Unravelling the potential of large language models
Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on September 21, 2023
5 min readLast updated: January 31, 2026

Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on September 21, 2023
5 min readLast updated: January 31, 2026

Uncovering the Secrets Behind Their Success
By Henry Vaage Iversen, CCO & Co-Founder, Boost.ai
The world of natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) has undergone a monumental transformation in recent years thanks to the advent of large language models (LLMs). These sophisticated models, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have opened up new avenues of opportunity with their ability to grasp human-like text and excel at various language-related tasks. The potential of this groundbreaking technology has captivated people worldwide, promising to revolutionise our lives and work. However, understanding the functionality of LLMs is vital to realising their full potential.
LLMs’ core functionality lies in a neural network trained on vast textual datasets. By scrutinising patterns and relationships within the data, they become adept at predicting the next word in a sentence. Through this process, LLMs gain an innate understanding of grammar, syntax, and even subtle semantic nuances, allowing them to generate coherent and contextually appropriate responses when given prompts or queries.
The training regimen involves exposing the model to vast quantities of data, including books, articles, and websites. The model becomes adept at identifying patterns, extracting meaning, and generating text based on the input it receives. Consequently, LLMs possess an astonishing ability to emulate human language, holding the potential to elevate a wide range of applications and services.
While the potential of large language models is enormous, their successful implementation necessitates careful adoption. Here are some essential factors to ensure effective deployment:
One area where LLMs have showcased remarkable potential is their integration with conversational AI. By combining LLMs with Natural Language Understanding (NLU), a hybrid system emerges, harnessing both technologies’ strengths. While NLU delivers precise and reliable responses within a specific business context, LLMs optimise content generation with their vast general knowledge. This combination of technologies can also improve virtual agents in a few other key ways too:
With such a diverse range of benefits and capabilities, it would be easy to think LLMs have no downside. However, responsible and well-considered adoption is paramount. The raw processing power of LLMs is extraordinary, but they can be susceptible to hallucinations and inaccuracies. Embracing a hybrid approach is the way to go if businesses seek to deliver the best customer-facing virtual agent experiences. Connecting LLMs to conversational AI pre-trained on company-specific data, with appropriate guardrails in place, allows for virtual agent scalability and creativity without compromising accuracy and data quality.
We have entered the age of the LLM and, with it, a new age of technological efficiency. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of this technology, as well as having an understanding of our specific needs, businesses can unlock the full potential of LLMs to enrich user experiences and create more intelligent and engaging conversational systems. Nevertheless, it remains crucial to address biases and connect these models to reliable source data to ensure the information they provide is accurate, thus preventing their potential in an enterprise setting from going unrealised.
A large language model (LLM) is an AI system that uses deep learning techniques to understand and generate human-like text based on vast amounts of training data.
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans.
Customer experience encompasses all interactions a customer has with a company, influencing their overall perception and satisfaction.
Bias in AI refers to systematic errors in the outputs of an AI system, often stemming from prejudiced training data or algorithms.
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