Ignore the hype when evaluating GenAI

By Craig Mackereth, EVP, Global Service Delivery, Rimini Street

Financial Services (FS) companies have been quick to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) as they look for a competitive advantage. Trading floors, insurance companies and retail banks are all using machine learning and neural networks to accelerate decisions, process huge datasets and better understand their customers.

The advent of generative AI (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, has created a lot of hype, but FS institutions should proceed with caution given their attitude to risk. There are three strategic priorities to evaluate when considering the adoption of GenAI:

1. Backing the right horse. GenAI tools are evolving rapidly with new functionality being added on a regular basis. CIOs must be careful when deciding which tools and models to embrace, because investment in the wrong technology could be costly.
2. Leakage of IP. The adoption of any new technology has the potential for reputational damage, which is a very real consideration for GenAI as sensitive data could be exposed if information is inputted into public models sharing data. There is some value in using GenAI tools in closed environments, but they will only ever be able to learn from the information within a particular organisation.
   The real value of GenAI is being able to scrap all available sources in real-time to inform its decision-making. For models to perform effectively they should be regularly updated by sources outside the organisation. However, this also means sharing data with central repositories to improve the accuracy of decision making. Going down this path could be highly disruptive to existing workflows and demand a more comprehensive approach to digital transformation in order to protect intellectual property.
3. Incremental or wholesale change. Embracing GenAI could require wholesale change of business processes and there has also been widespread discussion of the possible impact on the workforce. Organisations must decide whether they are adopting GenAI tools to work alongside existing systems to deliver incremental benefits or are going “all in” on a full scale digital transformation. The latter approach may be highly disruptive, so it is crucial for project teams to commit to a tangible return-on-investment (ROI) in 12 months. That is an aggressive timeline, but too many investments fail when there hasn’t been a laser-like focus on ROI in the first year.

Equally, given that GenAI is still maturing, it is important to recognise the uncertainty that this may create for your employees. If they feel their role is at risk of replacement by AI, then FS organisations may see good people leave. It is critical that they are included on the AI pathway, so they can understand how it will benefit and evolve their roles.

The final point is that if adopting GenAI becomes a change management exercise, organisations should also allow time to break things and fail. Experimentation is key as this will empower users to explore how the technology will benefit them, safe in the knowledge there will be no repercussions. Adopting this mindset should also encourage FS institutions to find ways to collaborate with competitors and industries with a similar risk profile. It will be impossible for one FS organisation to solve all the challenges with GenAI in areas such as standards for data compatibility. Working with frenemies will be a key part of achieving effective implementations of GenAI.

About Craig Mackereth, EVP Global Service Delivery

Mr. Mackereth serves as EVP, Global Service Delivery. In this role, he is responsible for developing and managing the delivery of Rimini Street support services for SAP’s Business Suite and BusinessObjects software and Oracle Corporation’s Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Hyperion, and Oracle Retail software.

Mr. Mackereth is skilled executive leader with 20 years of experience working in various industries including financial services, technology, software, aerospace and defense and expertise in Oracle applications and technologies. He is a recognized thought leader in the enterprise systems space. Mr. Mackereth has led projects and global teams for companies of all sizes and managed 24×7 support teams in challenging corporate environments using a variety of applications and technologies.

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support, products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software and a Salesforce and AWS partner. The Company has operations globally and offers a comprehensive family of unified solutions to run, manage, support, customise, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimise enterprise application, database, and technology software, and enables clients to achieve better business outcomes, significantly reduce costs and reallocate resources for innovation. To date, over 5,500 Fortune 500, Fortune Global 100, midmarket, public sector, and other organisations from a broad range of industries have relied on Rimini Street as their trusted enterprise software solutions provider. To learn more, please visit riministreet.com, and connect with Rimini Street on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. (IR-RMNI)