Artificial Intelligence Archives | eWEEK https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/ Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis Thu, 19 Oct 2023 07:11:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3 5 Best AI Video Generators 2023 https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/best-ai-video-generators/ Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:02:23 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223203 AI video generators are becoming increasingly popular for creating high-quality videos. Discover the X best AI video generators for 2023.

The post 5 Best AI Video Generators 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Artificial intelligence (AI) video creation and editing tools can now generate the footage and provide the other resources – templates, footage, automation – to create professional videos for varying enterprise and personal initiatives. Often called AI video generators because they use generative AI to help build content, these applications have advanced with remarkable speed.

In this guide, learn about some of the best AI video generator tools on the market today, their pros and cons, pricing, and what you should be looking for if you’re interested in using AI to improve your video workflow.

Table of Contents: Top AI Video Tools

Top AI Video Generators: Comparison Chart

Product Best for Free Trial Available? Starting Price
Synthesia Best for AI Avatars One free demo video generation $22.50 per month, billed annually, or $30 billed monthly
AI Studios Best for Text-to-Speech Quality One free demo video generation $24 per month, billed annually, or $30 billed monthly
InVideo Best for Social Media and Content Marketing Videos Free plan option $0
Lumen5 Best for Ease of Use Free plan option $0
Pictory Best for AI Video Summaries and Highlights Yes $19 per month, billed annually, or $23 billed monthly

Synthesia icon.

Synthesia: Best for AI Avatars

Synthesia is a leading generative AI startup that helps users transform text scripts and instructions into videos. The solution is particularly well-known for its AI avatars: Users can choose between more than 140 AI avatars — or create their own avatars — and generate audio in more than 120 languages.

Additionally, users have the option to customize backgrounds and branding colors, add soundtrack music and other audio elements, and insert markers to create simple animations.

Users often select Synthesia for its ease of use, full slate of features, natural-sounding AI avatars and extensive artificial intelligence avatar library, and collaborative elements.

For example, once a draft of a video is complete, the creator can easily share that internal link with other users and receive feedback directly on the video platform’s feed. From there, they can embed, download, or otherwise move the video to a new location once it’s ready to be shared more widely.

A look at Synthesia's AI avatar and template library.
A look at Synthesia’s AI avatar and template library. Source: Synthesia.

Pricing

The following two subscription plans are available for Synthesia users:

  • Personal: $22.50 per month, billed annually, or $30 billed monthly for one seat and 10 minutes of video per month.
  • Enterprise: Pricing is customized based on the number of seats users need. Prospective buyers should contact Synthesia directly for pricing information.

Users also have the option to create one basic demo video for free or to receive a free personalized demo if they are interested in Synthesia for a larger enterprise.

Key Features

  • More than 140 stock AI avatars and options for custom and branded avatars.
  • AI script assistant and screen recorder.
  • More than 65 stock templates as well as branded video template options and a media library.
  • Auto-generated closed captions.
  • MP4 downloads and video embeds.

Pros

  • Live customer support is available to all users.
  • More than 120 stock languages and voices are available to users, which is more than nearly any other competitor.
  • Customers overwhelmingly consider this an easy-to-use and easy-to-setup tool.

Cons

  • Personal plan users are limited to 10 minutes of video per month and one seat.
  • Personal plan users cannot access branded templates or AI avatars.
  • Some users have had difficulties with speech and audio quality in generated content, especially for less commonly used languages.

Also see: Best AI Writing Tools 

Deepbrain icon.

AI Studios: Best for Text-to-Speech Quality

AI Studios from DeepBrain AI is a competitor of Synthesia for text-to-video and/or audio-to-video content generation. It has been particularly well received for its speech and audio quality, giving users the ability to easily mix audio and adjust tones and accents for AI avatars that better reflect what sounds natural to their audience.

DeepBrain also does a good job of showcasing how the tool can be used for different enterprise use cases, including education, sales, news and media, entertainment, retail and commerce, and financial services.

In financial services in particular, AI Studios and its avatars have been used by major enterprises to create virtual finance analysts for personalized videos and virtual lobby assistants for bank kiosks in South Korea.

An example of the interface where users can insert a text or audio script for AI avatar video generation.
An example of the interface where users can insert a text or audio script for AI avatar video generation. Source: Deepbrain AI.

Pricing

AI Studios is available in three subscription options:

  • Starter: Between $24 and $144 per month, billed annually, or $30 and $180 billed monthly. Pricing adjusts based on the number of video minutes subscribers select per month. Users can choose either 10, 20, 40, or 60 minutes of video per month.
  • Pro: Between $180 and $480 per month, billed annually, or $225 and $600 billed monthly. Pricing adjusts based on the number of video minutes subscribers select per month. Users can choose either 90, 120, 180, or 240 minutes of video per month.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing. The plan includes up to 50 scenes per video, custom AI avatars, and 24/7 priority customer support.

Key Features

  • More than 100 AI avatars in more than 55 languages.
  • More than 500 prebuilt video templates for marketing, social media, and other business needs.
  • Drag-and-drop video editor with closed captioning.
  • Compatible with text and audio scripts.
  • API access for Pro and Enterprise users.

Pros

  • Strong audio editing features for volume, pitch, pronunciation, and audio mixing needs.
  • Text-to-video content generation can be completed in five minutes or less for most videos.
  • Pricing is incredibly modular and allows users to select how many minutes of video they want to pay for each month.

Cons

  • Import maximums, especially for PowerPoint, can be limiting; in general, presentation tools are somewhat lacking.
  • Extra video minutes do not roll over at the end of each month.
  • Compared to some of its competitors, AI Studios is not as easy to set up and use from the outset.

Also see: AI Detector Tools

InVideo icon.

InVideo: Best for Social Media and Content Marketing Videos

InVideo is a video-making platform with AI features that support everything from script generation and avatar generation to slideshow design and YouTube video editing. Its template library is one of the most extensive in the market, covering topics and format types for advertising, slideshows, memes, YouTube, Instagram, music videos, breaking news, and logo videos.

With InVideo AI, users can make content that is tailored to specific platforms, such as YouTube, or to specific looks and feels that match a brand’s identity or goal for the video. Additionally, users can input a target audience when generating a video, ensuring the AI picks design elements and other features that fit that buyer persona’s expectations.

InVideo can be used to make custom videos for different platforms, including Instagram.
InVideo can be used to make custom videos for different platforms, including Instagram. Source: InVideo.

Pricing

InVideo is available in three subscription plans:

  • Free: $0 per month for unlimited team members and some limited features.
  • Business: $15 per month, billed annually, or $30 billed monthly.
  • Unlimited: $30 per month, billed annually, or $60 billed monthly.

Key Features

  • More than 5,000 project templates; additional premium templates for Business and Unlimited plan users.
  • AI script generation.
  • Team sharing and shareable links.
  • Customizable intros and outros.
  • Event and social-media-calendar-driven project templates.

Pros

  • All users are given access to branding tools for brand presets, intros, and outros.
  • Even InVideo’s free plan supports unlimited team members and users, making it a great tool for affordable collaboration.
  • The Social Media Calendar feature is a unique way to make videos based on the most popular social media holidays; in general, this platform offers a range of useful features for social media content creation.

Cons

  • Free plan users are not able to export any of their video projects or access the mobile app.
  • Some users have commented on difficulties when working with customer support.
  • While the template library is extensive, it lacks useful search and save functionalities, making it harder for users to find and save the templates they want to use most.

Also see: Best Artificial Intelligence Software

Lumen5 icon.

Lumen5: Best for Ease of Use

Lumen5 is an AI video generation tool that is most commonly used for text-to-video content generation from long-form blogs and news articles. Companies with limited digital marketing prowess frequently select this tool because it is easy to use, offering users a drag-and-drop editing tool, maker templates and tools, and the ability to automatically generate videos from blogs and RSS feeds.

While the platform may not be the best for a larger creative team that wants to make videos collaboratively, it is a strong contender for individuals and solopreneurs who are managing content for multiple brands.

Users have the option to upload multiple brand kits with certain plans; create multiple workspaces; and upload custom colors, fonts, and watermarks. The free Community plan is also a generous option, giving individuals the bandwidth to create up to five videos per month at no cost.

This is the drag-and-drop interface Lumen5 users to help users easily edit their media, music, and more.
This is the drag-and-drop interface Lumen5 users to help users easily edit their media, music, and more. Source: Lumen5.

Pricing

Lumen5 is available in five plan options:

  • Community: $0 for up to five videos per month.
  • Basic: $19 per month, billed annually, or $29 billed monthly.
  • Starter: $59 per month, billed annually, or $79 billed monthly.
  • Professional: $149 per month, billed annually, or $199 billed monthly.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing.

Key Features

  • Smart Summarization feature for blog-to-video content transformations.
  • Automatic language detection and matching.
  • Built-in photo, video, audio, and AI voiceover media library.
  • Automated video generation from RSS feeds.
  • Custom branding and brand kits.

Pros

  • Although it has limitations, the free Community plan still gives users the opportunity to work on up to five videos per month, which is much more than most free plan and trial options. All paid plans allow users to create unlimited videos per month.
  • Lumen5 is generally considered an easy-to-use tool; its video tools and maker tools walk users through the steps for varying drag-and-drop video editing tasks.
  • While many similar platforms only support one brand per account, the Professional and Enterprise plans for Lumen5 allow users to work with up to three brand kits.

Cons

  • Template options are somewhat limited for Lumen5 users; users also cannot access AI avatars or most speech synthesis tools.
  • Only the expensive Lumen5 Enterprise plan supports more than one user per account.
  • The Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans are fairly expensive compared to similar packages from competitors.

Also see: The Benefits of Generative AI 

Pictory icon.

Pictory: Best for AI Video Summaries and Highlights

Pictory is another AI video generation platform that is best suited for content marketing and social media video projects. It is a particularly effective solution for creating micro-content, or shorter clips and highlight reels from existing long-form content.

The platform is designed to automatically generate these shorter snippets, making it possible for users to get more content, engagement, and reach from a single project.

While the platform is most frequently used by digital creators and marketers, it can also be used by e-learning teams, coaches, and other users who need an accessible video format. Its auto-generated summaries are especially helpful to teams that want to offer more digestible ways to consume video content.

Pictory's AI tools enable users to generate AI summaries and easily transcribe video content without filler words.
Pictory’s AI tools enable users to generate AI summaries and easily transcribe video content without filler words. Source: Pictory.

