Generative AI and Small Business – Can it Level the Tech Playing Field?

GSI Integrations and Modernization Director Steve Kassay offers a future where a cooperative AI enables data-driven decisions and customized problem solving that is already leveling the playing field for SMBs

The technology behind Chat GPT and Bard – commonly labeled "Generative AI" – has stolen the attention of mainstream and tech audiences alike as the next big thing.

But platitudes are fantastic for tech posts and water-cooler conversations. Will this early acceptance for AI fizzle like Virtual Reality in the early 1990s? More than a few tech leaders and companies are betting the rapidly developing field of Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses integrate complex and custom systems.

GSI Integrations director Steve Kassay is one of them. And he believes that in the next ten years, generative AI will significantly impact software platform integrations, automating tasks, reducing costs, and improving the overall quality of complex technology projects.

"Generative AI can automate many of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks involved in integration, such as mapping data between systems, generating code, and testing integrations," Kassay said. "Automation is at the heart of any integration or modernization project and therefore can free up integration teams to focus on more strategic tasks, such as designing and architecting integrations."

The technology can help reduce the cost of integration projects, which makes the budgetary commitments to AI something corporate accountants will be willing to listen to. By automating tasks and reducing manual intervention, Generative AI can help reduce the risk of errors and omissions in integrations.

"By automating tasks and providing real-time feedback, Generative AI can help businesses to improve the quality of their integrations. That's important because often a custom application that solves a specific problem can stop working." Kassay added. "So much time is currently spent looking through documentation and code to find the problem no one else has been able to identify."

Unsurprisingly, companies like Amazon and Microsoft are grabbing headlines for how they envision putting AI to work. But what about a technology tentpole like Oracle? They're just as ubiquitous as Adobe or Google but more closely knitted into the fabric of small business operations like ERPs and cloud infrastructure.

A scan of Oracle's public-facing resources on its website and industry articles spell out early Generative AI initiatives with promise:

• The power behind a new chatbot service that can answer customer questions and resolve issues in real-time
• Automate the generation of marketing copy and sales materials based on prospect needs
• Develop new fraud detection and prevention algorithms
• Embedding generative AI capabilities into Oracle ERP Cloud to automate invoice processing and financial forecasting tasks.
• Developing new features for Oracle CRM Cloud that can automatically generate personalized sales pitches for each customer.
• Oracle is adding generative AI capabilities to Oracle Database to allow businesses to generate synthetic data for testing and development purposes.

Generative AI is not just a tool for large enterprises with complex systems; it's also empowering small businesses by making system integration more accessible, efficient, and adaptable to their needs.

Companies like GSI – at the forefront of understanding these technologies and how to implement them – are investing in delivering these technologies because they will enable small businesses to leverage technology that was once the reserve of larger corporations with bigger budgets.

If your company has legacy systems ripe for upgrade or overhaul with a dash of AI, contact us today to get started.