Wow!!! What a journey. From previous posts, we were able to witness the great impact Artificial Intelligence (AI) has as a contributory factor to digital transformation. We even took it a step further to unpack by critiquing an article named “Artificial Intelligence as the Core Technology for the Digital Transformation Process” from our very own What the Paper Says segment. This well-rounded journal article by Reihaneh Hajishirzi and Carlos J. Costa that vividly describes Artificial Intelligence and the impact (Both negative and positive impact) it has on digital transformation across several sectors. Enriched with a good amount of academic literature from other scholars and researchers as well as real-world case studies of how AI is applied to several business processes yielding positive results.

From what we have witnessed over the past years, it would seem like AI is slowly and naturally becoming a household name in the digital world. What started as simple learning models still under study has recently gained incredible traction in the last quarter of 2022 with the release of ChatGPT (Naughton, 2023).

One of the key aspects of AI we will be looking at for this post is generative AI. According to (Lawton, 2024), generative AI is a term used to describe “… a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio, and synthetic data”. For this type of AI to work, it needs to be fed with some data or content that is put together as prompts. Based on the learning models, trainers, and algorithms available, the AI produces a response to the requested prompt. Along with its nature to continuously learn from previous prompts in either current or previous sessions grants generative AI to have human-like conversations with a person constantly issuing prompts to it.

With this principle, generative AI could be used in a wide range of real-world applications for individuals and businesses. One daily application of generative AI for businesses is in the field of customer services. Over time, small businesses or startups experience breakthroughs in the sale of a niche product and they begin to expand operations. Creating branches and building a more serious and interactive online presence to cover a wider target audience. It is one thing for a business to find a new set of customers to buy your products the first time, and to be keeping them (buying more of your product for a much longer time) is a whole different thing altogether.

This is where generative AI shines in the area of customer services and customer relationship management. Chatbots have been widely used as an effective tool to interact with customers and other key stakeholders of the business. The effectiveness of these applications largely depends on the data that is currently fed, the type of algorithms used, and the length of time these applications have learned from said data. With the right combinations of the above parameters, businesses tend to perform a lot better at customer loyalty compared with other businesses that may not be using generative AI or traditional customer services/relationship management simply because of the fast nature the AI responds to both regular and unique inquiries dished out by consumers daily.

Even though things may be of great benefit to businesses, it does come with its set of concerns. (Douali et al., 2022) highlighted job displacement, privacy and security breaches, and algorithmic bias as some of the negative consequences of AI. They contend that the widespread adoption of AI could lead to the loss of numerous jobs, particularly in sectors like manufacturing, where automation is expected to have a significant impact.

The debate surrounding AI’s impact on the digital sector is complex and multifaceted. It is however very difficult to ignore its capabilities, recognizing the benefits of AI, such as its ability to solve complex problems and increase convenience it is quite evident that the direction technology is heading for the future is towards AI.

To my lovely readers, AI could be the best (or worst) possible invention technology has brought to humanity depending on how we look at it. Let’s give ourselves a few years to come to witness the wonders and enhancements this is going to pose as we continue to evolve gradually towards a more advanced and automated digital life.

References

Douali, L., Selmaoui, S., & Bouab, W. (2022). Artificial Intelligence in Education: Fears and Faiths. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 12(7), 650-657. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2022.12.7.1666

Lawton, G. (2024, June). What is generative AI? Everything you need to know. Retrieved from TechTarget Website: https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/generative-AI

Naughton, J. (2023, December 9). ChatGPT exploded into public life a year ago. Now we know what went on behind the scenes. Retrieved from The Guardian Website: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/chatgpt-ai-pearl-harbor-moment-sam-altman