How centralised automation platforms solve AI’s data problem
The data demands of advanced AI are putting more pressure on IT teams. But automation could help them support effective, compliant AI development and usage.
IT teams didn’t ask for the AI revolution
Managing and modernising complex technology stacks is challenging enough. But now the heightened expectations created by the public hype around generative AI mean that IT must find new ways to feed models the data they need to provide useful outputs.
There’s a ‘pincer movement’ of pressure on IT. Business leaders want to gain a competitive advantage by deploying the latest AI capabilities, while employees wonder why the AI tools they see all around them aren’t available in their workplace. Often, people don’t really know why they want to use AI; the huge wave of hype over the last few years has simply made people feel like AI must be essential.
Of course, AI has the potential to deliver powerful new capabilities and significant business value. But to support the development and use of high-impact AI models, IT teams must finally solve the data problem they’ve been grappling with for years.
The data challenge keeps getting bigger
Data has been a major problem for IT teams for a long time, and as the volume, velocity and variety of data continue to grow, the challenge just gets bigger.
Many organisations still have numerous systems – from aging on-premises applications to modern SaaS platforms – that aren’t connected to each other. These systems have no common data model, making it difficult to bring data together in a usable form. And bringing consistent, reliable data together at the speed and scale demanded by modern AI pipelines is almost impossible, which is one of the reasons why so many AI initiatives get stuck in the PoC stage.
When you layer AI on top of the existing data challenge, it also brings increased risk. It’s critical to train AI models on accurate, up-to-date information to prevent them giving users incorrect answers. For example, without the right information – and proper governance – there’s a risk that a customer service chatbot could give false answers to customer questions (or agree to sell a new car for $1).
A centralised automation platform can help
Well-managed data pipelines and effective workload orchestration are essential for AI to function as intended and deliver the desired business outcomes. By using automation to manage the flow of data between diverse systems, it’s far easier to get the right data to where it needs to be. And unifying automation management on a central platform connects automation silos and provides the end-to-end visibility and control required to ensure everything flows smoothly.
A centralised automation platform can remove many of the persistent data challenges IT teams face, and enable them to:
Simplify IT operations
- Streamline tech stack modernisation and migration with clear visibility of data pipelines and automated workloads wherever they are or move to.
- Increase business agility by automatically connecting the right data sources with the right exit nodes as strategies and priorities evolve.
- Achieve rigorous SLAs by ensuring data arrives where it’s meant to be on time and pipelines run smoothly and efficiently.
Empower data scientists, business decision-makers and customers
- Accelerate AI innovation by enabling self-service provisioning, so data scientists don’t have to raise tickets to get the training data they need.
- Get accurate, timely insights to decision-makers, with faster data processing and smoother data pipelines.
- Delight customers with AI-powered chatbots that use the right data to provide complete, accurate answers to frequently (and not so frequently) asked questions.
Support governance and sustainability efforts
- Simplify AI governance by switching from an ‘all you can eat’ mindset to a ‘just what you need’ approach to data.
- Get ahead of forthcoming AI regulations such as the EU AI Act by demonstrating a responsible approach to data and AI governance.
- Reduce carbon emissions associated with compute-intensive AI workloads by using only the data each model or use case actually needs
Key Get beyond the hype and deliver value with AI
In all the hype, it’s easy to think that “AI is the answer!” But too often, people don’t pause to figure out what the question is.
With a centralised automation platform providing complete visibility and control of data pipelines throughout the organisation, leaders can be sure they’re asking the right questions. They can trust that they’re answering those questions in an ethical and responsible manner. And they can rely on getting accurate, actionable answers to decision-makers at the speed the business demands.
To learn more about how you can overcome common data hurdles and support effective AI capabilities, get in touch with our experts.
