With 80% of CEOs expecting artificial intelligence (AI) to boost business efficiency, according to a Gartner report, both large and small enterprises are prioritising generative AI. The time to seize this opportunity is now, Rakesh Ravuri, CTO and SVP – Engineering at Publicis Sapient, tells Sudhir Chowdhary, shedding light on the AI opportunity in digital business transformation, the ethics of implementing it and how AI will create newer jobs in the future. Excerpts:
How important is digital business transformation for companies? How does generative AI contribute to sustainable growth?
Digital transformation is not optional for businesses in today’s economic landscape. It’s all about moving faster and being agile, which has never been more crucial. Generative AI (GenAI) innovations, in this context, are the latest triggers for growth. There is tremendous opportunity to create accelerated value with GenAI, where organisations can go beyond traditional problem-solving by experimenting with newer workflows. It equips firms with astonishing speed to test new concepts, optimise processes, and discover novel solutions, thereby facilitating continuous improvement, maximising efficiency, and delivering unique value propositions with fewer resources.
That said, AI or GenAI cannot drive digital business transformation in isolation. There are five key capabilities skills that need to be applied together — strategy, product, engineering, experience and data and AI. Only when businesses take this holistic approach will they stand to gain maximum growth from their business transformation.
What are the obstacles in implementing new technologies for digital transformation? What benefits can AI offer in this regard?
Two main hurdles are resistance from legacy systems that are not optimised to work seamlessly with newer technologies, and resistance from individuals who are comfortable with these older systems. The cost of implementing new technologies tends to be a significant barrier, especially for small firms. Lack of expertise in implementing and managing large-scale change due to new technologies is another challenge.
Despite the obstacles, the benefits of AI make it a worthwhile investment for firms seeking to monetise their data assets and using them for operational optimisation and a competitive advantage. Its ability to intelligently automate repetitive tasks lets people focus on more complex and strategic jobs. It delivers personalised customer experiences and valuable insights into behaviour.
Furthermore, with the recent advances in GenAI, existing employees can be upskilled
as versatile generalists, reducing the need for specialised hires.
How can organisations effectively address and eliminate AI bias to ensure fairness and ethical use of AI systems?
When organisations adopt AI as a transformative tool, four critical factors must be prioritised: Bias, ethics, governance, and regulation. Bias needs to be addressed by uncovering unfair patterns in data and algorithms, mitigating them through preprocessing and diverse perspectives. Ethics can be embedded by establishing comprehensive guidelines for fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy. Governing AI will involve overseeing inputs, outputs, and usage.
By complementing ethics with standardised guidelines, businesses can play a key role in safeguarding societal interests while effectively addressing challenges posed by AI.
What are your thoughts on AI replacing jobs?
Back in the 1950s, every office had a dedicated workforce for switchboards. The way this job evolved and gave way to better alternatives, AI too will create fresh opportunities in the process. Prompt engineering as a skill didn’t exist a year ago, a quick search on learning sites today tells us otherwise. The focus now though will be on upskilling which is not a new concept for technologists.
Like cloud, every engineer will be expected to have some AI expertise – AI programming or usage of AI models/libraries, data analysis, AI system governance and such. Organisations are now even talking about the role of a chief AI ethics officer.
What initiatives and solutions has Publicis Sapient implemented using GenAI?
We’ve harnessed AI to create customised chatbot solutions for finance to boost customer interactions and operational efficiency. In retail, we built powerful intelligent chat interfaces leveraging GenAI that automated merchandising, while enabling enhanced customer engagement and product descriptions. Our clients use our AI-powered predictive analytics solutions to make data-driven decisions to optimise their supply chain efficiency. Most recently, we introduced PSChat, an internal generative AI tool leveraging cutting-edge models for Publicis Sapient’s specific needs.