What year 2 of generative AI will bring

To understand the future trajectory of generative #AI tools like #ChatGPT and #Midjourney, FastCompany asked 41 experts from AI, business, and other relevant fields.

Business Productivity Focus: Ben Bajarin a, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, shares his insights, focusing on how businesses are utilizing generative AI to bolster overall employee productivity. He highlights the ongoing conversations with CIOs, CTOs, and ITDMs, exploring the potential of domain-specific language models to revolutionize various corporate departments, particularly customer support.

Communication Transformation: Jeremiah Owyang , a partner at Blitzscaling Ventures, envisions a transformed digital life. He predicts that by the end of 2024, every individual, whether at home or work, will have an AI agent managing their emails, starting with basic tasks like filtering and summarizing, and gradually evolving to respond on our behalf.

Generative AI as Standard Procedure: Clara Shih , CEO of Salesforce AI, foresees 2024 as the year when generative AI shifts from experimental to standard operating procedure in many companies. The initial focus would be on areas such as customer service, sales, marketing, and software development.

Employee Experience Enhancement: Joe Atkinson , Chief Products and Technology Officer at PwC, discusses the optimistic role of GenAI in personalizing employee experiences. He believes this will increase engagement, satisfaction, and productivity, foreseeing aggressive rollouts of AI training and experimentation.

Healthcare Sector Evolution: Oded Netzer from Columbia Business School brings attention to the healthcare sector. He suggests that chatbots could significantly reduce physicians' administrative burden, creating transcripts of doctor-patient conversations and freeing up more time for patient care.

Cybersecurity Improvement: Kara Sprague , EVP and Chief Product Officer at F5, talks about the potential benefits of generative AI for overworked security teams. With a substantial cybersecurity skills gap leading to workforce shortages, AI could automate processes, improving tool efficacy and enhancing network and application security.

Combatting Fraud with AI: Pablo Abreu, Chief Product and Analytics Officer at Socure, anticipates that generative AI will be crucial in fighting sophisticated fraud attempts. He expects organizations to swiftly adapt AI solutions to thwart deepfakes and complex identity fraud attacks.

AI in Corporate Workflows: David Haber , Co-founder and CEO of Lakera, discusses the implications of falling AI training costs. He envisions a future where businesses of all sizes customize models like ChatGPT for unique operational challenges, potentially affecting all corporate aspects like engineering, marketing, and HR.

Generative AI in Content Creation: Timothy Young , CEO of AI startup Jasper, highlights the shift in business focus from faster outputs to better outcomes. He emphasizes the growing adoption of AI copilots that integrate analytics and self-optimizing content for improved efficiency.

AI Strategy and ROI Challenges: John Blevins, an adjunct professor at Cornell University's business school, brings a critical perspective. He notes the growing hype around AI but warns that many organizations might struggle to see a quick return on investment in their AI initiatives due to data limitations.

Legal Sector Transformation: Katie Gardner, a partner at Gunderson Dettmer law firm, discusses how professional service providers, including lawyers, must rethink their business models. She predicts a decline in tasks traditionally done by junior associates, like document review, due to AI's efficiency.

AI’s Massive Potential: Subutai Ahmad , CEO of Numenta, reflects on the vast changes brought by ChatGPT in just one year. He stresses the need for simple, scalable, and cost-efficient AI solutions that give companies control over their data and models.