AI for Industry

Ade Chiffi: Hello and welcome to the latest in our AI in industry podcast series. I’m Ade Chiffi and I lead the global technology operations business here in the UK for CGI, and I'm delighted to have one of our AI experts and experienced podcaster Steve Evans with me today. Steve, hello.

Steve Evans: Hello, Ade. Great to be on with you.

Ade: Thanks, Steve. Looking forward to having a good conversation now. So let's kick off. AI as we know, one of the most talked about topics in technology today with potential to transform industries, revolutionise the way we work, and we're seeing reshaped customer experiences. We are seeing a lot of that. But beyond the hype, what does AI really mean for businesses? How are organisations leveraging effectively? And where I want to get to today, what challenges do they face? So that's what we really want to explore. Steve, if we kick off, what are you seeing? You know, particularly when we think about local markets in terms of applying AI in the real world. What's your take on that?

Steve: Yeah, it's a really interesting one. When you look back a little bit, just maybe even a year Ade, you'll see quite a bit of caution across major sectors with regards to AI. But when you zoom into today, I think all major sectors are now exploring the topic properly and really seeing how AI can help them with their organisations and their businesses. Certainly, I think, when we look at the base case, I think, productivity gains is effectively the starting point for a lot of AI use. And when we think about it in the round, what we're seeing is that organisations are often starting with those productivity gains, so doing work tasks faster using AI, and then moving on to how AI can drive insights into what they're doing. And then ultimately, as these large language models and AI models develop, you'll get into this transformational level. So we're certainly seeing that journey going on at the moment across our clients, in the markets today.

Ade: I agree. And would you say our clients are all at the same level of maturity with AI adoption?

Steve: Well, this is a really good question. And I we've seen digital leaders, haven't we, in all phases of technology development, get involved early with new technology, and see how they can exploit it more effectively. And I think it's exactly the same here now with AI. So there are differences. Certainly financial services sector, healthcare, life sciences and retail have been amongst the leading sectors, I would say, in picking up the AI challenge and taking things forward. Certainly, I guess if you were to take a look sideways out of the window as it were, you'd certainly see now a lot of public sector organisations really coming in now as fast followers behind some of those other sectors that I mentioned, and they're really starting to see how AI can practically help their employees deliver services, more effectively, more cost effectively, and, driving improved quality and productivity. So we're certainly seeing that now across those broader sectors, in terms of the maturity of adoption that you that you ask about. And certainly Ade, I think from your global technology standpoint, I think you've probably seen a good perspective on how AI has been adopted and used over time, at scale. I don't know whether you've got a perspective on that you'd be happy to share?

Ade: For sure, and I think you nailed it there Steve, when you said, practicality, cutting through to the point where real use cases that can make a genuine difference to operations, to business and what have you. One of the things that we've been really focused on for some time now, and really starting to see the benefit is around AIOps. So an operational artificial intelligence platform that really is bringing that AI into all parts of the operation, trying to be multifaceted there. So we're looking to enable improved, efficiency for our clients, but for ourselves, as well as a business. And really, the way we're looking to do it, building sovereignty at the heart of that as well.

Now, if I think about going forward, really looking to evolve more capabilities and use cases, looking to drive up efficiencies and that whole service health, whilst broadening the span more and more across the across the operational stack. I suppose for me, Steve, to be able to seamlessly work across service and the technology landscape, AIOps, for me, is there to take the hassle out of IT. So letting the business focus on what really matters be that driving growth, helping citizens in the community, whatever that may be. So yeah, really exciting. And the pace of change and the pace of improvement is incredible, frankly. There's so much happening in this space. Taking that a step further than how are you seeing clients, adopting, looking to adopt AI. What's your take there?

Steve: Yeah, this is an interesting story, and I guess picks up the point you were alluding to earlier. It is a journey, and you know to try and scale use is not terribly easy, actually. And what we've seen is clients either taking a technology centric view, interestingly. So basically plugging an AI tool in and seeing how it can be used. And I think there's a lot of value in doing that, you know, employees getting used to, working with the technology, and seeing how they can organically apply it. We're also seeing, now more of our clients and the wider market, I think, taking a more strategic view to it, and actually looking at what are the high value areas that they want to target and use AI on? And I think that is then starting to create a more mature view on actually how the new technology set can really be focused on the high value areas.

Ade: And taking that step further then. Do you have any current examples that you could elaborate on there?

Steve: Yeah, sure. So I would say, certainly the energy sector, there's a lot of complexity in balancing demand and supply in the energy sector. AI has been used quite extensively to try and balance those elements in multiple different settings. From a retail perspective, having this synchronization around the customer of one. You know, trying to make sure that AI is being able to look for trends in consumption patterns, I think again, is really front and centre. Additionally, I would say, from a local government perspective, we're certainly seeing a lot of AI now being focused either on the use of chatbot technology - so as you, as consumers, as we engage with organisations, using AI to help navigate questions that are coming in from us as citizens and customers, but also looking more broadly at things like the provision of social care and so on and so forth. So you know how, how AI can really help those organisations take a broader perspective and taking a helpful, inclusive view on all the things that they need to.

Ade: Okay Steve, crystal ball moment now. What do you see is likely to happen next with AI, you've got, multiple ends out there. You're out with our clients on a daily basis, you're working across our teams internally, across the firm. Always market watching, what you see coming next?

Steve: Well, I think it's an interesting question for sure. Looking across the market, I would say that, we're definitely seeing an evolution on the power of AI. As I mentioned earlier, we talked about moving from productivity so into enhancements and insights, into the truly transformational aspects of AI. So I think that will continue.

Certainly from a supplier point of view, I think we're definitely seeing, a lot of small, niche players are in the market at the moment, that there will be a natural market consolidation I think, as the larger organisations will, naturally connect up and maybe merge with some of those players. So I think we'll see some market consolidation Ade, and I think we'll see more power from the use of these tools as they get more and more advanced, and the models get more and more tuned to specific situations.

Ade: Watch this space, and we'll be staying very close to that, Steve, won't we? Okay. We're at our end now for this particular podcast. Thank you so much, Steve, for your time and insight there. Really appreciate it.

Steve: Great to be on, thank you for the opportunity.

Ade: No, fantastic. Hopefully this has given our listeners some food for thought, and please reach out to either of us if you'd like to discuss any of these thoughts further, and don't forget you can listen to all our AI in Industry and Experience CGI podcasts wherever you access your podcasts. Thank you so much for joining. Have a great rest of the day.

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