23.07.2024 | News GenAI? Absolutely! But not only.

„How do I order a notebook for the new working student?’ ‘My machine shows error code 123 - what is the cause and how do I fix the error?’ ‘Create a management summary in German from this extensive English-language dossier.’ Generative AI takes information and knowledge management in companies to a whole new level. Employees and customers can chat with company data in almost the same way as with a human counterpart and have questions answered or summaries generated.

The best and most secure way for companies to do this is to use generative AI with an in-house search engine - the keyword here is ‘enterprise search’.

When generative AI is integrated into search software, it searches the organization’s own current data for relevant information and makes these text passages available to the language model that generates the answer. This significantly reduces the risk of hallucinations. For transparency, users also get the relevant source information from which the answer was generated. Equally important, the search software automatically considers the access rights to the organization’s own data. End users only receive information in their answers that they are authorized to see - an aspect that is often overlooked in the GenAI euphoria.

But it doesn't always have to be GenAI. Information and knowledge management is about increasing efficiency within the company. And that doesn't necessarily require generative AI, but a very good semantic search. An employee wants to quickly create a new presentation? They don't need a fully formulated answer, but rather similar presentations that already exist in the organization from which they can reuse parts. A manager needs to make a decision based on the results of a meeting? Then he needs access as quickly as possible to the memo in which these results are written down. Modern search software can fulfil such requirements perfectly without GenAI. Using a semantic search in combination with intelligent filters, end users have the right documents to hand with just a few clicks and a quick overview of the information they are looking for with the document preview.

To avoid misunderstandings: Generative AI is an impressive technology and increases efficiency in many cases. Nevertheless, companies should always ask themselves whether they absolutely need GenAI for their specific requirements. After all, this technology requires extensive consideration when selecting the right AI and operating models and naturally also incurs costs for software – on premise hardware or cloud solutions. It would therefore simply make no sense to use it if it does not add value. Ultimately, what counts is that employees and customers quickly have the information they need for their day-to-day work or decisions. In some cases, the answers provided by generative AI can best guarantee this, whereas in other cases, the hit list of an enterprise search software best serves this purpose.