Blog series GenAI | A brief introduction in Generative AI

It has escaped almost no one’s attention: the rapid developments surrounding Generative AI (GenAI). Generative AI has skyrocketed in popularity in 2023, thanks in large part to breakthroughs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E. It is estimated that more than one and a half million Dutch people are currently working with the technology, for example to compose emails, generate images or experiment with new applications themselves.

Technology offers opportunities to perform work better and more efficiently. According to recent research by PWC, more than 44% of Dutch jobs are highly “exposed” to GenAI and the technology could be a solution to the persistent labor market shortage in the Netherlands. A huge shift is currently taking place in education, as students are now receiving massive support from ChatGPT in completing assignments and writing essays and theses. Universities are looking for ways to make technology part of education in a constructive way.

In our company we also notice a growing interest in GenAI. From the boardroom to the coffee corner, applications are currently being discussed in almost every company. And every day there is a knowledge meeting or a webinar on the subject somewhere.Blog series Generative

That’s why we’re launching this blog series about Generative AI. By sharing our knowledge, we want to help organizations take the step from “talking and considering” to realizing successful and responsible AI within their organization. Until the end of this year, we will highlight one topic for a successful AI implementation every week. We discuss topics such as finding a suitable use case, establishing a solid technical foundation, selecting and training your language model, using AI responsibly and finally validating and implementing your AI solution. We mainly focus on AI solutions aimed at textual content.
In this first blog we discuss the Generative AI concept in broad terms: We discuss what it is, how it works and what opportunities and challenges there are when implementing it in your organization. We’ll also be previewing the next blogs in this series.

Generative AI: What is it?

Let’s start with the concept of Generative AI. This is more than a fashionable buzzword. It is a form of artificial intelligence in which algorithms generate data instead of just analyzing it. GenAI makes it possible to create new content, ranging from text to images, videos, speech and even music. It can thus achieve realistic and personal interactions between humans and machines.

Several specific examples of where Generative AI is used for:

• Answering first-line customer questions about the services provided by organizations.
• Writing promotional and marketing materials by marketers and content writers.
• Generating images based on textual descriptions (or vice versa).
• Writing, checking and improving programming code or queries by developers.

Take for example a Generative AI in the context of a service provider like us. Based on data about frequently asked questions and customer reviews, an AI can generate personalized and relevant answers to a new customer question. For a new question, such as about our opening hours or how an appointment can be scheduled, the AI ​​first interprets the assignment/question, retrieves the necessary information from our (internal and public) data and then formulates a unique and personalized answer to the customer.

This is a fairly simple example. But you can also apply similar interactions in other, more complex business situations. In the policy context, you can think of an application for answering parliamentary questions, for answering Information Notes when carrying out European tenders or for recognizing commercial opportunities for companies based on market information. If you want to know more about these applications, take a look at our portfolio of AI projects.