Finding Value in AI Assistants

August 29, 2024

Written by Eric Krapf, General Manager and Program Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect Publisher

On No Jitter this week, consultant Kevin Kieller has an in-depth look at Microsoft Copilot, offering a detailed review of the AI assistant’s capabilities, features, and risks. The article builds up to the question that matters most with Copilot or any other AI tool for collaboration: Is it worth the (considerable) cost?

I won’t steal Kevin’s thunder, except to say that his answer is nuanced, as it ought to be. Given Copilot’s $30/user/month cost, few enterprises have appetite (or budget) for a wide-scale rollout until the value is conclusively proven. And that proof remains a work in progress; as Kevin states, “We collectively have much to learn before cost-effectively leveraging AI assistants.”

It’s worth pointing out that there is another pricing model for AI assistants: Zoom and Cisco bundle their AI assistants into their collaboration platforms at no additional charge. This lowers the barrier to entry – but doesn’t eliminate it. You still have to ensure that proper AI governance is in place, manage the tools, and train users on how to employ them responsibly and productively.

As with any new and overhyped technology, AI advocates have a tendency to blur the line between what the innovation could do, and what it can do now. In the case of AI assistants, you can definitely imagine use cases that provide significant value—anything from helping write emails to summarizing meetings to mining your work data to help you be more effective in the meetings you do attend. AI assistants could do all those things. But can they? Can you depend on them to do these tasks accurately, completely, and efficiently?

Compare it to a previous technology generation: Desktop video was always a good idea, and always had potentially valuable use cases, but it was too expensive and not high-enough quality—until, eventually, it wasn’t. Then it saw widespread adoption (with the help of a global pandemic). We’re still assessing AI assistants’ maturity.

For a real-time pulse check on AI assistants, I encourage you to join us at Enterprise Connect AI Oct. 1 – 2 in Santa Clara, CA, where Kevin Kieller will join analyst Brent Kelly of Omdia to present a 90 minute deep-dive session, Gen AI-based Personal Assistants: Straight Talk on Value & Use Cases. Brent and Kevin will compare the leading vendors’ different approaches to AI assistants, and will help you understand where the value truly lies today – and what the prospects look like for the future. Like the rest of the EC AI program, the emphasis is on practical understanding of Generative AI, and realistic exploration of its prospects for the next 6 – 12 months. I hope you can join us in Santa Clara!