Real-World Generative AI Applications

Generative AI applications can be used to automate and augment work across a range of content such as text, images, video, audio, and computer code. Gen AI-powered tools can classify, edit, summarize, answer questions and generate new content. Note that in most of these use cases, Gen AI relies on AI-powered transcription

In customer service applications, Gen AI can be used to categorize audio files based on customer sentiment; a customer can directly interact via natural language with a Gen AI-powered chatbot to resolve service/support issues; an agent can receive a summary of a customer’s interaction with that chatbot; Gen AI can summarize the entire agent-customer interaction, which can then be used in lieu of the agent’s own ‘after-call’ notes.

In knowledge worker applications – which vary widely by occupation, as detailed above – Gen AI can be used to:

• Write email, create presentations, analyze spreadsheets, etc.
• Summarize document, email, chats and meetings.
• Answer questions about what happened during meetings, long chat/email threads, etc.
• Developers can use Gen AI to create lines of code and/or suggest ways to complete partial lines of code.

Much of what generative AI can do in the communications and collaboration space has been covered in these articles:

• The Cisco AI Assistant for Webex: The Cisco AI Assistant for Webex is one of the latest competitors to the Microsoft 365 Copilot. This article explores what it is and how it works across meetings, messaging chat and video.
• OtterPilot & Otter AI: Otter.ai offers an AI-powered application which allows users to record and transcribe meetings via OtterPilot and, via Meeting GenAI, summarize those meetings. Additionally, users can collaborate in live or asynchronous conversations via Otter Chat.
• Zoom AI Companion: One of the latest competitors to the Microsoft 365 Copilot is Zoom’s AI Companion. This article explores what it is, features, and how it works.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot: Generally available to enterprise customers, Microsoft 365 Copilot offers a generative AI-powered assistant that can potentially boost productivity in multiple ways.

In part two of their three part series, Brent Kelly and Kevin Kieller reviewed the capabilities of the AI assistants offered by Zoom, Cisco, Microsoft, and Google.

Gen AI: Enhancing Creativity and Content Production

Generative AI can spur creativity in several ways:

• Text generators can produce initial story ideas, product descriptions, or marketing slogans.
• AI image generators can create images from text and then iterate on the original theme with additional prompting.
• Streamline workflows by drafting emails, reports, or social media posts based on pre-defined parameters.
• Music generation tools can create background scores or sound effects.
• Forthcoming video generation tools can create short videos from text descriptions.
• Translation: AI and Generative AI can translate text into multiple languages and/or adapt writing styles to specific demographics.

Integrating Generative AI Into Your Workflow: Benefits and Challenges

Generative AI is incorporated in an increasing number of applications used every day for work, from word processing, spreadsheets and presentations to customer relationship management (CRM), contact center and collaboration platforms. The Gen AI-tools present themselves as ‘assistants’ to the work at hand. The primary goal of those assistants is to remove some (or all) of the ‘busy’ from busywork.

Within these applications, integrating Gen AI into one’s workflow is relatively simple since the Gen AI assistants are easily triggered, usually via a mouse-click on a prominent icon.

Note that using Gen AI-based tools is different than what a company’s IT function must do to allow those tools to access enterprise data and ensure secure access to that data. In some cases, using those Gen AI features requires an additional license cost per user per month or upgrading to a paid plan.

Best Practices for Smooth Adoption and Implementation

Most vendors offer implementation guides. Deploying a Gen AI-powered tool may add new wrinkles to the policies and procedures enterprises already have in place with respect to gathering, keeping and protecting its own intellectual property, but also customer data.

As an example of the steps an enterprise might have to take when implementing a Gen AI-powered tool, consider this Microsoft guide to preparing an organization for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft recommends:

• Auditing existing organizational content and removing outdated materials while also consolidating multiple versions of documents, etc.
• Organize content into logical folders and sites.
• Tag files with labels, hashtags, metadata tags on all documents, emails, and pages to describe characteristics.
• Standardize file names with a mandated, consistent file naming convention.
• Promote good data hygiene habits among employees such as guidelines on effectively naming files, tagging content, retaining only current versions, deleting stale emails and content, and other practices.

Moreover, Microsoft recommends assigning a ‘data steward team’ to conduct a thorough review of the enterprise’s data governance procedures on how they control financial data, proprietary data, credit card numbers, health records, social security numbers, or other personally identifiable information (PII). This overall process should include drafting, implementing and enforcing policies around restricted data, anonymization, training, compliance with all the (global) jurisdictions in which the enterprise does business.

Summary: Generative AI Applications

As shown above, generative AI applications can be used to automate and augment work across a range of content such as text, images, video, audio, and computer code. Gen AI-powered applications can classify, edit, summarize, answer questions and generate new content.