The AI ​​and Gen AI revolution is changing the rules in every industry and business field, and it’s not for nothing that Bill Gates claimed that this is the biggest revolution since the Internet. As a company that accompanies most of the enterprise organizations in a variety of sectors in the Israeli economy, in the last year we have gained rich experience in cracking and refining the business use cases for the application of the technology, with the aim of maximizing the business value.

We were happy and honored to be hosted at the annual Summit of People and Computers, in which we hosted a professional panel under the title: Advanced AI and Gen AI applications in the leading enterprise organizations in the economy, and trends for 2024.

The panel was attended by an amazing group of VPs, managers and senior managers who came to share their insights, experience and personal lessons from the actual implementation of business use cases in various fields in which they leveraged advanced capabilities of AI and Gen AI.

At the audience’s request, we have compiled key insights from the panel for you.

Avitar Peretz, Senior Deputy Accountant General – Data Innovation and Digital

“The adoption of Gen AI technology in an organization is a process that requires a real transformation in organizations in general, and in government offices in particular, where in my opinion a proactive approach must be adopted. Today this field includes two major challenges: the practical site of assimilating the technology (which includes the collection of data and building models based on it ), building an organizational culture that understands the opportunities and strives to experiment with them. The entire organization must adopt a DNA that lives and breathes the data, despite historical barriers that government ministries are characterized by. In order for this to happen, the business side, the one that lives and breathes the field must get closer to the technological worlds and recognize the capabilities and opportunities The second challenge, its essence mainly in the aspect of connecting Gen AI and the government ministries, is the “big brother” concept:

A wide public is afraid of providing such advanced tools to government officials for obvious reasons, especially when there is no full transparency. On the other hand, the citizen can derive great value by integrating AI tools in the various government offices, of course a high and uncompromising level of security is also required.

Regarding tips for other managers who face similar questions regarding technology and its business application, I suggest that you remember to separate the private and domestic use of technology, and the needs, capabilities and also the level of risk that large organizations face in different aspects, certainly when they are subject to regulation. I believe it is very important to ask from the first moment: what value are we striving to produce? What do you want to achieve? And remember that reducing personnel is not the goal, but to improve capabilities and provide business value to the end users.”

Gil Tamir, deputy to the CEO and manager of the innovation and technology department at the Phoenix Group

“The Phoenix is ​​a large financial group in the Israeli market, and in recent years we have invested many resources in initiatives related to the world of data. The insurance world is data-rich, by definition, alongside a level of efficiency that certainly has room for improvement. In recent years, we have been focused on arranging and organizing the data, in order to produce a business-technological infrastructure, among other things, to integrate Gen AI technologies and capabilities in order to generate higher value for the business side, and happily we live in an era where this is also possible at a fast pace.

To this end, we have built a long-term strategy, with an organized work plan at the quarter level, which allows us to run forward with a clear agenda. On the other hand, it is important to admit that the field is still in the trial and error stages. Even within the group there are areas where things move faster and others less so, but happily there are experiments that have matured into products that will be launched very soon, and the goal is to continue running fast while maintaining a high level of information security, befitting a large and leading financial organization in the economy.

Since this is a significant event that we are just at the beginning of, real organizational leadership, leadership and personal example are required, otherwise the interest in the opportunity will not seep in. Regarding the question: are these technological initiatives aimed at end customers or internal users, the answer is that it doesn’t really matter. Because as soon as the service meets internal users and manages to improve their productivity, accuracy and speed, the end customer is the first to benefit from it. In general, we strive for initiatives that will bring about real business change, that move the needle, not small moves.”

Naomi Israeli, Vice President of the Technological Division, Rafael

“If there is anything that the war period and the current crisis teach us, it is the tremendous importance of leveraging high-quality, fast and real-time data. In view of the nature of the work and the industry (security industry), we cannot absorb a large amount of female employees and skilled workers in the short term, therefore, in cooperation with Strauss Strategy, we moved the IT unit to a product concept, with product managers who work directly with the business parties, such as for example in the world of supply chain management, and define together with them the exact requirements and needs.