Pricing

Pictory is available in three subscription plan options:

  • Standard: $19 per month, billed annually, or $23 billed monthly.
  • Premium: $39 per month, billed annually, or $47 billed monthly.
  • Teams: $99 per month, billed annually, or $119 billed monthly.

The platform can also be tested through a free trial option, which gives users the opportunity to create up to three video projects, each up to 10 minutes long.

Key Features

  • AI summaries and transcriptions; users can also remove filler words from scripts and spoken audio.
  • AI voice narration and voiceovers with support from ElevenLabs.
  • Highlight reel and short clip creation.
  • Academy for video marketing masterclasses and other learning resources.
  • Hootsuite integration for social media projects.

Pros

  • Users can easily transform a blog post or other long-form written content into video content that removes filler words and any text that doesn’t make sense in the new format.
  • In addition to highlight reels and video summaries, videos can be auto-captioned and auto-transcribed, making this a great tool for greater accessibility.
  • The vendor offers video marketing masterclasses, case studies, a blog, and a creator community to give users the resources they need to make more engaging video projects.

Cons

  • Pictory does not offer AI avatars to its users.
  • No account option allows more than three users per account, which can be incredibly limiting for video team requirements.
  • Compared to many other competitors, Pictory is fairly expensive.

Also read: Generative AI for Business: Top 7 Productivity Boosts

Key Features of AI Video Generation Tools

Text-to-Video Content Generation

Many users do not have coding experience and/or the time to learn the finer details of video software.

That’s why many AI video generation tools include text-to-video content generation capabilities, allowing users to easily turn their scripts or other written text into video content that may include human-looking AI avatars, AI voices, and other elements that create a professional-looking and sounding video.

Video Templates

A number of AI tools now give users a baseline video template from which to build their video content. These templates may focus on specific industry use cases, a certain social media or digital platform, or a video format with animation or transitional elements.

Users can often customize these templates and add their own branding, but the video template gives them the creative ideas and basic design to get started.

AI Avatars

Many businesses do not have the budgets to pay actors or employees to act as talking heads for brand videos, but they nonetheless want the personal touch of an onscreen personality. AI avatars can be developed to match different appearances, genders, and other expectations, with personalities, tones, accents, and other unique features added to synthetic voices.

The best AI avatar solutions create natural-looking avatars and give users the ability to custom-create their own avatars. These avatars can be used for personalized sales and marketing videos, e-learning and training videos, and other forms of media that benefit from a friendly face.

Speech and Audio Synthesis

With an AI video tool, AI speech and audio synthesis make it so any number of videos can be made without a human actor or voice. These platforms take text or rough spoken recordings and transform them into video-ready voices that are synthetically generated.

These voices should be available in a variety of languages and, in most cases, users are able to adjust the tone, pitch, accent, and other elements of speech to make the voice sound more believable.

Low-Code/No-Code Usability and Video Editing

Regardless of how much work AI features can do to put together the final product, users typically want some hands-on control over the video creation process.

To make this as simple as possible, most AI video generation tools provide a low-code/no-code user interface, giving customers the ability to move around slides, audio and visual elements, and other pieces of their video with a drag-and-drop editing tool.

On a related topic: What is Generative AI?

How We Evaluated the Best AI Video Generation Tools

Ease of Use – 30%

Most people using an AI video generation tool have little to no experience with traditional video software and its complex features. AI should handle the most difficult aspects of video generation, especially for users looking to create a range of videos at scale; this is why we’ve decided to give “ease of use” a larger weight in our evaluation.

Customer reviews that comment on ease of use, strong customer support, low-code/no-code interfaces, and strong collaboration features all contribute to the ease of use score for each of these tools.

Enterprise Use Case(s) – 30%

The best AI video generation tools give users the extensive capabilities and features necessary to create enterprise-ready marketing, sales, training, and customer service videos.

Although many other AI video generation tools exist for casual mobile users and use cases, we mostly steered away from those tools in favor of platforms that offer enterprise features such as video embeds and exports, useful integrations, business templates, advanced AI avatars and audio synthesis, and other features that support an enterprise video-making workflow.

Video and Audio Quality – 20%

To do enterprise-level projects and create humanoid voices and avatars, it’s important to invest in AI video generators that emphasize high video and audio quality.

While compiling our list, we searched for tools that supported high-resolution video uploads and downloads and audio mixing and synchronization capabilities. We also looked for tools that received favorable customer reviews for AI avatar and sound quality performance and that include basic transition, animation, and intro and outro functionalities.

Cost – 20%

When considering the cost of video generation tools, we looked for both affordability and a range of subscription options. In terms of affordability, we sought out tools that offered free versions and/or useful demos and trial periods.

However, we paid even closer attention to tools that offered a range of subscription options, from free or low-cost to enterprise-level subscriptions and features. We focused heavily on tools that came at a variety of price points, identifying solutions that both small businesses and enterprises could use, as well as tools that smaller businesses could stick with even as their needs scale up.

Also see: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders

Bottom Line: Top AI Video Generators and Tools

AI video generators simplify a digital marketing and communication practice that has long been considered the realm of expert creatives: video editing and creation.

With the help of an AI video tool, users can now take on many of the most complicated video tasks, ranging from editing footage and audio to creating shorter clips and summaries from long-form content.

Especially with so many affordable AI video generators on the market today, marketing and sales professionals in particular should incorporate this type of software into their digital toolset for accessible video creation and better customer engagement results.

Read next: Top 9 Generative AI Applications and Tools

The post 5 Best AI Video Generators 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Cognizant CTO Babak Hodjat on AI and Contextualizing Data https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/cognizant-ai-and-contextualizing-data/ Wed, 18 Oct 2023 22:56:45 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223200 Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI for Cognizant, detailed how companies can use artificial intelligence to align business goals and data analytics for competitive advantage. Plus: a look ahead to the future of AI. Among the topics we discussed: Before we dive too deep, let’s define the concept. What does it mean to use artificial intelligence […]

The post Cognizant CTO Babak Hodjat on AI and Contextualizing Data appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI for Cognizant, detailed how companies can use artificial intelligence to align business goals and data analytics for competitive advantage. Plus: a look ahead to the future of AI.

Among the topics we discussed:

  • Before we dive too deep, let’s define the concept. What does it mean to use artificial intelligence to “contextualize data effectively while aligning with specific business objectives.”
  • What are the challenges to this process?
  • In essence, what is the guide to achieving this alignment?
  • How is Cognizant addressing the AI and data needs of its clients?
  • The future of AI in enterprise settings? What are some key milestones we can expect in the years ahead?

Listen to the podcast:

Also available on Apple Podcasts

Watch the video:

The post Cognizant CTO Babak Hodjat on AI and Contextualizing Data appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Generative AI in the Contact Center: Uses, Benefits, Best Practices https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-contact-center/ Thu, 12 Oct 2023 21:32:09 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223172 Generative AI is transforming the contact center. Learn more about how this new technology is making a huge impact on customer service.

The post Generative AI in the Contact Center: Uses, Benefits, Best Practices appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Generative AI, an emerging form of artificial intelligence, has become a key factor in the contact center. Generative AI supports voice and audio, content, and advanced analytics generation capabilities to a business model that benefits greatly from real-time data and intelligent assistance.

Read on to learn how generative AI is being used in contact centers now and how it can benefit contact centers that adopt the technology with security, ethics, and other best practices in mind.

Table of Contents: Contact Centers and Generative AI

How Is Generative AI Being Used in Contact Centers Today?

Voice Generation for Customer Service and Client Calls

Though most people think of generative AI in the context of text or image generation, the technology has also come a long way in the areas of audio generation and voice synthesis.

With the right tools, contact centers can use artificial voices that are trained to sound human-like and take calls, answering complex questions and/or triaging calls to more experienced reps just as a human would. For contact centers where video calls are more common, artificial intelligence avatars can also be generated that both look and sound like a human employee.

Off-hours Customer Service Support

AI agents are particularly effective for international businesses, healthcare organizations, and contact centers that have trouble staffing their centers after regular business hours.

AI chatbots and agents can be on the clock 24/7 and never experience the fatigue or frustration that a human employee might feel if they worked these extended hours. As generative AI capabilities for these AI assistants and service reps continue to advance, they are becoming increasingly capable of handling complex tasks and customer requests without human intervention.

Also see: Top Generative AI Apps and Tools

Service Representative Coaching and Live Assistance

Coaching dashboard from Observe.ai.
This coaching dashboard from Observe.ai helps contact center managers track performance across agents and identify how recently they’ve received coaching support. Source: Observe.ai.

Generative AI contact center tools are frequently used to monitor human rep calls and give them feedback on how their tone is coming across, how customers are receiving that information, and other factors that may positively or negatively impact call outcomes.

Additionally, these tools are designed with administrators’ and managers’ needs in mind: although artificial intelligence can now handle most coaching tasks on their own, they also transparently share information about:

  • Contact center rep evaluations.
  • Previous coaching sessions.
  • The number of evaluations each employee has received.
  • Other data in a digestible dashboard format so managers can intervene and provide further coaching or disciplinary action if necessary.

Call Recording and Summarization

Generative artificial intelligence platforms go beyond simply recording contact center calls and use their algorithmic training to help contact centers extract deeper intelligence and insights from call transcripts.

For example, if a customer service rep has a 30-minute call with a customer that touches on several issues and shifts tone throughout the conversation. In this case, certain generative AI solutions can quickly summarize this conversation in key bullet points, assess buyer sentiment at different points in the conversation, and make recommendations for how or if a rep from the contact center should follow up with this individual.

In many cases, these tools are also able to supplement information from the current conversation with past conversations, buying or patient history, and other data that informs employees about who this individual is and what they expect from the brand.

Omnichannel Content and Communication Enrichment

The modern contact center rarely sticks to traditional phone calls, often giving users the option to communicate with their reps via email, chatbot threads, and social media messages. When contact centers opt to use generative AI-driven chatbots and analytics tools, they can more easily embed intelligent assistance into all of the channels where customers choose to interact with them.

Because of this omnichannel approach enabled by modern AI, chatbots and AI assistants are frequently able to use their natural language skills and advanced search capabilities to extend useful learning resources and knowledge base materials to customers, helping to avoid the need for further contact center or customer service escalation.

Also see: Best Artificial Intelligence Software

Sentiment Analysis and Real-time Analytics

Gridspace dashboard sample.
Many generative AI contact center solutions give employee users an easy-to-read dashboard, like this one from Gridspace, that helps employees quickly identify which calls and customers require a more personal or trained touch. Source: Gridspace.

