Chapter 1: AI – What’s all the fuss about?

Given its wide range of potential applications, the new breed of machine learning techniques and generative AI would appear to have all the characteristics to become a standalone general-purpose technology (GPT). In the next phase of AI innovation, we expect smaller firms to lead the way developing tools that integrate the new technology into workflows via new applications and add-ons to existing software. Generative AI, and large language models (LLMs) in particular, have the potential to revolutionise how cognitive tasks are performed by knowledge workers mostly, but not exclusively, in the services sectors.