GenAI At Work: Sifting Hype From Real Business Use Cases

A recent poll by Computing showed that among those surveyed, IT leaders remain skeptical about AI. However, some are enthused over it and have already put it to work.

There has been an endless glut of news surrounding GenAI—an onslaught, to be frank. So much so, that it may be tricky for those leading IT teams to sift through the hype and determine how AI can really help them succeed in business.

IT leaders still seem to be wary of the emerging technology. Our sister site Computing just polled 173 U.K. IT leaders on their thoughts about some of the top IT trends. Among those surveyed:

• Sixty-eight percent said AI was "promising but immature."
• Nine percent called it the "most important innovation since the smartphone."
• Eight percent said it is the "biggest bubble since the dotcom boom."

When MES Computing surveyed 130 U.S. senior IT leaders about their spending plans for 2024, only 10 percent said they had plans to spend on AI/ML.

GenAI Put To Work

So, just who is using AI for business and what are they using it for (or plan to use it for)?

Some of the IT executives surveyed said they were actively using AI to gather information in lieu of traditional search engines, for predictive maintenance, for onboarding and offboarding staff, to automate legal processes, to aid in coding and for supply chain optimization.

I threw the question out there to some IT professionals I know across social media. Here are some responses:

• "You can use GenAI to develop systems testing scenarios. Then expand on those scenarios."
• "I used ChatGPT to extract bullet points from speaking notes for slides."
• "I use it every day for coding in C# and Microsoft SQL Server."
• "We use AI pretty regularly in our content publishing workflow."

Another acquaintance who is a networking professional said he uses it to research details for work like calculating subnet masks.

And Microsoft, on the heels of its hefty push to make its GenAI Copilot offering a player in the space, just published a post touting some pretty good business-use cases of the technology:

• Inventory management: An AI-powered inventory management system can do the job of a retail worker who would spend hours manually checking stock.
• Accelerate services: Microsoft gives the example of AI aiding in health care scenarios—assisting in patient registration and helping doctors with diagnoses and medical images analysis.
• Predictive analytics: AI could help a retail executive foresee seasonal demands or sales trends.
• Business reporting: AI could be used in manufacturing to create timely and accurate business reporting. For example, an AI system could collect, process and present data, and then offer insight, trends and suggestions.
• Customer service and marketing: AI has the capability to analyze customer habits and preferences, offering hyper-focused sales targeting and marketing campaigns.

Whatever your thoughts may be about the technology, it's clear that AI is evolving at nothing short of a breakneck pace.

MES Computing will be providing in-depth coverage of AI and how midmarket IT decision-makers plan to use it. In the meantime, if you've implemented a cool use case, I'd love to hear about it. Drop me a line at [email protected] or join us in the discussion threads in the MES IT Leadership Network.