Live call monitoring used for real-time analytics across a variety of demographic and customer data points. Can determine how customers are feeling and make recommendations for how to interact with individuals and customers as a whole better in the future.

Automated Follow Ups and Touchpoints

Contact centers have traditionally required reps to manually handle repetitive tasks, like accepting customer calls and messages, recording and reviewing transcripts, and following up with customers at regular intervals.

With the help of generative AI tools, many of these tasks, including reminders for these tasks, can be automated so employees are able to focus on more complex customer experience tasks. In the meantime, AI tools set up calls, emails, and other types of follow ups to ensure customers feel taken care of and are reached at key points in the customer lifecycle.

Also see: 100+ Top AI Companies

Benefits Generative AI in the Contact Center

Generative AI in the contact center helps businesses to better organize, automate, and respond to customer service needs. Some of the most important benefits that come from using generative AI in contact center settings include the following:

  • Fill in the Gaps for Employee Shortages: Artificial intelligence can take on open roles for certain contact center tasks, like answering phones and preparing and analyzing call transcripts; generative AI agents are especially useful for 24/7 phone coverage and international availability.
  • Real-Time Detailed Data Insights: Live coaching and performance tweaking opportunities are made more feasible with the help of generative AI data analytics. Both predictive and prescriptive analytics, with AI-driven recommendations, can be used to improve future call cadences and behaviors.
  • Employee Training and Guidance: Employees can be trained during their calls to make better decisions and improve their conversational skills immediately with the help of AI coaches. Taking this approach doesn’t require human managers to listen to recordings and give feedback at a later time, when that feedback may be more difficult to apply.
  • Learn and Improve After Each Customer Interaction: Generative AI tools themselves are trained to take customer queries and other data inputs and give customers the best possible answer. Beyond simply answering customer questions, these generative AI agents are trained to use this conversational data to improve how they interact with customers in the future.

Generative AI in the Contact Center: Best Practices

Using generative AI in the contact center can improve workflows for employees and outcomes for callers. But because of the nature of these tools and how they are trained, there are many AI-related cybersecurity and ethical considerations about AI that should be weighed when implementing contact center AI tools.

To ensure your team follows best practices that consider the wants and needs of the client, follow these tips:

  • Adhere to Relevant Data Privacy and Usage Laws: This is especially important if you’re working in a highly regulated industry’s contact center, like a healthcare facility. For a better customer experience and to prevent legal action, go beyond the basics of data compliance and privacy laws and follow AI privacy best practices that put the customer first.
  • Integrate and Embed Generative AI into Existing Tool Stacks: Contact centers should run like well-oiled machines, so it’s a good idea to invest in contact center tools that natively include generative AI capabilities or that integrate smoothly with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and GPT-4.
  • Use Proven and Purpose-Built Contact Center Tools: Look for leading solutions from proven AI leaders and well-funded, innovative AI startups. Examples of leading generative AI contact center and e-commerce solutions include the following: Gridspace, Salesforce Einstein, Microsoft Copilot, Cresta, and Observe.ai.
  • Monitor Customer Feedback Pre- and Post-AI Implementation: Generative AI agents, chatbots, and coaches may slip up occasionally, especially as they are learning how your customer base works. To catch their mistakes and train them for better outcomes in the future, continue to monitor their performance and how customers feel about AI-powered interactions.

Bottom Line: Contact Centers Supported by Generative AI Technology

Regardless of what tools you choose to use in your contact center, customers should not feel like they’ve been “left to the robots.”

For more complex call center scenarios or high value customers who are dissatisfied, humans should always be available to give them the personal touch they require. It’s also a good idea to ensure that human employees are continually vetting and updating pretrained AI responses to fit the times, buyer and/or patient trends, and other changing customer expectations.

Ultimately, generative AI offers exciting new opportunities for customer engagement and automation for contact centers, but this technology must be used responsibly and thoughtfully. It’s most important that customers and employees feel that the contact center is being supported by AI rather than taken over by AI.

Read next: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders

The post Generative AI in the Contact Center: Uses, Benefits, Best Practices appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
9 Best Synthetic Data Software 2023 https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/best-synthetic-data-software/ Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:15:07 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223177 Synthetic data software helps organizations create realistic data sets for testing and training purposes. Discover the X best synthetic data software for 2023.

The post 9 Best Synthetic Data Software 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
The term synthetic data refers to artificially generated data that imitates actual or real data. As the definition suggests, synthetic data is often used in artificial intelligence applications.

Why is synthetic data important? Approximately 328.77 million terabytes of data are created each day. There are limits to what and how you can use this vast amount of data without breaking compliance laws or compromising privacy.

By using synthetic data, organizations can overcome the challenges of data access, data sharing, and data privacy and can still perform critical tasks that depend on real-world data. Moreover, synthetic data helps organizations overcome data scarcity issues, especially when there is a limited amount of actual data available for analysis or AI model training.

Read on to learn more about the best synthetic data software, including their pricing, features, pros and cons, integration and more.

Jump to:

Top Synthetic Data Software: Comparison Chart

Best for Data Customization Data masking Starting price
MOSTLY AI Synthetic Data Platform Ease of use Limited Yes $3 per credit
Syntho Small and medium businesses Extensive Yes Custom quotes
GenRocket Test data management (testers) Extensive Yes $55,000 per year
Tonic.ai Developers Limited Yes Custom quotes
Hazy Financial services Limited Yes Custom quotes
K2View ML training Extensive Yes Custom quotes
Datomize Data analyst and machine learning engineer Extensive Yes $720 per month, billed annually or $800 per month, billed monthly
Sogeti Testing and development use cases Extensive Yes Custom quotes
CA Test Data Manager Complex data generation Extensive Yes Custom quotes

Top 9 Synthetic Data Software

Mostly.ai icon.

MOSTLY AI Synthetic Data Platform: Best for ease of use

Overall rating: 4.55

  • Cost: 5
  • Feature Set: 5
  • Ease of Use: 5
  • Tools: 5
  • Support: 2

We included MOSTLY AI for its versatility and comprehensive features. This versatility allowed us to generate realistic and diverse datasets for a variety of use cases.

The MOSTLY AI synthetic data platform allows enterprises across industries to generate high-quality, privacy-preserving synthetic data. Those in the banking, telecommunication, healthcare and insurance can use MOSTLY AI to generate synthetic data for various use cases such as data anonymization, artificial intelligence and machine learning development, testing and product development, and cross-border and enterprise data sharing.

To learn about the tool, I created a free account, which took me less than two minutes to sign up. After signing up, I didn’t have data to upload so I selected one of the three sample data available (Bank Marketing) and proceeded to generate synthetic data based on that sample.

MOSTLY AI synthetic data QA report view.
MOSTLY AI synthetic data QA report view.

Pricing

  • Free forever plan: Allows you to generate up to 100K rows per day.
  • Team: $3 per credit.
  • Enterprise: $5 per credit.

The actual price you will pay per month depends on the number of data subjects (rows), data points per subject (columns) and creators (users). For instance, a “team plan” user with 1 creator, 100 data points per subject, and 100,000 data subjects will pay $1,860 per month or $22,320 per year, while an “enterprise plan” user with the 1same feature will pay $3,100 per month or $37,200 per year.

Key features

  • Time-series support.
  • Support for different data types – MOSTLY AI works with various structured data: numerical, categorical, and date-time variables.
  • Data rebalancing for data exploration.
  • Deployment via Kubernetes or OpenShift.

Pros

  • Users say the free plan is feature-rich.
  • The platform is easy to learn and use.

Cons

  • Dedicated support is limited to enterprise plan users.
  • Users says the UI elements can be improved.

MOSTLY AI integrations

You can connect MOSTLY AI with various third-party tools, including:

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
  • PostgreSQL
  • SQL Server
  • Snowflake
  • Databricks
  • Maria DB

Also see: Best Artificial Intelligence Software

Syntho icon.

Syntho: Best for small and medium businesses

Overall rating: 3.28

  • Cost: 0
  • Feature Set: 5
  • Ease of Use: 4.5
  • Tools: 5
  • Support: 1

Our research found that Syntho’s synthetic data can be used for data analysis as though it is real data, and the outcomes will be nearly identical to analysis results on the original data.

Syntho is an Amsterdam based startup founded in 2020 that AI-Generated Synthetic data for public organizations, healthcare and finance industries. This synthetic data can be used by organizations for training machine learning models, testing applications, and conducting data analysis without compromising privacy or security.

You can deploy Syntho on-premise, any (private) cloud and Syntho cloud. You can also run the Syntho Engine as a Docker container or python package in your secure IT environment. To do this there are some minimum hardware and software requirements that you must meet.

PII discovery and generation.
PII discovery and generation.

Minimum hardware requirements

  • 32 GB of RAM
  • 8 virtual CPUs
  • ‘Sufficient’ storage for the data

Minimum software requirements

  • Docker Compose Deployment
    • Docker: 1.13.0+
    • Docker-compose: V3 and higher
  • Kubernetes Deployment (alternative)
    • Kubernetes: 1.20 and higher
    • helm: v3 and higher

Pricing

Syntho offers three pricing plans: Basic, standard and ultimate. However, the vendor requires interested buyers to contact them for quotes. Pricing depends on the size of your database and your preferred plan.

Key features

  • Support time series data and longitudinal data.
  • On-premise and private cloud integration.
  • PII discovery and generation.
  • Auto-scaling via Ray & Kubernetes.

Pros

  • Advanced subsetting capability.
  • Its self-service capability and easy-to-use interface make it accessible to users of all skill levels.
  • Role-based access control (RBAC).

Cons

  • Lacks free plan and pricing transparency.
  • Some users reported that it does not infer the relationship between databases.

Syntho integrations

Syntho integrates with various databases and filesystems.

  • Postgre SQL
  • MySQL
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Oracle
  • Databricks
  • Amazon S3
  • Sybase
  • MariaDB
  • Hive
  • IBM DB2

GenRocket icon.

GenRocket: Best for test data management (testers)

Overall rating: 2.43

  • Cost: 0.65
  • Feature Set: 3.75
  • Ease of Use: 1.5
  • Tools: 2
  • Support: 2

We selected GenRocket because it allows developers and testers to generate data sets with specific characteristics, formats, and structures required for testing different scenarios. This accelerates the testing process and improves the overall quality of software applications.

GenRocket is a software company that specializes in test data generation. It provides a platform that allows users to create and manage realistic and customizable test data for software testing and development purposes. The generated data can be used for various types of testing, including functional, performance, and security testing. GenRocket also offers additional features, such as data masking and subsetting, to ensure data privacy and compliance.

