Early in my career, I stayed in an authentic ryokan inn in Kyoto. It was right out of an 1800s Hiroshige woodblock print with a Japanese garden, hanging lanterns, sliding rice paper doors, and a glowing view of Mt Fuji at sunrise. After work, my colleague and I discovered the local dishes and Suntory scotch—a first. …
CIOs and others in the C-suite are already seeing payoffs from using AI to automate myriad types of business tasks and workflows. Now they’re eyeing a next-phase opportunity—relying on machine intelligence to handle complex decisions. “If you look at the advances we have seen in AI, with the large amounts of data that large language…
Chatbots have blazed an evolutionary path similar to that of self-driving cars. Using the benchmarking approach for driverless vehicles, they’ve advanced from what we might call Level 0—simple call-and-response programs designed a half-century ago—to Level 5—sophisticated AI-driven engines that can increasingly perform human-like tasks. That’s like going from rotary phones to the iPhone, notes Robb…
Not all AI-powered customer service chatbots are created equal—or created well. Take AVA, the AI-infused customer support bot that AirAsia introduced in 2019. AVA racked up nearly as many customer complaints as case resolutions, forcing AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes to admit earlier this year that AVA was Southeast Asia’s “most hated AI chatbot.” AVA, of…
Generative AI and, more specifically, ChatGPT captivated the corporate world in 2023, with board directors, CEOs, and other executives fawning (and sometimes fearing) the technology. Their enthusiasm is justified, with multiple studies finding that AI is delivering strong value and returns on investment. IBM, for one, found that the average ROI on enterprise-wide AI initiatives…
Measuring developer productivity has long been a Holy Grail of business. And like the Holy Grail, it has been elusive. But based on our work with companies from a range of industries, we think we may have figured out a way to do it that could work. In 2020, McKinsey surveyed 440 large companies about…
For IHG Hotels and Resorts, the cloud provides just the right accommodation for business success. “First and foremost we see our journey to the cloud as the most extremely important part of both our technology and commercial strategies,” says George Turner, chief commercial and technology officer of the British multinational, which relies heavily on its…
What is a managed service provider? A managed service provider (MSP) is an outsourcer contracted to remotely manage or deliver IT services such as network, application, infrastructure, or security management to a client company by assuming full responsibility for those services, determining proactively what technologies and services are needed to fulfill the client’s needs. Services…
ServiceNow is rolling out another wave of generative AI additions to facilitate workflow management on its Now Platform. The update adds gen AI capabilities for field service workers, chatbot creators, and developers, among others. In September the Vancouver release of Now Platform added Now Assist for ITSM, Customer Service Management, and HR Service Delivery —…
It’s the fastest-moving new technology in history. Generative AI is transforming the world, changing the way we create images and videos, audio, text, and code. According to a September survey of IT decision makers by Dell, 76% say gen AI will have a “significant if not transformative” impact on their organizations, and most expect to…