Talk Gen AI Keynote: The Generative AI Landscape

We were fortunate enough to have Shirley Hung, a Partner at Everest Group, deliver the opening keynote presentation at Talk Gen AI this year.

Generative AI is one of the hottest trends in technology. Companies of all sizes across industries are exploring how to leverage Gen AI.

Read some of the key insights from Hung’s presentation and watch the video below.

Generative AI is a pull from the marketplace

While there is a lot of interest in Generative AI, some question whether it is hype or reality.

We have seen numerous waves of new technology over the years. However, Hung sees Gen AI as different from all the previous waves, in one uniquely critical way — it is a “pull from the marketplace.” As Hung points out, with other technologies like Blockchain or Robotic Process Automation (RPA), those were things people felt were “done on to them,” not things they really wanted themselves.

Enterprises were initially caught off guard when ChatGPT went viral. They were already behind, as individuals had already been using it in their daily lives given it was so easy and fun to use. People started to use ChatGPT at work as it made their lives so much easier.

As Hung concludes, Gen AI is worthy of the hype and here to stay!

An interesting point Hung makes is that not everyone knows what Generative AI really is. They may confuse traditional AI, automation, or process efficiencies with Gen AI. However, the talk of Generative AI has elevated the conversation into the realm where the C-suite is paying attention, and willing to make investments in the space.

Gradual adoption will lead to future scaling acceleration

While there is broad based appeal across industries, we are still in the early gradual adoption phase.

As Hung explains, early adopters are experimenting. There are a lot of pilots being done, perhaps to the point of fatigue. Companies are moving from wanting to know where Gen AI can be used, to wanting to know where it has been used and actually delivered value.

Costs are one of the big reasons slowing down large scale adoption. Enterprise data readiness, including adequate training data, is also an issue. At the same time, regulators are starting to catch up. However, costs will come down, and the other issues will be resolved, and when they do, Hung invisions hockey-stick adoption of Gen AI.

Gen AI will have a broad impact on talent in the workforce

As adoption of Generative AI continues to grow, there will be significant impacts on the workforce. As Hung explains, Generative AI is not necessarily going to make people redundant, but it will certainly make people more productive and effective.

The biggest impacted organizations will be in the customer experience management / contact center space. Firms in this space are being impacted quite substantially. Hung shared an example of one firm which achieved 30% savings and efficiencies from a pilot Gen AI program.

Generative AI solutions are helping reduce costs in the contact center through automated chatbots. Gen AI is also increasing agent productivity through agent-assist type capabilities. As interaction volumes go up, enterprises will see even more gains because the adoption of Gen AI will increase, and the costs will decrease. Over a three year horizon, Hung anticipates the spend on outsourced contact centers is going to decline.

From a talent standpoint, there is significant demand for people with Generative AI expertise — and it is not limited to people with tech skills. There is a need for people with domain expertise in how to use Gen AI, as well as legal experts, compliance experts, and more. Skills in Gen AI will be needed in cross-functional teams to be able to scale.

Watch the video

See the full video to learn even more about the current Generative AI landscape.

Download the presentation.

Arte Merritt is the founder of Reconify, an analytics and optimization platform for Generative AI. Previously, he led the Global Conversational AI partner initiative at AWS. He was the founder and CEO of the leading analytics platform for Conversational AI, leading the company to 20,000 customers, 90B messages processed, and multiple acquisition offers. He is a frequent author and speaker on Generative AI and Conversational AI. Arte is an MIT alum.