GenRocket has a four-step methodology that enables testers to work independently to provision their own data on demand.

GenRocket project dashboard.
GenRocket project dashboard.
  • Model – the data to be generated during testing.
  • Design – the variety and volume of data for testing.
  • Deploy – test data cases into a test environment.
  • Manage – test data projects in a shared repository.

Pricing

GenRocket offer three pricing plans.

  • Growth: $55,000 per year. Includes 20 test data projects.
  • Business: Quotes available on request. Includes 40 test data projects.
  • Advanced: Quotes available on request. Includes 80 test data projects.

Key features

  • Offers a library of 730+ data generators.
  • Has a library of 101+ data formats.
  • Data subsetting and masking.
  • Support various test use cases, including realistic data, negative data, data for complex workflows, machine learning data and X12 EDI transaction data.

Pros

  • Self-service test data portal.
  • Can be integrated into your CI/CD release pipeline.
  • User applauds GenRocket technical support.

Cons

  • Add-on cost extra fee.
  • Steep learning curve.

GenRocket integrations

Some of the top tools GenRocket integrates with include:

  • Jenkins
  • Azure DevOps
  • Selenium
  • UiPath
  • Katalon
  • Tosca

Also see: 100+ Top AI Companies

Tonic.ai icon.

Tonic.ai: Best for developers

Overall rating: 3.93

  • Cost: 1
  • Feature Set: 5
  • Ease of Use: 4.5
  • Tools: 5
  • Support: 4

We selected Tonic.ai for its advanced capabilities in generating privacy-conscious synthetic data. Although it requires you to invest time to learn and implement the platform, we found Tonic.ai’s ability to preserve relationships, consistency and complex structures in the data is particularly valuable.

Tonic.ai’s synthetic data platform equips developers with the tools they need to generate “fake data” that closely resemble real data. The platform allows developers to create realistic test data based on your organization’s data, preserving critical relationships and maintaining input-to-output consistency across tables and databases. Tonic.ai is suited for developers and data scientists in finance, ed-tech, insurance, retail and healthcare.

Tonic.ai subsetting dashboard view.
Tonic.ai subsetting dashboard view.

Pricing

Tonic is available in two editions: Tonic cloud and enterprise. To get quotes for these plans, you must contact an in-house expert for custom quote. Tonic offers a 2-week free trial which allows you to try the tool before making a purchase decision.

Key features

  • It supports several flat files including .txt, JSON, CSV and XML.
  • Schema change alerts capability helps to prevent sensitive data leakage.
  • Connects with several CI/CD applications.
  • De-identification and AI synthesis capabilities.

Pros

  • Ranks high for ease of use and feature set.
  • Offers quality customer support.
  • Offers subsetting functionality.

Cons

  • Some users reported that the tool is somewhat expensive.
  • Steep learning curve.

Tonic.ai integrations

This platform integrates with several third-party services including

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL/MariaDB
  • SQL Server
  • MongoDB
  • Vertica
  • DocumentDB
  • Oracle
  • Snowflake
  • Redshift
  • BigQuery
  • Databricks
  • Amazon EMR w/ Glue
  • Spark

Hazy icon.

Hazy: Best for financial services

Overall rating: 3.18

  • Cost: 0
  • Feature Set: 5
  • Ease of Use: 4.5
  • Tools: 2.5
  • Support: 2

Hazy enables businesses to create realistic but entirely fictional datasets that mimic the statistical properties of accurate data without exposing actual customer information. Hazy is used in the financial services industry for fraud modeling, asset management and customer engagement, financial crime, credit risk,  AML, and operational risk.

Hazy’s synthetic data engine is built to handle complex data from large enterprise. Hazy can connect with complex network and security setups, working alongside your original data to provide the highest level of protection, whether it’s stored on your premises or in your private cloud. With Hazy, complex data can be generated for financial service applications and securely stored within the company’s silos.

Sample project compliance view in Hazy.
Sample project compliance view

Pricing

The company doesn’t advertise its rate on its website but encourages interested buyers to get in touch with an in-house expert by completing a short form on their website.

Key features

  • Advanced memory optimization and subsetting techniques lower energy usage.
  • Deploy on-premises or in the cloud.
  • It can create diverse datasets that encompass various scenarios, enabling thorough testing and analysis.

Pros

  • Support complex data needs.
  • Users applaud Hazy’s built-in privacy tools.

Cons

  • May not be suitable for small companies.
  • Lacks transparent pricing.

Hazy integrations

Top Hazy integrations:

  • Snowflake
  • AWS
  • Azure

On a related topic: What is Generative AI?

K2View icon.

K2View: Best for ML training

Overall rating: 3.60

  • Cost: 3.25
  • Feature Set: 5
  • Ease of Use: 2
  • Tools: 5
  • Support: 1

K2View offers four synthetic data generation methods, making it easy for teams to generate and integrate synthetic data into CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) and ML (Machine Learning) pipelines.

K2View synthetic data generation tool combines four data generation methods: Generative AI, rules engine, entity cloning, and data masking.

  • Generative AI: The Generative AI model involves subsetting the required source data to train generative AI models. This data is then masked to ensure privacy and protection. The masked training data is used to train the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) model, which enables synthetic data generation.
  • Rule engine: Rule-based data generation allows you to generate data creation functions based on data classification, and then you can proceed to customize, test, and debug the functions code-free. The rules engine data generation allows users to assign business parameters for the functions and generate data on demand or via API.
  • Entity cloning and data masking: Entity cloning allows you to extract, mask, and clone a single business entity and all its data and then create unique identifiers for each cloned entity. The data masking data generation method auto-discovers sensitive and personally identifiable information (PII) and then applies prebuilt, customizable data masking functions. K2View allows you to mask data inflight, as it’s extracted from the sources.
K2View new task creation view.
K2View new task creation view.

Pricing

K2View pricing is available on demand.

Key features

  • Connectors to structured and unstructured data sources.
  • Low code/no-code platform.
  • Version and roll back datasets on demand.

Pros

  • Preserves data relationships.
  • Data masking capabilities.
  • Enhance data privacy and compliance.

Cons

  • Steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Users say it’s expensive.

K2View integration

You can connect K2View with the following tools:

  • IBM DB2
  • Salesforce
  • Oracle
  • Couchbase

Datomize icon.

Datomize: Best for data analysts and machine learning engineers

Overall rating: 3.96

  • Cost: 4.4
  • Feature Set: 3.4
  • Ease of Use: 4.5
  • Tools: 5
  • Support: 3

Our research found that Datomize excels in analytical data sets with its AI-powered data generation capabilities. By leveraging behavior extracted from current data, Datomize allows data analysts and machine learning experts to generate precise and relevant analytical data sets.

The Datomize AI-powered data generation platform allows data analysts and machine learning experts to get the most out of their analytical data sets. It enables you to generate the exact analytical data sets required using the behavior extracted from current data, and creates synthetic data that is similar in properties to the original data but without containing any sensitive or personal information.

Datomize score analysis dashboard.
Datomize score analysis dashboard.

Pricing

  • Community: Free forever plan with 40 credits per month and up to 20MB input size.
  • Starter: $720 per month, billed annually or $800 per month billed monthly. It includes 160 credits per month plus up to 500MB input size.
  • Enterprise: Quote available upon request. Unlimited usage and input size.

Key features

  • Advanced augmentation capabilities.
  • Datomize’s rules-based engine enables users to generate the exact analytical data set needed for any desired scenario.
  • Support time-series data.

Pros

  • Offers a free forever plan.
  • Predict outcomes for any scenario.

Cons

  • Limited resources about the product.
  • Lacks live chat support.

Datomize integrations

  • Python SDKs
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • Oracle

Capgemini icon.

Sogeti Artificial Data Amplifier (ADA): Best for testing and development use cases

Overall rating: 2.55

  • Cost: 0
  • Feature Set: 5
  • Ease of Use: 1
  • Tools: 5
  • Support: 2

Sogeti received high marks for its feature set, which includes the maturity of the product, its ability to serve large enterprises and output fine tune capability. Sogeti also scored 5 out of 5 for “Tools” due to its quality of generated data and scalability.

Part of the Capgemini Group, Sogeti is a Managed Service Provider (MSP) with operational presence in over 100 locations globally. Sogeti ADA generates realistic, usable data based on real data sets. it leverages advanced deep learning based on a combination of artificial neural networks to analyze existing data and create similar but new data points. It can generate large volumes of data, helping organizations tackle the data scarcity challenge.

Pricing

Quotes are available upon request.

Key features

  • Realistic and diverse data generation.
  • Support for different data types.
  • Bias and overfitting reduction.

Pros

  • Sogeti’s generated data preserves all the characteristics, correlations and properties of the original data.
  • It can be customized to suit your specific needs and use cases.

Cons

  • Lacks transparent pricing.
  • Usability requires training and expertise.

Sogeti Integrations

Sogeti top integrations include:

  • SAP S/4HANA
  • Azure
  • AWS

Also see: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders

Broadcom icon.

CA Test Data Manager: Best for complex data generation

Overall rating: 2.78

  • Cost: 0
  • Feature Set: 3.25
  • Ease of Use: 4
  • Tools: 5
  • Support: 2

Significantly CA Test Data Manager focuses on protecting sensitive information – it offers features such as data masking, which helps to protect sensitive and personal information in test environments by replacing real data with realistic but fake data.

Developed by CA Technologies, CA Test Data Manager is a tool allows you to create, generate, mask, and refresh test data for application testing. CA Test Data Manager automates the process of creating test data by integrating with various data sources and providing data management features like data subsetting, data masking, and synthetic data generation. CA Test Data Manager supports 32-bit and 64-bit physical and virtual Windows machines.

The Main Navigation Screen for Virtual Test Data Manager.
The Main Navigation Screen for Virtual Test Data Manager.

Pricing

Quote available upon request.

Key features

  • It has a discovery and profiling feature that allows you to identify personally identifiable information (PII) across multiple data sources.
  • It allows you to create future scenarios and unexpected results to test boundary conditions.
  • CA’s virtual test data manager capability enables you to generate multiple copies of test data in seconds through cloning.

Pros

  • Self-service test data provisioning.
  • Integration with governance and risk management.
  • Data masking.

Cons

  • Limited support.
  • Limited resource and product information.

