IT Professionals breakfast (Charlotte and Lake Norman)

This morning, the 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦 and 𝘓𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘐𝘛 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘴 groups gathered for a breakfast panel discussion on 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸’𝘴 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴: 𝘈𝘐, 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺.

AI stole the spotlight again, which is no surprise. Over 100 tech professionals attended. The panelists included C-level executives and a Special Agent from the FBI. They shared their experiences and insights on leveraging AI in their companies. One particularly interesting case stood out to me: a security and AI leader from a large organization revealed how they revamped their help desk using Azure OpenAI. Their support team was almost eliminated (just two people remain per region!), but they are happier, and they’re also using AI to answer business questions directly from internal data sources like Salesforce, saving a ton of time and effort.

They also incorporated Generative AI into business automation. They have checks and balances and approval processes, but AI propels their business forward much faster.

Security is their top priority, so they only introduced Generative AI when they had sandboxed private instances so that no sensitive information leaked outside of their organization.

This is a $10B company, so it shows that no matter the company size, it’s possible to be secure and nimble if there is good leadership and the right focus.

This shows how Generative AI is exciting and disruptive at the same time. In this case, the dozens of support desk folks whose jobs had been replaced were given other roles, and everyone was happy. However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that, due to AI, the jobs from just one year ago will look much different than the jobs of tomorrow.

Another panelist offered a different experience: security-first, with ChatGPT currently off-limits. However, they’re actively exploring secure, sandboxed solutions to unlock the potential of safe AI in their organization. I respect the security mindset and that they are correctly keeping security first. Still, they need to move quickly to solve for security while not missing out on the many benefits of GenAI.

I am pleased that AI is top of mind for so many companies now. These two regional IT groups aren’t solely focused on AI, but the monthly event topics have mostly shifted to AI now. These groups are full of AI discussions, recognizing its potential while working through its challenges.

Thanks to the local IT Professionals groups for serving up both breakfast and AI! And thanks to the panelists who gave proven guidance on today’s topic of 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦. Practical Generative AI isn’t a future concept; it’s benefitting companies of all sizes today.

While it looks different in each company, the day-to-day work of the average business professional is starting to look much different than I envisioned just a year ago.