Generative AI in the workplace begins a new era of productivity

 The digital workplace is increasingly faced with the analysis of greater volumes of data to respond to the challenges of an environment in constant transformation. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) changes the business focus from tasks to objectives The next ASLAN2024 Congress&EXPO, organized by the @aslan Association on April 17 and 18 at the Ifema Conference Center, will address the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the innovation and digital transformation ecosystem. In this context, this year the space will have a place dedicated to the challenges that the application of generative AI to the workplace brings with it: Enhancing the Digital Workplace with AI.

The application of AI in Spanish companies is already a reality. According to a study by Amazon Web Services (AWS), its use has grown by 22% since 2022 and 36% of organizations are already taking advantage of its benefits. Between now and 2030, it is estimated that AI will move around 282 billion euros. Although it is true that this technology has been used for many years, Generative AI (AIGen) has marked a turning point that will change the way we work and generate content, raising the productivity levels. The potential that AIGen brings will allow companies to truly dedicate themselves to strategy, leaving routine or tedious tasks to the intelligent hyperautomation enabled by AI. In essence, we will move from a task orientation to one that is more focused on objectives.

Along these same lines, furthermore, far from posing a threat to the employee, it will play an inclusive role, because as Mario Medina, general director of Ilunion IT Services, states, "this technology is going to eliminate many barriers, because from the start it will provide new knowledge and skills to people who lack them or who have a disability, assuming a new paradigm when it comes to facing the day-to-day work."

From public to hybrid cloud

Despite these benefits, Generative AI also involves risks that should not be neglected. One of those that comes to the fore is security, especially of the data that is, after all, the engine for AIGen. Given the high processing capabilities required by this technology, the cloud has played a crucial role in its development and consumption, but this circumstance has increased concerns about security.

Alejandro Pinto, the head of Business Development and Public Sector at AWS, states that "just because the data resides close to where you have business does not directly mean that you have greater protection." For this reason, in addition to the need for data proximity – largely due to a question of latency and resilience – there is also the need to have appropriate tools for both the public cloud and hybrid environments.

Given that many companies combine their public cloud with their private cloud, these tools increasingly look to the PC, which is beginning to play a leading role when executing services and solutions with AI. According to Patricia Núñez, product management and operations director at Lenovo, "many of this data processing is going to be done on the PC itself, so from now on there will be a lot of talk about chips with NPU (Neural Processing Unit) with a performance of more than 40 TOPS".

They are the computers developed specifically for these environments, the AI PCs. Currently, the PCs that are beginning to hit the market with this type of processors show a performance of between 10 and 15 TOPS (trillion operations per second), but the progression is accelerating.

The key, the data

Experts agree that the application of AI to the digital workplace will boost productivity. To achieve this, as Gartner states that it happens in 42% of companies, the biggest challenge is data, the volumes of which are generated are greater with the advancement of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Martín Trullas, Advanced Solutions Director of Ingram Micro, is convinced that such volumes will require "collaborative tools and artificial intelligence that are capable of interpreting them and by doing so, we will be much more efficient."

If 20 years ago Wi-Fi was a revolution for the workplace environment, now it is AI and its transversal application in hybrid environments, both at the hardware and software level, improving protection against threats, with much greater capacity. analytical and proactive and optimized functionality automation in all areas of the company.