CA Test Data Manager integrations

  • Oracle RAC 11g
  • Oracle RAC 12c
  • IBM DB2 11 for z/OS
  • IBM DB2 UDB 11.1
  • CA IDMS 19.0
  • MySQL 5.6

How to choose the best synthetic data software for your business

When shopping for the best synthetic data software, your organization’s unique needs for synthetic data should be your topmost priority – are you most concerned with compliance, with speed? You need to identify the types of data you need to generate and determine the pain point such data will solve for your business.

After identifying your data needs, it’s time to conduct extensive research – look for solutions that align with your requirements and provide the necessary functionalities. Our evaluation has lessened the research burden for you; there’s quite likely a choice that fits your needs in the list above. Next up is to evaluate the tool’s data generation techniques, customizable capabilities and scalability. And be sure to take the software for a test drive – make sure it actually works for your needs.

How we evaluated the best synthetic data software

We weighed the best synthetic data tools across five categories –each category has sub-categories that helped us evaluate and compare the AI writing tools.

Cost – 20%

We examined the different pricing plans offered by each synthetic data software. This included evaluating the cost of the tool on a monthly or annual basis. We also check to see if the tools offer value for money.

Features set – 30%

We assessed the core data generation capabilities of each tool and its functionalities, including the maturity of the product’s ability to finetune the output and we also confirmed if the tool is geared for large enterprises.

Ease of use – 25%

We looked for intuitive and user-friendly tools, allowing users to navigate and utilize the tool’s features easily.

Tools – 10%

We evaluated each tool’s output quality and scalability level.

Support – 15%

We assessed the availability and responsiveness of customer support channels, such as email, live chat, or phone support. We also considered the availability of resources and documentation, such as user guides, tutorials, or knowledge bases.

Bottom line: Top synthetic data software

There is no one-size-fits-all when selecting the best synthetic data software. For instance, data analysts and machine learning engineers may find Datomize beneficial, while Hazy may be the best option for financial service companies.

The best synthetic data software for you will depend on various factors, including your organization’s specific needs, the use case, the industry, and data compliance requirements. Clearly, given the complexity of this category, you’ll need to do your homework to select the best synthetic data software.

Read next: Generative AI Examples

The post 9 Best Synthetic Data Software 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Generative AI’s Impact on E-Commerce https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-in-ecommerce/ Tue, 10 Oct 2023 22:46:31 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223156 Generative AI is transforming the e-commerce landscape. Explore how Generative AI helps companies improve customer experience and boost revenue.

The post Generative AI’s Impact on E-Commerce appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Generative AI is the latest form of applied artificial intelligence that enables businesses and consumers to automate, simplify, and otherwise improve various operations in their day-to-day lives. In the world of e-commerce and e-tail, vendors are implementing generative AI solutions to support employees in their daily work and give customers a new and improved buying experience.

In this guide, we’ll cover some of the most common use cases of generative AI in e-commerce today and we’ll touch on how today’s benefits may lead to further AI growth in this industry.

Table of Contents: Generative AI and E-Commerce

Generative AI Use Cases in E-Commerce

Generative AI can be used to supplement or even supplant various components of a company’s e-commerce workflow.

Across the e-commerce sector, artificial intelligence benefits both the vendor and its employees as well as customers and prospective buyers. Learn more about generative AI’s use cases in e-commerce below:

AI-Driven Analytics

E-commerce of course involves less face-to-face interaction with customers than traditional commerce, so it can be particularly challenging to gauge customer satisfaction across different parameters and data points.

Online businesses have used data analytics tools for many years now to better understand how customers engage with their brands. But these tools have been limited in the quantity and quality of data they collect as well as the speed with which data is updated.

In contrast, generative-AI-driven data analytics tools give business leaders and data scientists more contextual customer data, updated in real time and across different shopping, channel, and demographic data points.

These generative AI tools can collect data in various unstructured formats, including customer service queries, social media posts and comments, ad clicks and engagements, and other data that has historically been difficult to capture.

Additionally, these tools often go beyond predictive analytics, offering insights into what’s happening now and making prescriptive recommendations for what vendors can do to achieve better results, products, and services in the future.

Other ways users can combine generative AI and data analytics for better e-commerce outcomes include the following:

  • Quickly assess products, websites, and other customer-facing assets to determine if they are meeting quality requirements.
  • Make more accurate and timely supply chain predictions.
  • More effectively manage inventory and demand forecasting needs.

Customer Service Chatbots, Agents, and Coaches

This generative-AI-supported customer service platform monitors conversations and then scores service agents across a variety of important performance factors.
This generative-AI-supported customer service platform monitors conversations and then scores service agents across a variety of important performance factors. Source: Cresta

With generative AI chatbots and virtual agents, businesses can handle chat conversations 24 hours a day that are designed to feel like a real human is engaging with the customer.

Many brands have had 24/7 operational chatbots in the past. But without the content generation and predictive capabilities of generative AI, these previous chatbots have relied heavily on human-built workflows and prebuilt responses that don’t always meet customer needs. Their limited training on limited amounts of data severely impacted their ability to interact with customers. They can’t solve problems in the face of unique customer experience scenarios.

When a customer service problem needs to be escalated, generative AI agents can also be used to triage more complex communications to human customer service reps, giving them all of the contextual information they need to follow up with the customer effectively.

Additionally, these AIs can be used to coach human customer service reps on how to have better customer interactions that match the tone and needs of that individual.

AI Search for Customers

Generative AI tools have made it possible for businesses to quickly scale up their online knowledge bases in a way that answers a variety of customer questions that may not have previously been considered or adequately covered in early versions of online resources.

This database of knowledge can then be embedded in brand websites and apps, and in some cases, may also be connected to the internet for real-time search capabilities and more targeted ads.

AI-driven search not only gives customers the best search results for their queries but also frequently offers contextual information, suggested next searches, and other information that may assist them in their buying experience.

Product Descriptions and Content Writing

Businesses of all backgrounds are experimenting with generative AI for content creation, and the e-commerce world is filled with opportunities where AI can fill the gaps. For example, generative AI tools can be used to quickly write product descriptions, product guides and white papers, marketing and sales blogs, emails and marketing campaigns, chatbot responses, and targeted ad content.

Because of the speed and scale at which generative AI content writing tools can work, businesses can quickly create and rework content while also using these tools to detect customer sentiment in queries and respond accordingly.

Especially in marketing and communications campaigns, many of these content generation tools can also be trained and set up to automatically reply and follow up with customers when appropriate.

Back-Office Operational Support

Shopify Magic's latest assistant, Sidekick, is currently available to early-access users.
Shopify Magic’s latest assistant, Sidekick, is currently available to early-access users. Source: Shopify.

A growing number of AI tools focus on creating a one-stop shop for e-commerce back-office operational tasks, including content generation, task management, storefront management, and ad management needs.

An example is Shopify Magic, a set of generative AI capabilities that is built directly into the Shopify commerce platform. Its latest feature is Sidekick, a Shopify assistant that helps vendors manage their task lists while answering specific questions about everything from customer interactions to what’s needed to prepare for an upcoming sale.

Virtual Customer Experiences

Though this area is still fairly early in its development, virtual customer experiences like virtual try-on for clothing e-tailers are quickly growing and gaining a loyal customer base.

Clothing retailers are primarily benefiting from this new innovation, but other VR/AR experiences are also in the works that allow users to have remote shopping experiences that “feel” real. Additionally, a growing number of customer-facing apps now exist that combine different generative AI elements, such as AI assistants, chatbots, guided search, and catered product recommendations, to create a smoother shopping experience for users.

For more on a similar topic, read AI in Retail: What You Need to Know.

Leading Generative AI Solutions in the E-Commerce Space

A number of generative AI solutions have popped up to solve for different e-commerce use cases, including ad and product content creation, communication and customer service, and more.

Below, we’ve gathered information about some of today’s leading e-commerce-focused generative AI solutions:

  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4: OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4 are being used by many other generative AI vendors as a foundation for embeddable chatbots, virtual assistants, and other tools that improve the customer experience on e-commerce websites and virtual storefronts.
  • Jasper: Jasper’s library of tools covers a range of e-commerce needs, including generative AI chatbots, image generation, brand-driven content generation, and automated marketing campaigns.
  • Gridspace: A contact center tool that supports e-commerce needs like virtual agents to take calls and detailed conversational analytics to coach and improve future conversation outcomes.
  • Veesual: VR/AR-driven customer experiences for clothing shopping and virtual try-ons.
  • Shopify Magic: A back-office assistant that can help vendors with task management and content generation types of tasks.
  • SolidGrids: Product image and content generation, including banner generation and SEO optimization features.
  • Describely: Product descriptions, catalog content, and other types of product-driven content generation.
  • Cresta: A contact center solution for virtual contact automation, rep coaching, and real-time call analytics.
  • AdCreative.ai: Creative ad content generation platform.
  • Shulex VOC: A ChatGPT-driven AI assistant that makes suggestions, answers questions, and automates various e-commerce tasks.
  • Phrasee: A content generation platform that works across email, SMS, web, app, and social channels and focuses on customer loyalty outcomes.
  • Kore.ai: A platform with both employee experience and customer experience tools for conversational AI, AI-driven assistance, and smart search.

For more information on these solutions and others from emerging generative AI startups, read about the 50 Generative AI Startups to Watch in 2023.

Bottom Line: The Benefits of Generative AI in E-Commerce

The generative AI and e-commerce market is ripe with new tools and features emerging on a near-daily basis to address the different wants and needs of e-commerce vendors, business stakeholders, employees, and customers.

While certainly not everyone is open to artificial intelligence taking over tasks that have traditionally involved human-driven customer service, more and more people are growing comfortable with this development. It provides new conveniences, particularly to retailers that are struggling with worker shortages.

With generative AI in a supporting role, e-commerce companies can confidently move forward and grow their businesses in a way that feels sustainable and innovative.

Read next: Top 9 Generative AI Applications and Tools

The post Generative AI’s Impact on E-Commerce appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
NICE’s Andrea Matsuda on Digital Engagement and the Contact Center https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/nice-on-digital-engagement-and-the-contact-center/ Thu, 05 Oct 2023 23:37:12 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223151 I spoke with Andrea Matsuda, Manager of Product Marketing at NICE, about how evolving technologies are affecting contact center performance. Among the topics we discussed: When you refer to digital engagement, what exactly do you mean? Are you referring to chatbots? We see so much buzz about ChatGPT and AI solutions. What role does AI […]

The post NICE’s Andrea Matsuda on Digital Engagement and the Contact Center appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
I spoke with Andrea Matsuda, Manager of Product Marketing at NICE, about how evolving technologies are affecting contact center performance.

