Generative AI is increasingly offering businesses the opportunity to streamline operations by transforming efficiency and productivity by drastically reducing time spent on internal tasks like research and analysis. But despite this opportunity, business leaders are correct to be cautious. Generative AI is an incredibly powerful technology, so it’s necessary to think responsibly when deploying it for company use (whether it’s your own product or a third party solution). When implemented methodically, generative AI will enable your employees to do more creative, human work – freeing up administrative restraints to take your company to the next level.
Prioritize Trustworthiness
Generative AI powered chatbots, like ChatGPT, are known for innovation but also for providing false information by relaying data from unverified sources. Not being able to trust data simply doesn’t work for enterprise businesses that rely on data to advise on business decisions. It’s too big of a risk.
That’s why, when either building out your generative AI product or selecting a third party product, the most important feature to look for is trustworthiness. Is the data that’s provided truthful? Can we depend on this data and function to streamline operations?
When you’re looking into a product’s ability to pull verifiable data using generative AI, transparency is key. Users should be provided not only with answers but also with the sources from which those answers were derived.
Let ‘Need’ Be Your Guide
It’s important that enterprise businesses identify where generative AI can best streamline productivity and efficiency, and make product decisions based on those needs. Using generative AI just to use it can unfortunately lead to limited returns on investment. Leaders should be asking themselves, how can generative AI applications be used most optimally to eliminate the time spent on specific tasks? And in turn, where can that time be better used?
To glean this information, leaders can consider tasks in which employees spend the most time that they no longer need to, and how generative AI can elevate employee workload to focus more on strategic, creative problem-solving. By seeking answers to these questions, leaders will truly understand where and why it can be useful to elevate productivity.
A major factor in determining need is not just understanding your business, but really understanding generative AI as well. It’s crucial for leaders to educate themselves on the technology to understand its functions, and in turn, its benefits and pitfalls. Combining these two factors – need and education – will enable leaders to clearly outline how the technology should be applied within the organization.
Evaluate Ease-of-Use
Once you have determined that a solution is trustworthy, and have developed goals for your organization, it’s important to consider how easy a solution will be to use. The concept is simple: if a generative AI solution isn’t intuitive, user-friendly and human-centric, it won’t be used as much as you want it to be used. And you want your investment to yield returns.
Any generative AI-powered product you implement should be completely intuitive, and seamlessly integrate with existing platforms and workflows. This will ensure that it supports human creativity instead of inhibiting it. With a user-friendly, human-centric generative AI experience, there can be real collaboration between humans and AI, leading to productivity and efficiency.
Plan for Now and Later
Generative AI will continue to evolve beyond today and extend into the future – and it’s critical to understand this when implementing a solution for your business. While the high-power technology is already expediting the pace at which administrative tasks can be completed, we can expect that it will have a long term impact on organizations beyond what we currently know.
However, the effective use of generative AI right now really starts with responsible implementation. Enterprises will benefit from extensive planning, clear goals, thorough education, and trusted outputs. As enterprise businesses continue to adopt generative AI, utilizing its strengths will truly enable a new level of productivity and efficiency.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thor Olof Philogène is the CEO and Founder of Stravito, an AI-powered knowledge management platform for market research.
