By the end of the year, most of Rackspace Technology Inc.’s employees will have completed training on the fundamentals of artificial intelligence.
The San Antonio-based cloud computing company has approximately 700 local employees and 6,800 global employees in 23 countries. He announced that he was training. Azure and Google.
This is another step towards the future of artificial intelligence, which the Chief Technology Officer of Rackspace said is necessary for artificial intelligence to “really compete in this world.”
Last month, Rackspace announced Foundry for Generative AI by Rackspace (FAIR), aimed at using AI chatbots to help customers build such apps on its cloud platform. A new technology literacy program called FAIR Learn offers self-directed courses for employees who want a deeper understanding of the technologies used in cloud computing.
The company said it is also developing something called RITA, which stands for Rackspace’s Intelligent Technology Assistant, and will be able to respond to text information technology service requests, enhance self-service capabilities for inquiries, and enhance self-service capabilities for requests. We talked about “interactive chatbots using modern language models” that perform tasks. Answers to questions about new hardware or software, resetting forgotten passwords, IT and security policies.
Related: Rackspace Enters Generative AI Seeking How To ‘Rebuild This Company’
Rackspace CEO Amar Maletira said in a statement that Rackspace has a goal of having the majority of its employees accredited through the FAIR Learn program. Adopting AI will help shape the company’s future, he said.
Across its operations, Rackspace has a broad strategy to develop generative AI that can generate unique text, photos, and videos on prompt. The technology that powers chatbots has captured the attention of the business world in recent months.
The company last month appointed CTO Srini Koushik to lead the FAIR project. Former IBM vice president Koushik said the tool would not replace employees, but rather create a “more productive” workforce.
When tasked with Koushik, Rackspace officials said the company plans to invest millions in the technology over the next year.
Part of that investment is the cost of employee participation in the FAIR Learn program. The program aims to “enhance Rackspace employees’ understanding of AI’s fundamental principles, potential use cases, and limitations so that they can harness its power creatively, responsibly and sustainably.” purpose. ”
Rackspace spokeswoman Casey Shilling said employees, known as “Rackers,” can enroll in four levels of recommended courses offered by LinkedIn, LearningAI and cloud service providers.
The so-called AI-Ready level, which employees are expected to complete in five hours, “gives Rackers a foundational understanding of AI, terminology and concepts,” she said. The AI Business level will take her 3 weeks to complete, the AI Specialist level will take 2-3 months, and the AI Expert level about 6 months.
For now, she said, the company’s primary hope is that the majority of employees who can schedule training during work hours will complete the AI readiness phase this year.
Employees who complete a “recommended course” for each level “receive a digital credential from FAIR that can be shared on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Elon Musk’s Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg’s thread,” the company said. rice field.
Related: Downsizing in rack space in response to the recession. The company’s stock price plummeted amid a spate of losses.
This educational effort comes at a time when Rackspace is in the midst of a global rush to introduce an enterprise product that uses generative AI. The company plans to build its FAIR practices into its public cloud and private cloud business units, which it announced in January.
Through FAIR, Rackspace is trying to sell its “ability to get into your business and use the technology we used to help implement it,” Koushik said, adding that the technology does the tasks companies want. added that it can be tweaked for
Fair practices are expected to bring in revenue for the troubled company, but its share price fell more than 80% last year, about half of which was due to a ransomware attack in December. This is due to Amid the economic downturn, the company announced in April that it would lay off nearly 4% of its global workforce, or about 275 people. It remains unclear how many people have been laid off from the San Antonio headquarters or their roles.
Since launching the FAIR program on June 13, Rackspace’s share price is up about 55%, a modest sign that investors are interested in the company’s efforts. In Wednesday morning trading, the company’s stock traded near $3, up about 10% from $2.71 at the market close on Tuesday and nearly triple its 52-week low of $1.05. .
“We continue to be in a compelling multi-cloud marketplace. ‘s urgent needs,” said Schilling.
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Rackspace isn’t the only regional company investing in generative AI. TaskUs Inc., a New Braunfels-based provider of outsourced digital services, announced last month that he launched TaskGPT, an app also powered by the technology. San Antonio-based global accounting and consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP announced in April that it plans to invest $1 billion in generative AI over the next three years in its U.S. operations.
The race to embrace new technology began after Open AI released ChatGPT last year and its latest large-scale language model called GPT-4 in March. Tech companies large and small are eager to invest in the fast-growing market, which is expected to reach $42.6 billion by the end of the year, according to data from market analytics firm PitchBook Data.
Under Rackspace’s FAIR program, the company has implemented what it calls Intelligent Co-pilot for the Enterprise (ICE). It aims to improve employee productivity and efficiency by using AI to “automate routine tasks, identify prospects, and surface relevant data and content.” It provides real-time, contextual analytics for hyper-personalized customer interactions, according to a news release last month. ”