Among the topics we discussed:

  • When you refer to digital engagement, what exactly do you mean? Are you referring to chatbots?
  • We see so much buzz about ChatGPT and AI solutions. What role does AI play in automating customer interactions?
  • How do you ensure your digital self service solutions align with the company’s overall CX objectives?
  • With the introduction of digital channels in contact centers, how has this impacted WFM? WFM solutions were built for phone calls; is there an impact by introducing them to the digital channel?
  • We are seeing a lot of buzz around the back office and how it has been siloed from the front office; it appears there is a desire to blend. What is the best approach to achieve this? Is this something that TTI analytics can help with?

Watch the video:

The post NICE’s Andrea Matsuda on Digital Engagement and the Contact Center appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
10 Best AI Writing Tools 2023 https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-writing-tools/ Thu, 05 Oct 2023 22:21:34 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223127 AI writing tools are becoming increasingly popular for businesses and individuals alike. Discover the X best AI writing tools for 2023.

The post 10 Best AI Writing Tools 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Artificial intelligence writing tools are designed to save busy professionals’ time and provide them with high-quality content in a fraction of the time it would take to write manually.

These AI writing tools leverage artificial intelligence algorithms, natural language processing, and machine learning techniques to generate human-like text.

We compiled a list of the best AI writing software, including their features, pricing, and areas of strength and weaknesses.

Jump to:

Top AI writing tools: Comparison chart

Vendor Best for Built-in plagiarism checker Grammar checker Free plan Starting price
Copy.ai Beating writer’s block No No Yes $49 per month or $36 per month when billed annually
Rytr Copywriters Yes No Yes $9 per month or $90 per year
QuillBot Students and academics Yes Yes Yes $9.95 per month
Frase.io SEO teams and content managers No Yes No $14.99 per user per month or $12.66 per user per month if paid annually
Anyword Blog writing Yes Yes No $49 per user per month or $39 per user per month billed yearly
Grammarly Grammatical and punctuation error detection Yes Yes Yes $12 per month, billed annually or $30 when billed monthly
Hemingway Editor Content readability measurement No Yes Yes Free
Writesonic Freelancers and social media marketers No No Yes $19 per user per month billed monthly or $15 per user per month billed yearly
AI Writer High-output bloggers No No No $19 per user per month
ContentatScale.ai Creating long form content No No No $250 per month

 

Copy.ai icon.

Copy.ai: Best for beating writer’s block

Copy.ai is an artificial intelligence writing tool designed for freelance writers, marketers, business owners, and copywriters to create various forms of content, including website copy, sales landing pages, email, social media bio, and blog sections.

The tool allows you to add a brand voice by creating content that reflects your brand voice – this helps it generate copy that aligns with your organization’s persona.

Copy.ai templates page.
Copy.ai templates page

Pricing

  • Free: They offer a free plan with up to 2000 words per month.
  • Pro: Copy.ai’s pro unlimited words cost $49 per month or $36 per month when billed annually – for up to five seats.
  • Team: It costs $249 per month or $186 per month when billed annually – for up to 20 seats.
  • Growth: It costs $1,333 per month or $1,000 per month when billed annually – for up to 75 seats.
  • Scale: It costs $4,000 per month or $3,000 per month when billed annually – for up to 200 seats.
  • Custom Enterprise Plan: Request for a custom quote.

Key features

  • Offers over 90 copywriting tools.
  • Copy.ai allows you to save and reuse key information via its Infobase feature.
  • The platform offers a chat feature that enables sales and marketing teams to interact more naturally with AI.
  • Support 25 languages.

Pros

  • It has a low learning curve and is easy to use.
  • Users applaud its brand voice capability.
  • Fast-growing community.
  • ​​Various email templates.

Cons

  • It lacks creativity and easily gets detected as AI content.
  • Lacks full-length article writing feature.

Also see: AI Detector Tools

Rytr icon.

Rytr: Best for copywriters

Rytr is an AI-powered writing assistant capable of producing content on various topics.

The platform supports 40 use cases, including blog ideas, email, job descriptions, blog section writing and more – you can also manually create your use cases by training Rytr for your specific needs. Note that only paid plan users can create custom use cases.

Rytr copy generator environment.
Rytr copy generator environment

Pricing

  • Free plan: Allow users to generate up to 10k characters per month.
  • Saver plan: $9 per month or $90 per year. Users can generate up to 100k characters per month with this plan.
  • Unlimited plan: $29 per month or $290 per year.

Key features

  • Outline & brief generator.
  • Business idea generator.
  • Support copywriting frameworks like AIDA (Attention–Interest–Desire–Action) and PAS (Problem–Agitation–Solution).
  • Serves as keyword extractor and generator.
  • You can use it to create an SEO meta description.

Pros

  • Support up to 40 use cases.
  • Users can write in 30 languages with up to 20 tones.
  • Built-in plagiarism checker.

Cons

  • Limited support for low-tier plans.
  • Can sometimes overuse phrases.

Also see: Best Artificial Intelligence Software

Quillbot icon.

QuillBot: Best for students and academics

QuillBot is an AI-powered writing assistant that allows you to paraphrase and summarize texts and also functions as a translator and citation generation tool.

If you need a quality paraphrasing tool, I recommend QuillBot, especially for content marketers. But students and people in academia may not prefer the tool because its output doesn’t consistently pass AI detection tools.

QuillBot paraphrasing environment.
QuillBot paraphrasing environment

Pricing

  • Free: Available at no cost with limited capability.
  • Premium: This plan is billable monthly, semi-annual and annually.
    • Monthly: $9.95 per month.
    • Semi-Annual: $6.66 per month – $39.95 billed every six months.
    • Annual: $4.17 per month – $49.95 billed every 12 months.
  • Team plan: Price varies depending on the number of users.

Key features

  • Offers Chrome and Word extensions for grammar checking.
  • It can create source citations in various styles, including APA, MLA, and Chicago.
  • Support up to nine paraphrasing modes, including creative, simple and academic.
  • Language translator capability.

Pros

  • Supports up to 23 languages.
  • It has a grammar checker that functions like Grammarly.

Cons

  • There are only two writing modes for free accounts.
  • Manual intervention is often needed.

Also see: Top Generative AI Apps and Tools

Frase icon.

Frase.io: Best for SEO teams and content managers

Frase.io is an AI writing assistant designed to help you generate content, improve grammar and spelling, provide suggestions for better writing, and even help with SEO optimization. It can be used for brainstorming ideas and improving writing skills for beginners.

Frase user interface.
Frase user interface

Pricing

Unlike the other tools we reviewed above, Frase doesn’t offer a free plan and their free trial costs $1 for five days.

  • Solo: $14.99 per user per month or $12.66 per user per month if paid annually.
  • Basic: $44.99 per user per month or $38.25 per user per month if paid annually.
  • Team: $114.99 per 3 users per month or $97.75 per 3 users per month if paid annually —extra seat cost $25 per month.
  • You can also get unlimited AI content with the Pro Add-On at $35 per month.

Key features

  • Automated content briefs.
  • Content scoring capability.
  • Produce SEO-optimized copy with an AI Writer.
  • Google search console (GSC) integration.

Pros

  • Content optimization.
  • Topic research and SERP analysis capability.
  • You can also use Frase to optimize existing content to improve the rankings.

Cons

  • Lacks free plan.
  • It is expensive for small businesses.

Also see: ChatGPT: Understanding the ChatGPT ChatBot

Anyword icon.

Anyword: Best for blog writing

Anyword is an AI writing tool that uses machine learning algorithms to generate content. It can assist with writing tasks such as creating ad copy, crafting social media posts, generating blog content, and more.

The tool has a Copy Intelligence functionality analyzes your previously published content to determine which messaging works best on your website, ads, social, and email channels.

Anyword various templates view.
Anyword various templates view

Pricing

  • Starter: $49 per user per month or $39 per user per month when billed annually.
  • Data Driven: $99 per 3 users per month or $79 per 3 users per month when billed annually.
  • Business: $499 per 3 users per month or $249 per 3 users per month when billed annually.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing.

Key features

  • Support up to 30 languages.
  • Google Chrome extension available.
  • 100+ performance-driven templates.
  • Integrates with Grammarly.

Pros

  • Brand voice capability.
  • Copy intelligence capability.
  • It has a friendly user interface.

Cons

  • Anyword has a word limit.
  • It is costly for individuals on a budget.

Grammarly icon.

Grammarly: Best for grammatical and punctuation error detection

Grammarly is a popular online writing assistance tool that can help you improve your written communication by checking for grammatical and spelling mistakes and offering suggestions for enhancing clarity, conciseness, and style.

It can be used in various contexts, such as writing emails, reports, essays, and social media posts. Grammarly can be used as a browser extension, a desktop application, or a mobile app and is free with limited features or as a premium subscription with additional functionalities.

Grammarly grammar checker environment.
Grammarly grammar checker environment

Pricing

  • Free: Available at no cost.
  • Premium: $12 per month, billed annually or $30 when billed monthly.
  • Business: $15 per month, billed annually or $25 when billed monthly.

Key features

  • Real-time grammar correcting.
  • Generative AI assistance.
  • Plagiarism checker.
  • Checks grammar, spelling, and punctuation and improves writing style.

Pros

  • Plagiarism checker.
  • Writing style improved.
  • Tone and voice suggestions.

Cons

  • Grammarly can sometimes provide suggestions that don’t align with the intended meaning or writing style.
  • The free plan lacks an advanced clarity feature.

Also see: 100+ Top AI Companies

Hemmingway Editor icon.

Hemingway Editor: Best for content readability measurement

Hemingway Editor is a writing tool that helps you enhance the clarity and readability of your written work. It analyzes text and provides various readability suggestions. It highlights lengthy, complex sentences, excessive adverbs, passive voice, and hard-to-read phrases.

It assigns a readability score based on the grade level required to understand the text. It is available both as a web-based application and as a desktop app.

Hemingway Editor interface.
Hemingway Editor interface

Pricing

The platform is free to use.

Key features

  • Improves writing clarity and conciseness.
  • Provide a readability score.
  • Alternative word suggestion.

Pros

  • Helpful color coding and suggestions.
  • Works well for assessing the readability and complexity of your work.
  • Simplifies the editing process.
  • Text formatting functionalities such bold, italics, quotes, numbers, bullets and header tags like H1, H2, and H3.

Cons

  • Some suggestions by Hemingway Editor may not align with your writing style or desired tone.
  • Limited scope.

