DM Nov-Dec 2023

Dm TECHNOLOGY: GENERATIVE AI
"EVEN A YEAR AGO, NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED HOW RAPIDLY GENERATIVE AI WOULD TAKE HOLD AND
GROW IN ITS APPLICATION. ACCEPTING AND FULLY EMBRACING THE IMPLICATIONS IS GOING TO REQUIRE
SIGNIFICANT CULTURE CHANGE FOR COMPANIES, AN ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION THAT CAN TAKE A
GOOD MANY YEARS TO SEE THROUGH - NOT TO MENTION A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF BLOOD, SWEAT
AND TEARS. GIVEN THAT THE TYPICAL TENURE OF A CEO IS 4-5 YEARS, ORGANISATIONS MUST NOW INFUSE
THE ENTIRE BOARD WITH A VISION AND APPETITE FOR GENERATIVE AI'S POTENTIAL ACROSS THEIR
OPERATIONS."
legacy systems; consolidating content
following a merger; or becoming more
responsive to regulatory changes.
Whatever their ostensible and immediate
focus, ultimately such initiatives are about
being better at information, content, and
knowledge management. And in the nottoo-distant
future, transformed data,
content, and knowledge management will
involve Generative AI as both the enabler
and the intuitive user interface.
LONG-TERM BOARD-LEVEL BUY-IN
REQUIRED
Even a year ago, no one could have
predicted how rapidly Generative AI would
take hold and grow in its application.
Accepting and fully embracing the
implications is going to require significant
culture change for companies, an
organisational transformation that can take
a good many years to see through - not to
mention a considerable amount of blood,
sweat and tears. Given that the typical
tenure of a CEO is 4-5 years, organisations
must now infuse the entire Board with a
vision and appetite for Generative AI's
potential across their operations.
Beyond information and content
management and analytics, the next level of
Generative AI application is likely to be in
transforming core processes - from HR,
sales, creative marketing, and finance
management, to IT development, and web
site creation (think: "Please generate a web
site that does X"). Then, as the technology
matures, and trust builds, companies in
affected markets can more boldly branch
out into similar treatment of regulated
areas and workflows.
The important point is that AI - and
Generative AI specifically - is not going
anywhere. In fact, it will change the world.
Its presence is already prominent, and its
potential reach is all-pervasive.
The focus shouldn't be about
developing a separate AI strategy, or even
updating the organisation's digital
transformation strategy. It should be
about weaving Generative AI, and indeed
any other aspect of digital
transformation, into an organisation's
core business strategy - and establishing
where the technology could and should
be harnessed to help deliver this.
NO TEAM UNAFFECTED
As to the impact of Generative AI on the
role of humans, undoubtedly this will be
significant. While human expertise will
remain vital in checking, feeding back,
refining and improving/embellishing AI's
findings, in time the size of IT/Web
development teams, HR functions, finance
teams, and so on will inevitably reduce as
more of the groundwork is covered by
intelligent technology.
It isn't just the search and filter intelligence
that's transformative in all of this: it's the
user experience. The way that individuals
engage and interact with an application or
tool is at least as importance as the clever
things it can do, after all. And this has a
bearing on everything from middleware or
IT admin tools, to a more advanced stack of
content enrichment and workflow
management capabilities.
The priority must be to keep looking
ahead and anticipating what will be
possible - and indeed expected - within 3-5
years, and to keep tracking development
and innovating, underpinned by an
optimised core business strategy that
encompasses and provides for those
priorities in plenty of time.
More info: en.fme.de/
26 November/December 2024 www.document-manager.com
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