Transformative technology: What next for generative AI?

For a while, generative AI (GenAI) was a great leveller. Businesses were largely united in knowing it had huge potential, while lacking a clear approach to unlock that value.

However, that is about to change - and fast.

The next stage in the meteoric rise of GenAI will see businesses change gear, from testing the waters and trialling proof of concept applications to scaling the most transformative use cases.

The hype is about to become reality, predicts PwC.

“If anything, GenAI has been underhyped, not overhyped,” says Simon Perry, Risk Line of Service Markets Leader at PwC UK. “We will see seismic changes in the coming years as real world applications happen at scale and deliver exponential results.”

The PwC UK CEO Survey suggests many business leaders are convinced of the potential benefits of GenAI. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say it will increase the productivity of their workforce, as well as improving products and services (57%) and increasing revenue and profitability (45%). Though those opinions may be based on successful, but potentially small, standalone trials.

Success at scale will require significant planning and investment in a strategic approach.

PwC’s Perry adds: “Anybody can pick a discrete use case and satisfy themselves that it works. The challenge is how to scale the use of GenAI in a way that truly transforms their organisation.”

That will require the identification of use cases with the most transformative impact and then focusing the necessary investment on scaling those.

Mary Shelton Rose, Technology, Media and Telecoms Leader at PwC UK, says: “Every industry, every workforce has an opportunity to take advantage of GenAI, the challenge is to ensure the skills, culture and technology are in place to do it quickly, responsibly, safely and in the way that prioritises those use cases which will deliver the most strategic value.”

From testing the waters to creating a wave of transformation

As organisations begin to scale those use cases, Joey Jegerajan, CTO, Consulting, PwC UK and EMEA, believes excitement and expectations will soar. But organisations shouldn’t underestimate the work involved in driving differentiated commercial value.

“We are right on the verge of significant value,” says Jegerajan. “There has been a lot of excitement around GenAI, but it’s about to get a whole lot more exciting for organisations able to deliver benefits such as hyper-personalisation at scale, enabling exceptional customer experiences, supporting the design and delivery of greater products and services and augmenting the workforce in incredible ways.”

However, GenAI is a complex business requiring investment in skills, data and technology.

Without widespread adoption of cloud technologies, for example, GenAI will have a limited impact on transformation. Its benefit will be restricted to those more discrete use cases. GenAI is not a standalone technology and to deliver transformative impact it needs to be used in conjunction with cloud and data and other technologies to scale and deliver the greatest value.

Invest in your people, data and technology

Jegerajan says: “We’ve been helping organisations use AI effectively for over 10 years. It requires commitment, investment and the right skills.”

“So organisations who now want to get the most out of GenAI have to invest in cloud, data and skills. Having the right data strategy - knowing what your most important data is, how clean it is, and where it sits in your cloud infrastructure - is fundamental to success.”

The PwC CEO Survey found nearly two thirds (64%) of UK business leaders say they expect to reskill most of their workforce within the next three years to capitalise on GenAI. Such upskilling will be critical to transformation, with many uses of GenAI focused on augmenting the skills and expertise of employees. The technology can dramatically accelerate the analysis of large bodies of data and information to speed up decision-making for professionals such as lawyers and tax advisors.

Further PwC research suggests organisations are also looking externally to bolster their GenAI skills and experience - and ultimately their ability to transform. Postings for jobs with a requirement of AI skills are growing 3.6 times faster than all job postings, and organisations must also ensure they have the technical skills, in areas such as data science to create the greatest foundations for GenAI success.

The evolution of GenAI

GenAI has matured at an unmissable rate. It has moved from a new piece of technology to having a fundamental role across functions from sales, marketing and design, to operations, manufacturing and service.

Darshan Chandarana, Emerging Tech Leader at PwC UK, says: “As ‘the new kid on the block’ GenAI may have distracted organisations from wider transformation plans in the short term. But the pendulum is definitely swinging back from innovative use cases to more wholesale transformation, with GenAI as a core component rather than a curiosity.”

To ensure that change is universally for the better, organisations must ensure the rush to GenAI-powered transformation is not at the expense of a responsible approach, which factors in potential risks.

Take a human-led, tech-powered approach to risk

PwC’s Perry says: “The rush to GenAI value must not result in poor decision making when it comes to risk, because the potential downsides are as significant as the desired upsides.”

Perry says organisations should also incorporate the expectation of greater regulation into any forward-looking GenAI strategy.

“The speed at which technology advances means it is inevitably ahead of regulation,” says Perry. “But organisations need to be thinking now about the guardrails they impose upon themselves to ensure they are using all instances of AI ethically and responsibly.”

Organisations should also be aware of how others might deploy GenAI in harmful ways, from developing more sophisticated cyber attacks to spreading misinformation.

Rachel Corp, CEO of ITN, says the media industry is alive to the ways in which malicious actors could use GenAI.

“We can’t afford to be complacent about the impact AI could have on trusted news sources and our democratic discourse,” says Corp. “GenAI is huge for us. But for me there's lots of levels to it. At the top level, it's about protecting our brand and our journalism.”

As such, it is critical organisations remain in control of decision-making about ethical uses of GenAI and hold themselves to high standards. They must also apply human qualities of judgement and subject matter expertise, to ensure the inputs and outputs of GenAI are accurate and trustworthy.

PwC’s Perry says: “To create value at scale while mitigating risk you need people who really know your business, know your customers, understand the importance of ethics and empathy and who bring real subject matter expertise, who know how to secure and assure the quality of the data and embed trust into how GenAI is used.”

“GenAI can accelerate organisation-wide transformation, but it cannot be done quickly, in a trusted way, without all the qualities people bring.”