Also see: ChatGPT vs. Google Bard 

Writesonic icon.

Writesonic: Best for freelancers and social media marketers

Writesonic uses artificial intelligence technology, specifically natural language processing (NLP), to provide content generation services.

Writesonic’s AI can generate text based on prompts and user input, making it useful for content marketing, copywriting, and other writing-related tasks. While it can be a helpful resource for content creation, the quality of generated content may vary, and human editing is often required to ensure accuracy and coherence.

Writesonic Library dashboard view.
Writesonic Library dashboard view

Pricing

  • Free: 10,000 free words per month.
  • Small Team: $19 per user per month billed monthly or $15 per user per month billed yearly.
  • Freelancer: $20 per user per month billed monthly or $16 per user per month billed yearly.
  • Enterprise: Starts at $500 per month.

Key features

  • Support GPT 3.5 and GPT 4.
  • AI Article and blog writer.
  • Paraphrasing tool.
  • Sentence expander.
  • Text summarizer.
  • Story generator.
  • Landing page generator.

Pros

  • Support up to 30 languages.
  • 1-Click WordPress export.
  • Integration with third-party services.

Cons

  • Lacks advanced editing features.
  • Not suitable for tech articles.

AI Writer icon.

AI Writer: Best for high-output bloggers

AI Writer is designed to generate full-length articles in minutes.

The platform allows you to tailor the AI’s writing to your specific needs by selecting from a long list of recommended keywords for your topic or by manually inputting your chosen keywords. It also suggests sub-topics for your article and helps you structure your content with headings; it cites its sources.

AI Writer Research & Write dashboard.
AI Writer Research & Write dashboard

Pricing

  • Basic Plan: $19 per user per month.
  • Standard Plan: $49 per month for three users.
  • Power Plan: $375 per month for 10 users.

Key features

  • AI text generator.
  • SEO editor.
  • Publish to WordPress.
  • Text rewording capability.

Pros

  • It provides list of citations for verification.
  • Users finds the content it generates SEO friendly.

Cons

  • Requires extensive editing of the generated content.
  • Basic user interface.

Content at Scale icon.

ContentatScale.ai: Best for creating long-form content

Those looking for an AI writing tool to create blog posts and other long-form content may find ContentatScale features suitable.

The platform claims to pass AI detection tests, indicating that its generated content mimics human writing and is not easily distinguishable from human-written content. ContentatScale also offers an AI detector solution that ranks as one of our review’s best AI detector tools.

If you’d like to check ContentatScale’s claims of passing AI detection tests, see: AI Detector Tools

ContentatScale project dashboard.
ContentatScale project dashboard

Pricing

  • Paid trial: 7-day paid trial at $39.9.
  • Solo: 8 monthly posts, $31 per post —$250 monthly.
  • Starter: 20 posts per month, $25 per post —$500 per month.
  • Scaling: 50 posts per month, $20 per post —$1,000 per month.
  • Scaling: 100 posts per month, $15 per post —$1,500 per month.

Key features

  • Keyword, YouTube, Podcast, File, Doc to New Blog Output.
  • Unique Voice AI Training options.
  • AI detection capability.
  • Natural language processing analysis.

Pros

  • Offers tier pricing plans to fit all needs.
  • Offers content optimization tools.
  • WordPress and Shopify integration.

Cons

  • No free plan.
  • The tool is somewhat expensive.

How to Choose the Best AI Writing Software For Your Business

The best AI writing tool for your business depends on your AI writing needs:

If you need a paraphraser, QuillBot and Writesonic may be the best for you.

  • Copy.ai and Rytr are ideal for copywriters and social media managers looking to create short-form content and marketing copy.
  • AI Writer, Anyword, and Writersonic are solid options for those looking to create long-form contents like blogs.
  • Frase can help you optimize your contents for SEO.
  • Grammarly and Hemingway are great options for checking grammar, spelling, and style in your AI-generated content.

Some factors to consider when choosing the best AI writing software for your business:

  • Features
  • Content quality.
  • User interface and experience.
  • Customization.

These top tools can be used together for better and quality content. For instance, you can use QuillBot to paraphrase Anyword’s AI-generated text, use Grammarly to correct spelling and punctuation errors and use the Hemmingway App to improve readability.

How We Evaluated the Best AI Writing Tools

We weighed the best tools across five categories –each category has sub-categories that helped us evaluate and compare the AI writing tools.

Cost – 20%

We examined the different pricing plans offered by each AI writing tool. This included evaluating the cost of the tool on a monthly or annual basis, as well as any additional fees or hidden costs. We compared each tool’s cost to its value, looking for tools that offer a high level of functionality for a reasonable price.

Features set – 30%

We assessed the writing capabilities of each tool, including its grammar and spelling correction, sentence rephrasing, and content generation capabilities. We looked for tools that provided accurate and high-quality writing suggestions.

Ease of use – 10%

We looked for tools that have an intuitive and user-friendly interface, allowing users to navigate and utilize the tool’s features easily.

Quality of output – 25%

We evaluated the accuracy and coherence of the generated content produced by each AI writing tool. Tools that could generate clear, well-structured, and error-free content received higher scores.

Support – 15%

We assessed the availability and responsiveness of customer support channels, such as email, live chat, or phone support. Prompt and helpful customer support is essential for users who may encounter issues or need assistance with the tool. We also considered the availability of resources and documentation, such as user guides, tutorials, or knowledge bases.

Bottom Line: Top AI Writing Tools

Our review identified the best AI writing tools to help your writing needs. While the above choices are excellent for now, please check back for updates – this market is constantly changing.

Remember, too, that though these tools are solid, they may not fit everyone perfectly. Ultimately even with a leading AI writing tool, the best results derive from a skilled human writer with the help of an AI writing tool. That’s not likely to change anytime soon.

Read next: We also analyzed the best AI chatbots and the top conversational AI platforms to further your research.

The post 10 Best AI Writing Tools 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Companies Divided After Launch of ChatGPT Enterprise https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/companies-divided-chatgpt-enterprise/ Thu, 05 Oct 2023 18:28:36 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223122 ChatGPT Enterprise has divided opinions amongst companies. Explore how this new AI chatbot has impacted businesses, and why it's causing so much controversy.

The post Companies Divided After Launch of ChatGPT Enterprise appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Enterprise as a more secure version of its ChatGPT large language model. Specifically, ChatGPT Enterprise is designed to be more secure and compliant with corporate privacy regulations than the prior versions of ChatGPT/GPT 4.0, supporting features like SSO and usage insights.

The enterprise AI market is divided on OpenAI, with some companies eager to adopt the technology and others hesitant. Enterprise sentiment on using OpenAI and its GPT-suite of products can be categorized as follows:

Early adopters

These companies are eager to leverage OpenAI’s offerings and are already doing so. Clearly, this group is inspired by this year’s remarkable focus on AI, and are willing to get on board and “learn as we go.”

Also see: ChatGPT Enterprise: AI for Business

Uncertain

Other companies are waiting to see how the market for generative AI offerings develops, and will choose their model accordingly.

They may have some concerns about data privacy or are not yet convinced how the technology will impact their current business processes. A “wait and see” approach is further bolstered by the budget cuts many companies have put in place over the last 12 months.

Never

The remaining companies have already decided they will never use OpenAI. This is typically due to data privacy, compliance or business protection reasons. However, these “nevers” may arguably shift their stance as some of these data concerns are addressed, and/or the urgent need to deploy AI drives decision makers to take some calculated risks.

Also see: ChatGPT: Understanding the ChatGPT ChatBot

Specialized use cases

This includes many industries with highly specialized focus, including healthcare, construction and legal. It is unclear when or even if OpenAI will start focusing on these specific areas. Some companies would prefer to start with an open source model and focus on training that for specialized purposes.

Privacy/regulatory reasons

While ChatGPT Enterprise does guarantee they are not using data from customer prompts to train OpenAI models, there have been other solutions that offer similar guarantees, including from OpenAI’s partner Microsoft.

For some firms, licensing OpenAI could trigger a new process which would require all existing clients to sign off on new terms. The cost of doing so might outweigh the incremental product improvement gained from adopting OpenAI.

Betting on faster development and the future of open source

Open source models are rapidly advancing, and OpenAI still does not allow access to certain methods like Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).

While open source models are currently behind GPT 3.5/4.0, they are improving every month and some industry experts believe they will catch up to commercial offerings in 2024. Given the timelines for enterprise clients, they would rather place a long-term investment in developing their own model rather than adopting OpenAI for the short-term.

Also see: Top Generative AI Apps and Tools

Worried about OpenAI’s legal troubles

Corporations such as The New York Times and Barry Diller’s IAC, and individuals such as authors and stand-up comedians like Sarah Silverman, are suing OpenAI over scraping their data to train OpenAI.

While the outcome from these lawsuits are far from a given, some companies are hesitant to bet their future business and product offerings on an API whose legality is being called into question.

Doubts about changing performance issues

While OpenAI is making rapid improvements to its models like ChatGPT Enterprise, many are also observing that its capabilities have changed over the last few months. Even beyond the issues of hallucinations and non-deterministic answers, it’s challenging to build a product on a foundation that may change for reasons outside your control or knowledge.

Bottom Line: The Future of ChatGPT Enterprise

Overall, the enterprises remain split on integrating OpenAI in their business model. The launch of ChatGPT Enterprise may convince some companies to switch to OpenAI, but there are still a number of factors that could prevent adoption.

In the face of these challenges, OpenAI remains a leading player in the enterprise AI space. In a recent survey, of 1,000 general population adults who have heard of artificial intelligence, ChatGPT was recognized by 49% of respondents (although only 22% said they had heard of OpenAI).

The company is continuing to improve its models and expand its offerings, and it is likely that OpenAI and generative AI as a whole will continue to gain traction across industries in the years to come.

Read next: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders 

About the author: 

Ivan Lee is the CEO of Datasaur

The post Companies Divided After Launch of ChatGPT Enterprise appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
Generative AI: 5 Things Business Leaders Must Know https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/generative-ai-5-things-business-leaders-must-know/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 21:19:41 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223124 Generative AI is transforming the way businesses think about AI. Learn 5 key insights business leaders need to know about this revolutionary technology.

The post Generative AI: 5 Things Business Leaders Must Know appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
From writing software code to optimizing business operations, generative AI is driving innovation and efficiency across the business world. This transformative technology comes with a steep learning curve for some businesses, which face a number of decisions. These include deciding whether to build or buy, gauging how much to spend, and considering generative AI trust and guardrails issue.

