Can Generative AI Bring Business Transformation? Insights from OpenAI's Chief Operating Officer

OpenAI wants to attract enterprise users, but some of its executives remind people that this technology will not immediately change their business.

OpenAI's Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said in an interview that one of the most exaggerated parts of artificial intelligence is "one-step transformation, [it] can bring business changes."

Lightcap said that some companies approach OpenAI hoping that generative AI can solve many problems, reduce costs, and restore growth. He said that although AI can make progress, "you won't have one thing that can be completely solved with AI," and this technology is still in its early stages. He added that AI is still in the experimental phase and has not yet become a critical tool or part of applications.

OpenAI has launched the enterprise version of its popular platform ChatGPT, promising better protection for companies that want to protect proprietary and sensitive data, and providing more fine-tuning options for models. Lightcap said the company is also working through the long waitlist for ChatGPT Enterprise.

Consumers and businesses have seen the potential of generative AI, especially after technology evangelists touted it as a way to make work easier. To prevent accidental data leaks, developers like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Amazon have released versions of generative AI models tailored for enterprises.

Some employees of companies that adopted AI early complained that the first iteration of AI models did not make their lives easier. A new report from The Information pointed out that Morgan Stanley internally complained that the chatbot built by OpenAI was not used by its target audience in the wealth management industry because people prefer to call for information.

In the news industry, some publishers have tried to use AI to generate news stories or guides to produce more content with less money. However, some companies have slowed down their plans after encountering incidents involving insensitive, foolish, or inaccurate articles.