6 Ways Generative AI Transforms Business Processes

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is having a major impact on how businesses operate. Large language models like GPT-3 and Bard are at the forefront of this trend, and they are being used to automate repetitive tasks, generate content, and answer customer questions.

Generative AI has exciting applications across departments and functions. As these AI systems mature, their ability to grasp context and nuance in text and content generation will further enhance their impact.

While ethical concerns and the potential for misuse exist, when employed responsibly, generative AI can be a potent tool for boosting both productivity and creativity.

Below, we’ll discuss some top ways generative AI can really transform business processes.

1. Automating Data Processing and Documentation

One of the biggest potential applications of generative AI is automating the creation of data documentation and processing. This includes tasks like data cleaning, labeling, and formatting, which can be tedious and time-consuming. AI systems can quickly analyze large datasets, clean errors, fill in missing values, and label data in a way that’s ready for analysis.

Generative AI can automate the creation of documentation like data dictionaries and schema definitions. AI can scan database schemas and data files to produce human-readable documentation that explains the relationships between different data fields and tables, saving data teams a significant amount of manual effort.

This technology allows data professionals to focus more on high-value analysis and modeling, enhancing productivity and scalability. For insights into how this is applied in business, SAP's approach to using generative AI for data processing offers a compelling example. Check it out at this link: https://www.sap.com/products/artificial-intelligence/generative-ai.html

2. Automating Email and Communication

In today's fast-paced business world, email communication has become an indispensable tool. However, it can also be a major time sink, often leaving employees overwhelmed with an endless stream of messages. Generative AI is emerging as a powerful solution to this problem, offering the promise of automating a significant portion of email volume and streamlining communication workflows.

For example, an AI agent can scan an incoming email and suggest short reply options based on its content and context. The human worker simply needs to review and send. For more complex responses, the AI can generate an initial draft paragraph that the worker can then edit or add to before sending.

The same concept applies to outbound communications. An AI system can transform bullet points into well-written email drafts tailored to specific recipients. When a salesperson needs to send a customized outreach email, the AI can handle the work of drafting each message.

Smart scheduling features can also suggest optimal times to send important communications using historical data and patterns.

3. Automated Data Entry

Another common business process that generative AI can augment is data entry into forms, databases, and other systems of record.

Tasks like manually entering paper survey results, customer information from call notes, or other structured data are prime candidates for automation. An AI system can ingest handwritten or printed documents and extract the key data points needed to populate online forms and databases. This eliminates the need for humans to manually type information collected on paper.

For example, insurance agents could snap a photo of a completed application form, and AI would identify each field and enter the results directly into the company’s applicant tracking system. Printed receipts and invoices could be automatically scanned and converted into digital transactions for accounting.

4. Automated Contract Analysis and Review

Reviewing and analyzing legal contracts is another area where AI automation shows promise. Tasks like extracting key terms, identifying clauses that present risk, and comparing documents to templates are time-consuming for lawyers and contract professionals.

AI systems can rapidly read and parse contracts to pull out important details into summary formats. This allows professionals to quickly scan for dealbreakers without reading lengthy documents end-to-end. AI can also flag clauses that may present legal or compliance risks based on historical precedent and patterns.

For high-volume tasks like contract metadata tagging, AI systems can automatically assign tags to support downstream workflows. When creating new contracts from templates, AI can help assemble customized agreements by pulling relevant clauses from existing libraries.

While AI cannot fully replace human legal expertise, it can reduce the workload for repetitive contract tasks.

5. Automated Content Creation

Another business function seeing major disruption from generative AI is content creation. Marketers, social media managers, and other content creators spend significant time writing blog posts, social copy, emails, ad creatives, and other materials.

AI content generation systems like GPT-3 can draft long-form blog posts by simply prompting with a few keywords and an outline. This provides a starting point for humans to refine and edit into polished copy. 

For extremely high-volume needs like personalized emails, AI systems can fully automate copy generation once the templates and business logic are set up. The human author provides overall direction and then reviews a sample subset.

When applied properly, AI content creation makes marketing and communications teams far more productive.

6. Automated Customer Service and Support

Chatbots and virtual agents can handle common support queries, freeing human reps to focus on complex issues.

AI chatbots can conduct conversations that feel natural rather than robotic. Users describe their issues, and the AI generates a response or suggests helpful resources. If the request falls outside its training, the AI can automatically escalate the chat to a human representative.

AI virtual agents can also automate tasks like scheduling appointments, processing returns/exchanges, checking order status, and more.

Conclusion

Generative AI is transforming how work gets done within modern organizations. As the capabilities of large language models continue improving, virtually any business process with repetitive elements or patterns is ripe for automation.

However, these AI systems are still in their early days. Achieving the full promise requires thoughtful implementation and close human oversight to address risks. If deployed strategically, generative AI can be a game-changer, allowing businesses to operate smarter, faster, and better.