Published on October 15, 2023
On October 18, 2023, Soumya Banerjee, Research Lead, TCS CMR&A, Payal Raghuvanshi, Research Lead, TCS CMR&A, and Dipayan Chakraborty, Research Analyst, TCS CMR&A from Tata Consultancy Services conducted an EDGE webinar on emerging trends, opportunities and utilities of Generative AI for conglomerate ecosystems.
Mr Banerjee traversed the landscape of Generative AI's evolution and diverse applications. He highlighted its journey from early AI like the natural language processing program Eliza to contemporary Generative AI technologies like GPT. His insights spanned a multitude of business domains, each illuminated by the applications of Generative AI.
Mr Chakraborty then delved into sales and marketing and how Generative AI promises to generate high-quality, targeted, and scalable content, paving the way for chatbots in customer service and designing marketing campaigns with incredible precision. CRM integration, customer social sentiment analysis, automated pursuit prioritisation, product recommendations, and lead generation are set to be revolutionised. Commercial leaders' cautious optimism is evident in functions like lead identification, marketing optimisation, and personalised outreach. With over 20% of digital budgets invested in AI-related technologies, a fifth of sales team functions can potentially be automated, according to McKinsey.
Operations and supply chain management will benefit from Generative AI's ability to enhance demand forecasting, detect fraud, assess supplier risk, optimise inventory, and adjust pricing dynamically based on market variables. It will account for ever-changing factors like traffic conditions, fuel prices, and weather forecasts, ensuring businesses remain agile in a dynamic environment.
Generative AI also impacts Information Technology and Analytics by enabling code generation, auto-completion, documentation, design pattern recognition, intelligent debugging, code translation, and much more. These applications will raise accuracy levels in data analytics, enhance software development, and make machine learning a seamless process.
Payal Raghuvanshi, spoke about the uses of AI in functions like finance, human resource, and legal. In the finance sector, Generative AI is set to automate financial forecasting, streamline conversation-based financial interactions, and generate insightful analytics reports. In the legal domain, it can automate laborious processes, elevating accuracy and efficiency in tasks like contract review.
This transformative potential continues into Human Resources and Employee Services. From benchmarking salaries and optimising recruitment to offering career coaching, mentoring, and automated leave applications through chatbots, Generative AI will play a pivotal role in HR operations, said Ms Raghuvanshi.
Mr Banerjee was confident about AI’s ecosystem-wide implementation. Within the conglomerate, Generative AI promises to create synergy across different Tata companies by integrating the value chain. For instance, Tata Steel Mining, Tata Steel, and Tata Electronics or Tata Motors can collaborate more seamlessly, sharing data, insights, and innovations. In the context of Generative AI, he dispelled common misconceptions. It's a tool to enhance human capabilities, not replace them. It isn't infallible, but its precision is continually advancing. It's not just a textual tool; it can extend to image generation, audio, and more.
As Shreyas Desai, GM, Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG) summed up, Generative AI is more than a technological leap; it's a gateway to innovation, transformative work processes, and the enhancement of existing systems and technologies. The speakers then took questions from the audience, concluding the webinar with a deeper understanding of Generative AI's incredible potential.