Revealing data’s hidden gems with generative AI

There’s a lot of hype out there about generative AI. And rightly so — it’s poised to reshape how organizations extract and utilize insights. We’re already seeing its potential in use cases ranging from hyper-personalization in marketing, to demand forecasting in supply chain management, to fraud detection in finance and accounting, just to name a few.

While these use cases are all exciting — and they all deliver great business value — I think they only scratch the surface of what’s possible with gen AI. Once organizations get the right foundations in place, its true potential will reveal itself.?

Innovation, accelerated

The beauty of gen AI is that it accelerates so many of the data-related tasks that today’s organizations rely on. No surprise, then, that the first big trend in Google Cloud’s 2024 Data and AI Trends Report is that “gen AI will speed the delivery of insights across organizations.”?

For the marketer, the supply chain manager, or the financial analyst, what this means is that they don’t need to rely on a data analyst or become a data expert themselves to be able to glean valuable information from organizational data. Instead, they can simply ask the gen AI model a question in natural language.??

It also means that data professionals get a whole lot more time back in their workdays. Whereas in the past, the vast majority of their time would be spent on mundane tasks like preparing data for the marketer or the supply chain manager, they can now automate these tasks with gen AI. Which means more time mining for hidden gems (that is, impactful insights) in data.

Not only do these data professionals have more time, but (again, thanks to gen AI) they now have access to richer insights. I have always believed that innovation happens when multiple insights — often from different areas of the business —?intersect to reveal an entirely new insight that is relevant and impactful to business. It’s like unearthing a previously hidden opportunity. Now, instead of waiting weeks or months for these disparate datasets to come together in a retrospective fashion, gen AI can consolidate it all in a very short order of time.

To give a very simple example, instead of a marketing specialist analyzing historical sales data to look for patterns and trends, they can now layer this data up with financial or operational data — finding patterns that drive sales at reduced costs.?

Just imagine the potential across industries. In healthcare, with drug discovery. Or in manufacturing, helping to uncover more environmentally-friendly construction materials. Or in the legal field, analyzing mountains of legal documents with incredible efficiency.

Humans, of course, remain at the center of all this innovation. Gen AI’s role is to augment the workforce — processing vast amounts of data at lightning speeds, so that people can then perform strategic analysis and apply value-adding expertise. In other words, they can use gen AI’s insights to accelerate potentially groundbreaking discoveries.?

Laying a strong foundation?

To start making these groundbreaking discoveries — and to really leverage the power of gen AI — organizations need to lay really solid foundations.?

What do these foundations look like? During my career, I have observed that the organizations which consistently outperform the competition share several common traits in terms of how they adopt and leverage technology. And I believe the adoption of gen AI will be no different.?

These organizations:

• Put data first. Recognizing the value of a data-driven culture, they democratize access by breaking down traditional data silos and making it all available for non-technical users to explore and analyze directly.?

• Adopt a cloud-first mindset. They have built robust data platforms, shifting legacy databases — which weren’t built to handle the demands of gen AI — to the cloud. Throughout my career, I have observed how companies with a cloud-first mindset embrace cloud not only as a tool but as a strategic enabler for agility, scalability, and innovation. This will become even more of a competitive advantage with gen AI.?

• Embrace an experimental culture. They invest resources into experimenting with emerging technologies and are constantly on the look-out for things that will give them a competitive edge. They’re not afraid to challenge the status quo and drive an innovation agenda.?

Get these things right, and your organization can start mining the innovation potential of gen AI, too. Whether it’s for R&D, for product development, or simply to streamline a section of your business, the possibilities are endless —?and I cannot wait to see what comes next.