AI in the Enterprise - Mature doesn’t have to be boring
In his recent presentation to Foundry Digital Enterprise Forum in London, IDC analyst Neil Ward-Dutton (vice president, Automation, Analytics and AI) talked about generative AI and how Large Language Models are being used in organisations to analyse and process data in new and interesting ways. At one point, he took time to talk about what he called “Boring AI”, by which he meant the image recognition / text parsing type tools that have been maturing for several years. The point he made was that these were still extremely valuable and not to be forgotten.
This is a really important point, since maturing technologies have had a lot of their wrinkles ironed out, and the early adopters did get first-mover advantage at times, but also learned some hard lessons about the limitations and potential pitfalls of deploying AI tools at scale. Those lessons were built into later tools and now we have a lot of cool AI that just doesn’t look *quite* as cool as ChatGPT etc, but maybe not yet quite “boring”.
A good example of this is form recognition. Using cloud automation technology such as that found on the Azure platform, it’s relatively simple to build a workflow that can accept an invoice or purchase order for example, and identify the pertinent data so that it can be imported into another system automatically. However, combined with automation and data manipulation tools the potential time saving in many organisations is significant. This is often in areas that have investigated and rejected these technologies in the past because of their immaturity, and could now benefit from a re-evaluation of that toolkit rather than reaching for the newest tech once again.
In conclusion, whilst generative AI and Large Language Models are generating a lot of excitement and buzz, it's important not to overlook the value of more established AI technologies. These "boring" AI tools have been refined and improved over time, and they can deliver significant benefits to organisations in terms of efficiency, cost savings, and productivity gains. As businesses continue to explore the potential of AI, it's crucial to strike a balance between embracing cutting-edge innovations and leveraging the proven capabilities of mature AI technologies. By carefully evaluating their needs and selecting the right tools for the job, UK organisations can harness the power of AI to drive meaningful results and stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly competitive landscape. It's an exciting time for businesses to explore how they can incorporate these technologies into their operations and strategies and at Jumar we’ve been working with several clients to do just that – get in touch and we can show you how.
Chris Weston, CDIO, Jumar