Business leaders see AI as having the potential to eventually find major applications in areas such as software development and science. Getty Images
good morning.
Generative AI is rapidly gaining a large foothold in large enterprises. Here are my conclusions from conversations with a group of leading executives last week. The question of whether this is just an interesting new technology or a business transformation has already been answered. It’s a game changer.
According to Accenture, a partner at last week’s event, the earliest and easiest use cases are call centers and content creation of various kinds, especially marketing and sales. Next is an effort to drive more intelligent search for information within the enterprise and supply chain applications. Data and privacy concerns have slowed these efforts, but they are still moving forward. And finally, at the more difficult end of the spectrum, companies see great potential in software development and science and health.
Some excerpts from the conversation:
“The momentum of AI over the past six months has been amazing. We think it’s possible, we’ve done some research to show which industries, such as banking and insurance, will be most affected—has little impact—such as energy and natural resources. But even in less affected industries, he believes 20% to 25% of employees will be affected. “
—Joe Depa, Global Lead for Data and AI, Accenture
“Definitely, this is a game changer.”
—Alexander Statnikov, Seller Experience, Square Capital
“We talk to thousands of customers every day. I have no idea…so there is a huge opportunity to translate speech into knowledge.”
— Andreas Athanasopoulos, Deputy CEO, Eurobank Ergasias SA
“[Banking]has a lot of benefits… You can send a lot of emails directly to your customers, and you can send them in seconds instead of hours.”
—Kyle Corcoran, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
“The development ecosystem will be disrupted…I believe that five years from now developers will be about 50% more efficient than they are today.”
— Omri Morgenstern, Chief Executive Officer of Agoda
However, despite the rush to adopt, there are still significant concerns about using new technologies in a responsible manner.
“Trust is paramount in enterprise AI. And when we say trust, we mean providing data security, considering privacy, avoiding hallucinations, toxicity, bias, ethical concerns, and more. It creates quite a trust gap across the board … that’s where we think, as a precondition, that humans are in the loop.”
—Rahul Auradkar, Vice President, Salesforce
If you’re worried about losing your job to generative AI, read the advice marketing pro Aliza Licht shared with Fortune Connect Fellows last week. If you want to stay on top of the latest in AI, sign up here for her Fortune Brainstorm AI, December 11-12 in San Francisco.
See the news below for details.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
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This issue of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
