[Webinar recap] Exploring GenAI: Navigating the new frontier of AI innovations

AI has evolved into a must-have tool for brands and businesses, but there are many considerations as each organization evaluates its implications, challenges, and future prospects.

In this webinar, Emplifi Chief Technology Officer Todd McCaslin sat down with Brandon Purcell, Vice President and Analyst at Forrester, to discuss the use of AI to increase efficiency and effectiveness, the importance of responsible AI, and the potential risks associated with it.

“I’ve seen two ages of AI,” Purcell said. “First was predictive AI, applying machine learning to massive amounts of structured data to find insights and predict things. Now we’re in the age of generative AI with large language models. … Now I do think there’s a third age on the horizon we’re tentatively calling agentic AI (where) the systems will start to take more action on behalf of companies or even consumers.”

Here are three key takeaways from that conversation, as well as some key insights they offered that brands should consider in their exploration of generative AI.

Takeaway 1: GenAI is transforming how businesses operate, but challenges remain

Generative AI is having a transformational impact on businesses, and it’s continuing to increase in practicality and viability across different industries. But there are dangers and challenges businesses must wrestle with in order to effectively leverage AI.

“AI has been around for many, many years, and I think what we’ve seen is just the explosion of it, both in the media, but also in practical use over the last few years when it comes to GenAI – really the last 18 months,” said McCaslin, who has launched 10 new AI-powered marketing tools. “It’s just really made things super exciting for software vendors and being able to help in everything we do, but there’s a lot of challenges with that.

“(Those) challenges (come) from all aspects of how you leverage it, how you think about it. All companies are faced with those, including us.”

Purcell echoed this, citing data as a core challenge: “Unfortunately, those models, they know English and they know other languages really well. They don’t know much about your business. … Unfortunately, for companies that haven’t gotten their data houses in order, it all comes back to the data again.”

Takeaway 2: AI holds the potential to accelerate worker productivity and personalization but raises concerns about job displacement

The conversation turned to the potential of AI to not only increase efficiency but also to spur personalization. However, the speakers acknowledged the fear of job displacement among white-collar workers due to AI.

“Folks who are adopting AI in their workflow, it’s just making them more efficient at this point,” Purcell said. McCaslin agreed: “I have yet to talk to any of our clients that have more capacity than they know what to do with when it comes to human kind of interactions and all the work that’s on their plate and what they’re trying to get done.”

Despite their optimism, both speakers noted that concerns about AI’s impact on teams are legitimate. “There are going to be impacts on the workforce eventually,” Purcell said. “

Takeaway 3: Responsible AI usage is a complex and critical issue for businesses

The conversation highlighted the importance of responsible AI usage, emphasizing that businesses need to be mindful about how they utilize AI and ensure that they do so ethically.

“Just being responsible with (AI) is kind of a label that always gets thrown on it that I think is critical to talk about, because it’s so important to partner with companies and as companies thinking about how they’re going to approach it,” McCaslin said.

Purcell echoed this sentiment, stressing the need for third-party due diligence, understanding liability, and putting in place effective monitoring systems. He added: “So many companies and governments and even the Vatican, they all have ethical AI principles. … But how do you turn them into everyday practices? And there are a lot of different ways of interpreting those things as human beings. How do you interpret them for a machine so that a machine is acting in accordance with your values as an organization? It’s a really, really thorny topic.”

Want to watch the entire webinar?

If you’re interested in the entire conversation about why embracing AI is a necessity for brands, register for an on-demand viewing here. Listen to our speakers discuss the vital role of AI in driving efficiencies, optimizing performance, and navigating the new frontier of GenAI innovation.