arcellium.com

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So wrote science-fiction author Arthur Clarke—and generative AI might seem to fall into that category.  

“For many organizations, the technology advances we’ve seen in a short period of time feel more magical than a lot of those that have come before,” says Bill Briggs. 

But the “magic” moniker alone is neither accurate nor helpful for business leaders seeking to harness AI for business value, according to Briggs and other AI thought leaders who spoke at the annual AI Forum presented by the Deloitte AI Institute, aimed at demystifying AI and generative AI for business leaders and demonstrating successful real-world applications.  

“The notion that AI is like a monolith appearing out of nowhere gets hearts racing, but it can take the focus off what really matters,” Briggs says. In actuality, rapid advances in AI capabilities can pave the way for tangible organizational transformations.  

The Autonomous Enterprise Era 

“We are moving into the world of the autonomous enterprise in which humans and AI coexist,” says Deborshi Dutt, a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP.  

There’s ample evidence of this shift already, Dutt says: Digital twins that simulate real-life assets. Hyper-personalization of ads and experiences. AI-powered cyber threat detection and fraud prevention. AIOps to simplify and streamline back-office functions. Generative AI to help write contracts, licensing agreements, and software. 

It’s important, though, to keep in mind that AI on its own lacks real power, according to Dutt. Rather, it’s humans working with AI—and vice versa—that can enable the autonomous enterprise. “The human is the key to unlocking the value of these technologies,” he says. 

We can use generative AI to become better versions of ourselves. It will be exciting to unlock the human potential in all of us. 

— Lynne Sterrett, vice chair, U.S. Clients, Industries & Insights Leader, and Generative AI Marketplace Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP 

Generative AI Expands Human Potential 

Many organizations have been integrating intelligent automation for some time, whether in the form of predictive analytics, deep learning, or conversational AI. Generative AI, however, offers new ways to engage in or experience AI, Dutt says, through the creation of text, code, websites, audio, sound, and images. “The possibilities of generative AI are seemingly limitless,” he says. 

Generative AI can also free up time and empower people in new ways, says Lynne Sterrett, vice chair, U.S. Clients, Industries & Insights Leader, and Generative AI Marketplace Leader at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “It eliminates trade-offs such as, ‘I can’t be creative or innovative because I don’t have the time’ or ‘I can’t do that because I don’t have the expertise,’” she says. “We can actually challenge those notions and use generative AI to become better versions of ourselves. It will be exciting to unlock the human potential in all of us.” 

Business leaders can consider investing in generative AI solutions and challenging their employees to think differently about what they might accomplish with them, such as working with greater speed or more creativity. But the impact can extend beyond organizational walls. “We should be working within our industries to unleash the power of generative AI to solve some of the most profound issues not only in business but in society,” Sterrett says. “This technology can enable us to be not only stewards of our organizations but of our communities and humankind at large.” 

The AI Value Playbook 

With generative AI more widely available and increasingly affordable, many enterprises are exploring use cases. “We’re moving to a place where we’re not constrained by horsepower,” Briggs says. “We have the ability to do things that would have been unfathomable not too long ago.” 

Leaders can consider the following to steer ongoing AI experimentation toward driving value:  

IT can unite AI efforts. “Companies often develop use cases in HR or supply chain, and that’s a great way to get started,” Sterrett says. But to truly transform the organization, somebody needs to tie it all together, and the technology organization is in a prime position to take on that integrator mantle. “Tech leaders can be the heroes, because transformation isn’t going to happen in pockets. Transformation will happen when that connective tissue exists throughout the entire company,” she says. 

Platforms can power scale. Briggs stresses the importance of bringing together engineering and data science and investing in platforms and tools that enable companies to move faster and more effectively in their AI efforts, such as a library of solutions with reference architecture that can be tapped for different use cases. “The danger is in scrambling, treating each case as its own unique snowflake, and investing in a different solution every time,” he says. 

Tech convergence can drive outcomes. “It can be tempting to make AI the hero of the story—and it can be exceptionally important and exciting indeed,” Briggs says. But digital transformation, the convergence of IT and operational technology, and other tech trends and efforts are often equally important. “The question is how to bring all of these ingredients together into recipes that drive the kind of impact we care about,” he says. 

Generative AI will not always be the solution. “The temptation may be to go immediately to generative AI and large language models and then to a given vendor and incarnation of that technology—and many times, that’s exactly the right answer, but sometimes it’s not,” Briggs says. Business decision-makers can instead widen the aperture to determine first the problem they are trying to solve and then the right solution. That’s important, Briggs emphasizes, “especially as we go from stand-alone use cases and proofs of concept into investments embedded in core operations or business models that have to scale.” 

Now is the time for enterprise leaders to learn about and understand what AI can and cannot do in pursuit of opportunities for the autonomous enterprise. But simply observing what is possible will not get organizations anywhere—it’s rolling-up-the-sleeves time.  

“We’re sitting at an inflection point of possibility,” Briggs says. “How can you understand exactly what’s possible and how to move forward? That’s the real opportunity here.”