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Unlocking enterprise innovation with generative AI – balancing power and security

Clemens Reijnen
1 Nov 2023

In a relatively short space of time, generative AI has emerged as a powerful catalyst for innovation.

For enterprises, it has the potential to unlock a multitude of use cases that can deliver value and foster transformation across a broad range of sectors. But to realize the full benefits and avoid potential pitfalls of this game-changing technology, companies are under pressure to not only implement generative AI solutions end to end effectively, but also balance and maintain continuous control over security and compliance.

Quickly embraced by consumers and corporations

Generative AI has garnered widespread consumer interest and acceptance over the past year, becoming an integral part of many people’s personal and working lives. In Why consumers love generative AI, the Capgemini Research Institute reports that over half of the consumers surveyed (51 percent) said they are not only aware of the latest trends in generative AI, but have also explored specific tools such as ChatGPT for generating text and DALL-E for creating images. Researchers also discovered consumers have high levels of satisfaction and trust in the technology.

Our research also revealed that – unlike with earlier technologies such as the internet, mobile, and social media – consumer engagement with generative AI spans all age groups and demographics. This remarkable level of interest is mirrored in the business environment. Per the Capgemini Research Institute’s Harnessing the value of generative AI report, 96 percent of executives say that generative AI is on their boardroom agenda. Executives are optimistic about the promise of this technology – predicting it will contribute tangible improvements to their organization over the next three years. While 21 percent of those surveyed expect generative AI to significantly disrupt their industries, 74 percent believe the benefits of the technology outweigh the risks.

Generic AI solutions are problematic by nature

That said, while a few tests of generic, public generative AI models are all it takes for enterprises to understand the power of this technology, such tests also quickly highlight its potential perils. Those who have attempted to use off-the-shelf generative AI for business are often disappointed.

While widely available, these technologies are too disjointed from the company’s reality, too uncontrollable and risky to meet an organization’s data and privacy requirements, and too difficult to adopt and scale. What’s more, since the data used to teach these public models has typically included copyrighted and other protected material, it’s only a matter of time before a company relying on a generic generative AI solution will run afoul of ethical or legal issues.

Business-ready generative AI

To address these issues, we have partnered with industry leaders to undertake a comprehensive exploration of potential generative AI use cases that can really deliver value and foster transformation within their respective domains. Concurrently, we have crafted an operational framework for AI systems to ensure trustworthiness and safety in the delivery of these solutions. This framework validates not only the model’s quality but also its ethical and sustainable aspects. In collaboration with AI experts, industry professionals define industry-specific pre- and post-prompt guardrails to ensure adherence to regulatory compliance.

The Intelligent App Factory for Azure helps elevate the possible

We are working with businesses to realize the full potential of generative AI. New tools include the Intelligent App Factory for Azure. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, its core features help unlock generative AI value:

  • Digital industry platforms. An Azure configuration, compliant with industry policies, providing a secure and safe platform for all intelligent business functionalities.
  • Industry assistants. Assets and practices to ideate, develop, and deploy Microsoft AI capabilities into new or existing business functionalities.

Industry delivery teams. Operational teams enforced with legal and compliance expertise and proficient in delivering intelligent business functionalities for production usages. This secure and compliant platform equipped with industry-specific Azure policies and configurations yields tangible business value from AI investments. It also establishes continuous control over security, compliance, and ethical concerns – an essential cornerstone of the partnership.

As part of this collaboration, we have leveraged our decade-long expertise in managing cloud workloads and establishing cloud foundations across various industries to create a secure base for intelligent business functionality.

Domain and industry knowledge are equally vital components in building intelligent business solutions. For the Intelligent App Factory on Azure, we developed numerous industry-specific micro-functionalities that can augment the prompt flow with relevant business context. Our data playbooks further aid teams in incorporating industry-compliant data into foundational large language models, streamlining the creation of intelligent assistants tailored to business needs.

Finally, the deployment of this intelligence into the hands of businesses – either through existing functionality or innovative applications – necessitates experienced developers well-versed in industry practices, compliance, ethics, and sustainability. We diligently forecast and maintain a pool of trained, certified, and experienced team members ready to deploy intelligent business functionality as required.

Experience generative AI for enterprises in action

We offer client’s access to the Intelligent App Factory for Azure as part of Custom Generative AI for Enterprise – a trusted solution tailored to each organization’s data and company knowledge, with reliable outputs that create significant, tangible outcomes. For organizations still exploring the potential of generative AI, Capgemini will build inspirational demos of use cases at its Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE) and Microsoft Technology Centers.

Enterprises and business units eager to experience first-hand the potential of these solutions can opt for two proof of value offerings – one for prompt orchestration and another for model fine-tuning. Once businesses are ready to proceed, our enterprise-grade AI adoption framework ensures the seamless integration of value-driven AI solutions across all facets of the organization.

At Microsoft Ignite, we’ll be demonstrating the Intelligent App Factory for Azure with demos and sessions.

For more information or to arrange a demonstration, please get in touch with me.

Author

Clemens Reijnen

Chief Technology and Capability Leader for Microsoft
Clemens is a creative thinker, solution and service builder. He has 20+ years of success with complex innovative software systems.