Drive Innovation with a Generative AI Centre of Excellence
A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works well with emerging technologies such as GenAI
A Generative AI (GenAI) Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a central hub within an organisation that focuses on advancing the responsible use of artificial intelligence. The broad goals of a CoE are:
- Centralise expertise and fuel enablement: A CoE acts as an organisation’s central knowledge hub for GenAI. It provides training, resources, and best practices to empower teams across departments to understand and effectively leverage GenAI technologies.
- Drive innovation and business value: A CoE will champion efforts to identify, test, and implement novel GenAI use cases that deliver tangible business benefits.
- Establish responsible AI governance: The CoE is crucial in addressing GenAI’s ethical implications. Its responsibilities include developing guidelines for responsible model development, creating mechanisms to monitor for bias and unintended consequences, and ensuring transparency.
The CoE will aggregate knowledge and skills to become a focal point for GenAI leadership and talent development. Communication and collaboration extend across departments to ensure consistency and avoid duplication of effort.
What is Generative AI, and why does it matter?
Generative AI is a technology that can create new content such as text, images, code, music and videos. Generative AI models train on massive datasets and learn to produce new, original content similar to, but different from, the training data.
Currently, GenAI is good at handling specific tasks or parts of a process rather than taking care of a complete workflow from start to finish. The technology will, therefore, exist in many places as organisations uncover and implement new use cases.
Such a widespread application of GenAI highlights the importance of establishing standards and consistent practices across different business areas. Having representation and buy-in from stakeholders across various departments is also essential.
The need for a GenAI Centre of Excellence
A GenAI Centre of Excellence helps an organisation build a strong digital core. This core enables businesses to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and increase efficiency. A strong digital core enhances clients’ understanding, improving customer experience and increasing loyalty.
A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works well with emerging technologies such as GenAI.
To create efficient GenAI solutions, a centre of Excellence must grasp the specific pain points, complexities, and opportunities across various business sectors. Tailoring and prioritising candidate initiatives to suit your business needs will ensure that the CoE aligns with your business strategy.
An organisation’s AI maturity will significantly influence its ability to adopt and benefit from GenAI. The CoE must select initiatives accordingly, which could involve initiating basic Proof of Concept exercises for teams with less maturity or developing sophisticated, custom-built models for more experienced teams.
Tailored initiatives that solve real problems are more likely to gain traction and support. Success hinges on building trust and demonstrating value by solving specific business problems rather than creating generic services.
Create clear, well-defined use cases beyond simple GenAI features such as ‘summarise a document’ and ‘draft content’.
By focusing on the unique needs of a business, a CoE ensures consistent, effective use of GenAI technology across all levels of AI maturity.
Who should be part of a CoE?
A CoE will have a core team comprising such roles as:
- Strategy Manager: Define the vision, align to business goals and secure executive support.
- Delivery lead: Someone accountable for service delivery and value generation.
- GenAI Experts: Specialists in key areas, such as language model development, data pipelines, and XAI (Explainable AI to address bias and ensure fairness).
- Domain Experts: People from various business units who provide deep knowledge of specific needs and use cases where GenAI can be applied.
- Others: Depending on the nature of the work, the team could require additional specialists. These roles may be transient or part-time. Examples are data engineers, UI/UX designers, and security and privacy SMEs.
There should also be an executive steering committee to provide strategic guidance and oversight of related initiatives.
Key benefits that a CoE provides
A Generative AI CoE provides significant benefits for this rapidly evolving technology. Without a CoE, AI services can quickly become fragmented, outdated, and inefficient. The table below lists the key benefits of a COE beyond ensuring an organisation continues to derive value from GenAI.
Final thoughts
A Generative AI Centre of Excellence should be an essential consideration for organisations looking to harness the power of GenAI responsibly and effectively.
By centralising expertise, fostering innovation, and creating tailored solutions, a CoE enhances operational efficiency, decision-making, and customer satisfaction.
It also plays a crucial role in managing the risks associated with GenAI, promoting ethical practices, and facilitating collaboration across departments.
As GenAI technology evolves, the CoE’s ability to adapt and scale solutions ensures organisations remain competitive and aligned with their strategic goals, making it an indispensable part of modern business strategy.