We have also established a data and Gen AI department, and in front of them the business needs come from the field through a direct communication channel, with the aim of examining opportunities to leverage data and Gen AI technologies to improve and optimize processes. For example, we were able to shorten delivery times, processes that by definition are very complex. The use of data and Gen AI makes it possible to make available to end customers the information they need without stopping or slowing down the processes. Already today we are identifying additional areas where processes can be improved with the help of technology.

Regarding the question of return on investment (ROI) of implementing this technology, this is a sore point, for sure. We have an ROI test as a concept, but alongside areas where it is relatively easy to measure the impact (such as in the entire supply chain), on the other hand there are other areas, such as development, where the contribution of technology is felt but still difficult to quantify. In any case, the organization made a clear decision: to continue investing in searches for business areas where the investment will have a clear positive impact.

At the same time, not at all costs: alongside the many opportunities that technology creates, and the importance of trial and error in order to learn, we understand that technology does not always provide a solution that produces the value we expected, and that’s okay. As part of the learning, we are constantly refining the areas where the contribution and value are most significant and lasting.”

Kobi Katz, Vice President and Head of the Technology Division, Maccabi Health Services

“The health industry is an industry that by definition is rich in data. We, as the Maccabi Group, combine data from several activities and sources, and we started as a strategy to leverage the data to generate real business and consumer value, and we invest the resources to achieve this. We are building a Data Lake that will allow research to be carried out based on data analysis and leveraging, in order to generate cross-sectional insights on the various processes based on it. In addition, Maccabi has a research institute that allows startups and other entities to join it and produce products based on the data we have collected.

Another area that benefits from leveraging data: customer service, for example, we leverage Gen AI models both for the benefit of the medical teams, so that they can receive recommendations and data from a wide variety of sources, and also leverage the rich data and Gen AI tools to strengthen the ability of early, proactive prevention, in patients, to prevent the consumption of medical services in advance.”

“We at Maccabi have been dealing with Gen AI for about six months now, and are looking to build the “machine” that can produce and enable diverse use cases within the group. Similar to many other fields, the real challenges are often discovered during the process of delving into the meanings and its actual implementation, so it is possible and recommended, for example, to join companies The various technologies, those on the one hand can be used as a business-technological partner that can help with the implementation challenge, and of course benefit from the knowledge and experience they have with other organizations and in other fields. Our strategy in this world is Multi Cloud with the intention of benefiting from the advanced AI capabilities of at least 2 leading cloud providers, As mentioned, for the benefit of building the machine that will allow running on IO of a business use case, whether it is a customer-facing world or whether it is the worlds of operational excellence, in the back office.”

Lior Georgi, Deputy Director of the Information Technology Division, Bank of Israel

“We integrate Gen AI technologies and capabilities at various levels in the organization: starting with investing in human capital: training and encouraging the use of the various tools in order to upgrade and optimize individual tasks, while recruiting professional personnel to strengthen the existing system. In addition, we have established a cross-organizational forum that is a platform for sharing ideas, initiatives and information about the most relevant opportunities where we can implement and harness the technology.” Together with Strauss, we led the X-Labs in a Box program as part of multidisciplinary teams of managers from various divisions in the bank created 3 business ventures based on Gen AI for which a practical business and application plan was built based on tools and methods from the world of the leading product companies. This allowed us to build an advanced project around the cash management activity (Cash IO), as well as develop dashboards that allow the business parties to predict the demand for cash and react in real time accordingly (including models of interest rate forecasts, for example), and also a database on which models run that allow for research and questioning at a very fast pace”.

Roni Lichtenstein-Shani, Vice President of One Zero

About a month ago, we joined a very limited number (3) of large banks that were the first to implement a smart chatbot based on Gen AI, for the benefit of the bank’s customers. The collaboration with AI21 LABS allows customers to receive an available and fast response through the bot, and this after we discovered that approximately 60% of the inquiries to the service center can receive an effective response through the bot. In terms of the business indicators: we saw a sharp decrease in the number of requests for a human response, along with an increase in the level of customer satisfaction. A significant shift to digital. Another important measure: reducing the range of human error, a concept that comes directly from Amnon Shashua (a concept rooted in the foundation of the Mobileye company, where reducing the range of error is critical at the level of human life). The goal is for the technology to reduce to zero the range of human error in the bank.

