IT leaders curb GenAI enthusiasm at Enterprise Connect

Enterprise IT's enthusiasm for generative AI for customer experience has not dwindled into nothing in 2024, but it is tempered with caution, at least on the evidence of a prominent panel at this year's Enterprise Connect conference in Orlando.

In an opening keynote panel, Sinead Aylward, senior director of IT for call center platforms at Johnson Controls International, received enthusiastic applause when she said organizations do not want to be overcharged for AI being introduced into platforms in which they have already invested.

"I've been a customer of cloud technology since 2016. I've paid into the pot, month after month; we don't want to be overcharged for this technology," Aylward said. "We want to be recognized as the founding partners who gave you the money to develop this. We want to see this come in at a price that's either free or reasonable."

She made this point in the context of a segment of the panel -- which included representatives of five vendors as well as three users -- about the need to secure and govern the use of generative AI.

Gary LaSasso, senior director of global IT at Amicus Therapeutics, concurred with Aylward and highlighted the need to focus on data security, data privacy, data governance and compliance, particularly in regulated sectors such as biotech.

"Our scientific research, our manufacturing information, our patient data -- that can't get out. We need to make sure that we have controls on that," LaSasso said. "And the data needs to be trusted."

He added that AI tools provide wrong answers because users either are not asking the right questions or are not providing valid sources. "Those old sources need to be taken out of the pool," LaSasso said.

Craig Youngs, portfolio director of unified communications at Brigham Young University, said privacy, security and governance is key to his organization. The university is being "methodical and purposeful" in its adoption of AI tools.

"We have formed an interdisciplinary departmental task force to review the various AI options that are in the industry right now. But I think it's important that somebody's at the front of that effort," he said.

Youngs said the person overseeing AI adoption in this fast-changing market must be able to spend time investigating different tools and how those tools can be integrated into business processes.

An organization's culture also plays an important role in deciding which AI tools to adopt and how quickly to roll them out, he said.

"If the culture of the organization is very conservative, you might need to go a little bit slower than if it is nimble and quick," Youngs said. "If you do it wrong, then it's not going to work out well, and you're not going to get the adoption you hoped for."

Meanwhile, vendors will say, "do not be afraid to try GenAI," even in areas as sensitive as customer service in general and in contact centers specifically. And, indeed, the vendors on that panel did just that.

That does seem to be the typical oscillation: User organizations do not want to be left behind, but the AI hype of 2023 is diminishing to positive but cautious.