Revolutionizing Business through Generative and Conversational AI Automation

In an interaction with Prisila, Correspondent at Asia Business Outlook magazine, D.K. Sharma discussed the transformative potential of Generative AI, emphasizing its impact on customer and employee experiences, automation, and modernization in the banking and technology sectors. He also highlighted the efficiency gains and enhanced interactions facilitated by this technology.

D.K. Sharma, an IIT Delhi B.Tech graduate and alumni of IIM Calcutta, boasts 30+ years of FinTech leadership. A visionary entrepreneur and tech expert in Banking, Payments, and Financial Services, he pioneers bold transformations, excelling in Technology Management, Enterprise Architecture, ITIL, and IT Service Management.

What is the trajectory of technological evolution, and how can businesses harness the potential of Generative AI technology while effectively adapting to this transformative shift?

Generative AI has witnessed explosive growth, especially with the introduction of transformer models in recent years, such as GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and Google's Bard. The opportunities presented by generative AI in both consumer and enterprise domains are virtually limitless. One of the most significant potentials of generative AI lies in its ability to redefine the customer and employee experience across various touch points, including call centers and digital channels. It excels in tasks like conversation classification, sentiment analysis, answering questions, and even generating software code.

In software development-focused enterprises, generative AI can boost productivity among developers by up to 50%. When it comes to interactions and conversations, it can automate processes, enhance efficiency, and increase agent productivity by as much as 70%, with up to 80% automation rate in certain scenarios.

The implications are profound, leading to improved interaction quality, hyper-personalization, and ultimately, superior customer and employee experiences. This technological advancement brings about a significant shift in how businesses operate.

Large-scale modernization of core banking solutions and digital transformation for large global enterprises

Modernizing core banking and digital platforms is complex and requires meticulous planning to avoid cost overruns and business disruptions. Customers often face numerous challenges during migration. The first crucial step is to align the modernization effort with clear business objectives that enhance efficiency, customer service, or product offerings, in line with the company's strategic goals.

Once business alignment is achieved, collaboration between technology, business, and operations teams is essential. Establish clear roles and responsibilities and implement a robust governance structure to maintain program progress. Avoid placing emphasis solely on technology as success depends on a strong partnership between all stakeholders. Professionals aiming to lead such programs should prioritize aligning with business and operations partners on objectives. While technology is vital and understanding the program's scope and architecture is equally crucial.

Implement an effective operating model, including agile practices, to deliver incremental value throughout the program. This ensures alignment with business expectations and allows for continuous refinement. Having properly defined expectations, checkpoints on the outcomes and continuous alignment with business are essential for program success. In summary, managing modernization projects is challenging but achievable with thorough planning, aligned objectives, and risk management. These elements, when implemented, increase the likelihood of success.

Combination of conversational AI and generative AI influencing customer experience, employee engagement, and the role of automation in enterprises

Conversational AI has consistently led the way in this field, emerging as a market leader. Gartner has recognized our leadership for two consecutive years, in 2022 and 2023. Leveraging Conversational AI, we prioritize delivering outstanding employee and customer experiences while emphasizing automation. Our no-code platform facilitates experience creation without the need for extensive coding and is enterprise-grade, accommodating vast transaction volumes. Some of our large customers currently handle over 200 million conversations annually, showcasing our scalability.

The introduction of generative AI has significantly enhanced our ability to deploy and run Conversational AI. Historically, we employed efficient processes to build experiences. However, with Generative AI, development times have further decreased. This is achieved through automatic comprehension of business use cases, dialogue creation for interactions like banking, insurance, claims management, travel reservations, automated testing, and identifying test use cases. Design time dialogue construction has vastly improved.

From a runtime perspective, complex interactions are managed more intuitively and naturally with Generative AI. Conversations between virtual assistants and customers now exhibit increased human-like qualities, employing contextual empathy, relevant language, and context-driven hyper-personalization. These improvements are both maintainable and disruptive.

"The introduction of generative AI has significantly enhanced our ability to deploy and run Conversational AI."

Generative AI on the way end-users engage with banks, insurance companies, or ecommerce platforms

Generative AI is transforming how customers interact with businesses like banks, insurance companies, and e-commerce platforms. In contrast to the current scenario, where employees work on outdated systems, handling repetitive queries under immense pressure, the future promises automated responses to mundane inquiries through virtual assistants. This shift allows employees to focus on addressing complex issues, aided by AI and historical insights, creating a more rewarding experience for both customers and staff—a glimpse into the future of banking.

Seven or eight years ago, this vision was hindered by limited computing power and lack of foundational models, like OpenAI's GPT-4. However, today, with advanced models and technologies like those from Kore.ai, we can realize this vision, offering state-of-the-art interactions that bring immense value to clients and employees across industries.

Consider a salesperson or relationship manager spending hours sifting through reports to offer financial advice. Technology now simplifies this process, allowing the relationship manager to concentrate on addressing customers' specific financial needs. This transformation extends beyond banking to insurance and customer service scenarios, like flight rebooking during disruptions.

Generative AI, in combination with conversational AI, can bridge this gap, making it possible to understand conversations and orchestrate them to achieve business outcomes at an industrial scale. These opportunities are significant and transformative. I am excited to be a part of this disruption, which I believe will reshape the industry over the next two to three years.

Conclusion

Technological advances offer the promise of a future where we can lead comfortable lives focused on activities that benefit humanity. Setting aside differences and using technology to strengthen our communities is crucial. With the time we save, we can pursue education, travel, and community development while striving for sustainability and nurturing the best aspects of humanity. This is an opportunity to reshape society fundamentally. Though it may seem like a leap, generative AI is one of the levers that can significantly transform our lives for the better. It's a tool that holds the potential to drive positive change and improve our overall well-being. So, let's embrace the possibilities and work towards a brighter future.