Looking ahead, the trends or areas to pay attention to mainly relate to organizations having to do a lot more strength training, building muscle in these worlds. A Harvard study shows that about 72% of the human capital in financial organizations will become irrelevant in the coming years, thanks to Gen AI. As the bank’s HR director, I also integrate Gen AI technologies in this area, for example: already in the recruitment phase, Chat GPT is used to improve and refine job descriptions (what used to take days now takes a few seconds), through scanning and processing resume documents to Shorten times and locate the most suitable candidates for specific jobs.

We also know how to integrate Gen AI into employee feedback processes: from the analysis of structured data, for example dry performance, to the integration of soft information, the technology knows how to recommend the needs of the employee to the organization in a more adapted way.

Looking ahead, the trends or areas to pay attention to mainly relate to organizations having to do a lot more strength training, building muscle in these worlds. A Harvard study shows that about 72% of the human capital in financial organizations will become irrelevant in the coming years, thanks to Gen AI. As the bank’s HR manager, I also integrate Gen AI technologies in this area, for example: already in the recruitment phase, Chat GPT is used to improve and refine job descriptions (what used to take days now takes a few seconds), through scanning and processing resume documents to Shorten times and locate the most suitable candidates for specific jobs.

We also know how to integrate Gen AI into employee feedback processes: from the analysis of structured data, for example dry performance, to the integration of soft information, the technology knows how to recommend the needs of the employee to the organization in a more adapted way.

At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the organization to integrate the tools and technologies and also to encourage the employees to experiment and use them. If you want a real cultural change, it is important to allow employees to experiment with technology, which will empower them and of course the entire organization.”

Naama Perry Cohen, Director of Technologies, Digital and Innovation Division, Government Medical Centers Division

“We have significant experience in the world of creative artificial intelligence and we realized very quickly the tremendous importance of training the models and adapting them to the world of content and concepts of the organization, especially when it comes to the world of medicine, and certainly to allow the medical teams to rely on these tools. In addition, as a body that centers the data of about 25 leading hospitals and medical institutions in Israel, the model we implemented that analyzes the data is adapted to the medical world, and as such can provide a very broad picture for users who are interested in insights and data that come from a wide variety of sources in order to strengthen their credibility.

At this point, the architecture we designed and adapted also fits in, which becomes critical when you want to integrate technologies such as Gen AI. It is important to remember that you should start with small and measured steps, not to run and build “spaceships”, but to start small, for example to verify the quality and integrity of the data, to make sure that it is reliable, and to make sure that there are human security mechanisms – meaning human controls that know how to audit and attack the products of the Gen AI.”

Assaf Ship, CTO Strauss Strategy

We understood that as a company that advises and accompanies large organizations, when it comes to Gen AI we must assimilate the professional culture and understanding within the company, therefore we built an internal task force that will deal with the field in a deep and serious way. We currently have about 100 professional advisors who experiment on their own with a variety of tools and technologies, in addition to the critical experience we learn in every project done in every business field. In “The Spirit of War” we strive to strive for contact, in the sense of adopting a proactive approach with the aim of connecting the business side with the technology in the early stages of each project and joint work.

Most of the time, the organizations are not familiar with the variety of solutions, options and opportunities that are available out there, and that is precisely why we believe that it is important to start by mapping the business needs and then connect the right technological solutions to them.

In addition, it is important to understand that this is an investment, often an expensive one. This fact affects the decision-making process that every organization is required to when considering where to experiment within the technology.

Two examples of the moves we made with clients: the first: a high-tech company that produces a lot of data screens, we helped them integrate Gen AI that produces automation in the process, which saves them a lot of expensive development time, dramatically shortening the times, Figma to React.

Another example related to the world of OCR. Mainly in the financial field but not only, everyone who has experienced it knows the fact that the technology is not 100% accurate, which creates a need for human management and control of the documents that are received. In combination with Gen AI, we improved the quality of the received scans, among other things, by “learning” the world of content and the business context, to allow Gen AI to improve the ability to identify the data.

We will be happy to examine a connection of Strauss Strategy’s professional team to your management or business entity.