Detroit Regional Chamber > Detroiter Magazine > Gen AI in the New Year

Gen AI in the New Year

December 23, 2024

By Biljana N. Petrovski

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is on the minds—as well as in 2025 plans and budgets—of many business leaders in Detroit as they navigate ways to harness the technology to make their organizations more efficient and more profitable. However, the explosive excitement many saw over the past few years has now shifted to a critical evaluation of its real impact on business outcomes. This is happening as businesses actively pilot GenAI programs in support of their specific goals and parameters to see what works and what does not.

Deloitte’s Q3 State of Generative AI report explored this shift from potential to performance, finding that improved efficiency, productivity, and cost reduction are still the top GenAI benefits for organizations, with 42% of respondents identifying these as the most important benefits achieved to date. However, 58% reported they achieved a more diverse range of benefits, including increased innovation, improved products and services, and enhanced customer relationships. If your business has not yet taken the leap into GenAI, now is the time; it may no longer be a nice-t0-have, but a must-to-be competitive in the marketplace.

Biljana Petrovski headshot

“If your business has not yet taken the leap into GenAI, now is the time; it may no longer be a nice-to-have, but a must-to-be-competitive in the marketplace.”

– Biljana N. Petrovski, Managing Director, Risk and Financial Advisory, Deloitte and Touche LLP

Three Considerations for Detroit Business Leaders as They Dig Deeper Into Generative AI

Think Beyond Tech

Business leaders should look at how GenAI can be applied across the entire business, not just tech-related silos like information technology. GenAI can benefit many aspects of business operations, from human resources to finance. To get started, finance teams can leverage GenAI to transform internal controls by automating manual processes, such as data entry, reconciliations, and validations.

By addressing inefficiencies in current processes, GenAi can enhance the quality and speed of work. Collaboration with IT, business units, audit, and compliance teams is crucial to align on objectives, expectations, and risks. This approach not only optimizes operations but also ensures trust, transparency, and accountability in AI initiatives.

Mitigate Risk

According to the report, one of the top concerns holding organizations back from GenAI deployment are worries about regulatory compliance (36%), difficulty managing risk (30%), and lack of a governance model (29%). A strong AI governance strategy is necessary to support ethical use an accuracy; humans should be involved every step of the way, organizations should prioritize GenAI upskilling. Future regulations are hard to predict, but putting safeguards in place now will help support changes down the road.

Having a trustworthy AI framework in place helps organizations recognize it as a pervasive risk across the enterprise, ensuring systems are ethical, transparent, and accountable, and aligning AI initiatives with broader organizational values and goals.

Handle Data Responsibly

Data management is tied to risk mitigation. Three-quarters of respondents in the report shared that their organizations have increased their investment around data life cycle management to enable their GenAI strategy. This includes enhancing data security (54%) and improving data quality (48%). Key concerns include using sensitive data in models and managing data privacy and security, but first and foremost, are your data sources and labeling working to support GenAI? Organizations should focus on getting those in order so it does not impede strategy.