GENAI - A LEAP FORWARD
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new buzzword at the moment, with business leaders touting its importance and the significant impact it will have on the way we conduct business. The reality is that AI has been around for a while, but in the past few years, it has taken a great leap in terms of its usefulness and accessibility for the general public.
AI is a blanket term for computers performing tasks that would usually require human intelligence. It is exceptionally good at recognizing patterns and making predictions and is already being widely used. For example, the facial recognition on your phone or the personalized ads you see online are all results of AI. Generative AI (GenAI) is an evolution of this, where it can use existing data and patterns to create completely new content. GenAI is causing such a stir recently due to the broadness of its potential applications and how disruptive it could be for many industries.
According to PwC’s 2023 Emerging Technology Survey, 73% of U.S. companies have already adopted AI into their business, with 54% using GenAI. Many firms are creating their own GenAI chatbots, which employees can use to research legislation, summarize spoken meetings using speech-to-text, or craft an email from scratch. Broader use cases see programmers using GenAI to help them write code, product designers using it to evaluate new designs, and marketers using it to identify leads and develop marketing strategies. In the creative industry, GenAI has been even more disruptive, crafting unique videos, pictures, or songs from a simple chat prompt.
Every so often, a new technology emerges that completely changes the way the world operates. In recent times, this has included the internet and smartphones. Many are now claiming that GenAI will be the next big shift, with an unprecedented impact on the future. The first-ever global summit on artificial intelligence was hosted in November last year, where 28 nations declared the need to work together to manage the risks associated with such powerful technology. Public figures like Elon Musk have even described it as a 'threat to humanity,' given the potential for AI to become more intelligent than its human creators. While the threat of world domination is hopefully something far on the horizon, no one can really say how fast the technology will evolve, particularly when it is able to learn and teach itself.
With access to GenAI available to everyone through platforms like ChatGPT, now is the time to consider whether it can be helpful to you or your business.
