The introduction of AI leads the way

The past year has seen rapid adoption of generative AI (genAI) and businesses are starting to see results. According to Forrester's Q2 2024 AI Pulse survey of generative AI decision makers, the top three positive impacts businesses report as a result of genAI adoption are improved customer experience (42%), increased employee productivity (40%), and increased revenue (34%). Businesses with genAI FOMO should:

• Understand generative AI terminology. Large-scale language models are just one component of the generative AI ecosystem. New terminology is emerging to describe different models, prompting techniques, and customization approaches. Business leaders, data and technology leaders, and data professionals need to understand these new terms and make sure they're all speaking the same language.
• Select the right use case based on your industry and business function. Although generative AI is a horizontally relevant technology, it impacts different industries in very different ways. For example, healthcare use cases are very different from insurance or banking use cases, and HR use cases are very different from marketing use cases. Prioritize use cases that make sense in the context of your business and align with your strategy.
• Adopt an “adjustment by design” approach. Lack of trust, privacy and security concerns, and risk and governance issues are the biggest barriers enterprises face when adopting generative AI. Over the past six months, we've been exploring AI alignment, and the results have been worrying. While alignment gaps are inevitable, a proactive approach can help mitigate the risks.

AI is also benefiting the world at large

It's not just enterprises and technology vendors that are benefiting from AI: Many businesses, NGOs, and governments are also using AI to make a positive impact on people and the planet. Here are three areas where they're doing this:

• Mental health treatment. While predictive AI has been used in medical diagnosis for years, generative AI is now making its way into mental health treatment. Earlier this year, Cedars-Sinai launched eXtended-Reality Artificially Intelligent Ally, a doctor-developed chatbot that delivers conversational therapy in an immersive virtual reality environment. And in India, Iwill Therapy is working with Microsoft to deliver chatbot-based cognitive behavioral therapy in multiple local languages ​​through its app.
• Digital accessibility. One of the promises of generative AI is the democratization of access to the digital realm. Earlier this year, Apple began automatically generating transcriptions for Apple Podcasts, making them more accessible to podcast listeners who are deaf and hard of hearing, and also helping those with certain cognitive disabilities, those who prefer to read (rather than listen) to learn, and those who want to search episodes to find specific content that interests them.
• sustainability. Given the ongoing discussion about AI’s carbon footprint, it may seem disingenuous to equate AI with sustainability, but some companies are using AI to reduce their environmental impact. In agriculture, for example, robotics and AI techniques are combining to reduce herbicide use by up to 90 percent. Studies suggest that AI-powered smart sensors can reduce water consumption by more than 40 percent. And AI research organization Mila Institute is using generative AI to visualize the future impacts of climate change at any given address around the world.

Remember, genAI is just a technology, and like all technology, it can be used for good or bad, and applied well or poorly.

This post was written by VP and Principal Analyst Brandon Purcell and was originally published in here.