents. This innovation significantly reduces the need for manual note-taking, maintaining human oversight with a remarkable 95% approval rate for the AI-generated summaries.
At Cisco, CIO Fletcher Previn demonstrates the utility of generative AI in software development through GitHub Copilot, an AI coding tool. Despite developer skepticism initially limiting acceptance, the utilization rate of AI-generated code is on the rise, suggesting a shift towards broader acceptance and confidence in AI contributions.
Moreover, Cisco employed generative AI in the recruitment process, finding AI-generated emails to potential job candidates yielded higher response rates than those crafted by humans. This implies AI's capability to personalize communication more effectively.
Industry-specific applications are also beginning to emerge, as highlighted by Sesh Iyer of Boston Consulting Group’s technology partnership arm, BCG X. For instance, generative AI is being leveraged for advancements in insurance underwriting.
Dow’s Chief Information and Digital Officer Melanie Kalmar revealed that the company is exploring generative AI in approximately 20 areas, including safety measures, margin improvement, and patent research for new materials. This effort is drastically reducing the time for legal consultation and research from months to mere capability for in-house handling.
Fletcher Previn encapsulates the overarching sentiment towards AI in business by describing it as "a force multiplier for human potential." It is clear that as the corporate world embraces AI, the technology is not just an auxiliary tool but a transformative power reshaping business landscapes and heralding a new era of efficiency and innovation.