Generative AI creates completely new data from existing datasets. This data can be in a variety of formats, including text, images, music and even code—and it can produce results that weren’t in the original input. This versatility allows for an impressive range of creative problem-solving and efficiency-boosting applications.

Let’s look at five things every business leader needs to understand about generative AI to maximize their return on investment:

1) Generative AI is Revolutionizing Business and Job Functions

Generative AI is driving business innovation and efficiency. The technology’s ability to generate new data from an input  allows for an impressive range of applications.

Generative AI in the workplace isn’t merely about harnessing data or driving efficiency — it’s about fundamentally reshaping the approach to work. Yes, generative AI can make work faster and easier, but it also opens up entirely new possibilities for innovation and creativity.

What’s key about generative AI technology is its potential to be tailored to the needs of each business. Every business has its own unique or priority datasets.

By identifying their specific needs , businesses can use generative AI to gain a competitive edge. For instance, applied in healthcare, generative AI can help analyze patient data, create a summary of the key points, and then use this summary to draft an action plan for delivering better care.

Also see: 100+ Top AI Companies

2) Build vs. Buy

One critical business decision that enterprises face when implementing artificial intelligence is whether to build or buy the software. There are several factors to consider, including:

  • Unique data and domain expertise: Custom generative AI becomes valuable when businesses own unique data or specific domain expertise and aim to use  that data effectively.
  • Availability of talent: The skills required to build AI tools are specialized and in high demand. Enterprises need to consider whether they have access to this talent and whether they’re more familiar with open-source software or commercial offerings.
  • Project timeline: Building AI tools takes time. If an enterprise needs AI functionality ready quickly, buying it is the best bet. If the time frame is more flexible, building it might be the more practical option.
  • Integration with existing software: It’s crucial to consider whether the vendors an enterprise works with can integrate the AI tools under consideration. Understanding the organization’s procurement process and allowing enough time for it can save the project from unexpected delays.
  • Cost-effectiveness: While it may initially appear more affordable to develop AI tools internally, it’s essential to factor in expenses related to team building, software acquisition and long-term maintenance. If the tool serves as a crucial competitive advantage for the business, it may justify ongoing costs. However, if similar functionality is already available through a tool the company is currently paying for, it doesn’t make financial sense to build and maintain redundant software.

3) Identify the Industry Use Case

Generative AI has a wide range of applications across a variety of industries. Common ones include text generation for crafting captivating marketing copy, summarization for condensing extensive news articles and emails, and image generation for developing unique brand visuals or gaming characters.

AI-powered chatbots are enhancing customer service with intelligent, real-time responses in almost every industry, while translation capabilities are making information accessible across languages. In the coding world, generative AI boosts efficiency by dynamically generating comments and functions.

Healthcare is using generative AI to reduce drug discovery timelines. Game developers are using it to create dynamic game characters. The financial sector is using it to bolster security against transaction fraud and for algorithmic trading. Retail is using generative AI for automatic price optimization.

Businesses find success most quickly when they have an initial project that aligns with their unique needs. For help getting started, ask technology providers for examples they can share from companies with similar project requirements.

Also see: Best Artificial Intelligence Software

4) Investing in Generative AI

Implementing generative AI requires substantial financial investment. It involves procuring high-end infrastructure, hiring skilled talent, assembling the necessary software components and gathering the needed data.

That said, not every enterprise needs to invest in generative AI from scratch. Many are using pre-trained models, or foundation models, which are more cost-effective to train because businesses only have to augment the model with their own data and apply guardrails associated with their brand.

While the cost of implementing generative AI can be high, the investment return of increased efficiency, innovation and competitive advantage can make it worthwhile.

5) Ensuring Trust and Safety in Generative AI Models

As generative AI grows more advanced and widespread, guaranteeing the safety and responsible use of AI models becomes increasingly paramount. Large language model guardrail tools — software applications that keep generative AI models from deviating from their intended purpose — can help developers set boundaries on AI models. These can be set in three areas:

  • Topical guardrails: These prevent AI models from veering into undesired areas of use. For example, a customer service assistant powered by generative AI could be prevented from answering questions about the weather if that function isn’t within its designated scope.
  • Safety guardrails: These ensure that AI models provide accurate and appropriate responses. They can filter out unwanted language and make sure that references are made only to credible sources.
  • Security guardrails: These restrict the AI model’s connections to only known, safe external third-party applications.

Also see: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders 

Harnessing the Power of Enterprise Generative AI

Generative AI is poised to transform the world, offering vast opportunities for companies to innovate, improve efficiency and solve complex problems. As business leaders, understanding and using the power of generative AI will be vital to staying competitive in the rapidly evolving business landscape.

Following the five principles above will help businesses stay ahead of the curve and reap the rewards that this AI technology has to offer.

About the Author: 

Amanda Saunders, Senior Manager, AI Software at NVIDIA

The post Generative AI: 5 Things Business Leaders Must Know appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
20 Best AI Apps 2023 https://www.eweek.com/artificial-intelligence/best-ai-apps/ Mon, 02 Oct 2023 22:26:12 +0000 https://www.eweek.com/?p=223088 Discover the X best AI apps for Android and iOS in 2023. From voice assistants to photo editing, these AI apps will help you get the most out of your device.

The post 20 Best AI Apps 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>
With a growing number of great AI apps for personal use, artificial intelligence applications are being launched for a wide array of uses, from education to health to entertainment.

The everyday consumer is now using AI apps to simplify everything from crafting an email to editing a photo to improving their fitness with the support of AI assistants and mobile AI apps.

In this guide, we’ll cover some of the top AI apps for Android and iOS users today and how these apps are transforming everyday life.

Table of Contents: Best AI Apps for Android and iOS Users

Top 5 AI Apps for Conversational AI and AI Assistants

OpenAI icon.

ChatGPT

The mobile app version of ChatGPT, the popular large language model AI chatbot from OpenAI, is available for both Android and iOS users.

With ChatGPT on mobile, users can sync up their ChatGPT data with all other devices that they use. They can also benefit from the Whisper integration, which enables them to use voice inputs while engaging with the ChatGPT app.

Though more advanced features may be available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, the basic mobile app is free to use and gives users the ability to generate various types of content in response to their inputs.

Pi icon.

Pi

Inflection’s Pi generated buzz before anyone had even heard the name of the app due to the pedigree of the company’s founders. The app has proven itself a worthy competitor of ChatGPT, giving users the ability to have human-like conversations, seek advice, and get other interesting responses from the Pi chatbot.

Pi is currently only available to iOS users, though there are plans to eventually release the app in the Google Play store.

Replika icon.

Replika

Replika is a conversational AI app that allows users to interact with a virtual friend in a way that feels like speaking with a real human.

Depending on the user’s needs, this Replika can be set up to feel like a friend, a personal or professional mentor, or even a romantic interest. Users also have the option to virtually share moments with their Replika through augmented reality. Replika is available to iOS, Android, and Oculus device users.

Otter.ai icon.

Otter.ai

Otter.ai is an assistive AI app that primarily helps with audio transcription, note-taking, and live summaries.

Although it can just as easily be used by individuals, the app is best suited for collaborative content, as different users can edit the transcript and add relevant comments and highlights as necessary. Otter.ai is available for iOS, Android, and Slack and is also available through a Chrome extension.

Cleo icon.

Cleo

Cleo is an AI assistant that helps users with personal finance management tasks. Users can engage with the Cleo app for help with managing a personal budget, saving, avoiding certain types of purchases, and borrowing money.

Cleo also brings a certain amount of personality to the personal finance experience, giving its users the option to be “roasted” or “hyped” for their spending habits and how they align with their overall goals. Cleo is available for both iOS and Android users.

Also see: Top 9 Generative AI Applications and Tools

Top 5 AI Apps for Health, Safety, and Transportation

Wysa icon.

Wysa

Wysa is a mobile app that takes a hybrid approach to mental health care, using both artificial intelligence and humans to give users the care they need.

Users have the option to engage with the conversational AI agent on demand, and this agent can then assign curated care guides, programs, and additional support to users who need it. If a user is in a clinical program with Wysa, they may also receive regular check-ins from the AI agent, which can escalate to human coaches and therapists if necessary. Wysa is available for both iOS and Android users.

Youper icon.

Youper

Youper is another AI-driven mental health app that relies on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) best practices and methodologies.

With Youper, users first complete a detailed assessment to give Youper the data it needs to curate a more personal experience. From there, its conversational AI has on-demand conversations with the user. This is an exciting app option for users who want to track their mood or symptoms over time, as Youper offers detailed symptom monitoring and analytics features with helpful visualizations. Youper is available to both iOS and Android users.

Microsoft icon.

Seeing AI

Seeing AI is an app that’s primarily designed for the visually impaired and blind to get detailed audio descriptions of their surroundings.

The app can be used to translate documents, products, handwriting, and currency into audio descriptions, and even more abstract concepts like colors, people, and scenes can be transformed into auditory narrations. Seeing AI is only available to iOS users, though similar apps are available for Android users.

FitnessAI icon.

FitnessAI

FitnessAI is an AI-driven fitness training app that generates personalized workouts for users based on their personal goals, fitness levels, and health backgrounds.

Additionally, if users keep up with their workout logs, the AI can assist them with deciding on the optimal rest period and workout difficulty levels for future workouts. FitnessAI is only available for iOS users, though similar AI fitness and nutrition apps are available for Android users as well.

Waze icon.

Waze

Waze is a popular navigation and transportation app that uses a combination of AI and machine learning to optimize user routes and predict their typical driving patterns and styles.

It also uses Google Cloud’s AI Platform to develop a network for Waze Carpool, a sustainable way for users to share their trips with each other when following similar routes and schedules. Waze is available for both iOS and Android users.

Also see: AI Detector Tools

Top 7 AI Apps for Entertainment

Prisma Labs icon.

Lensa AI

Lensa is an AI photo editor and retoucher that also allows users to create videos, add special effects to images, and create avatar characters in different styles.

Its range of features and editing styles make it a popular image-editing tool for the everyday consumer. Lensa AI is available for both iOS and Android users.

Codeway icon.

Wonder

Wonder is an AI-generated art app that allows users to submit text prompts to create art in different styles.

No coding experience is necessary, as the tool creatively generates the art based only on user requests and descriptions, as well as on submitted photos. Wonder is available for both iOS and Android users.

Spotify icon.

Spotify

Spotify is one of the most popular music and podcast streaming apps on the market, and part of this popularity comes from the curated experiences it creates for users through AI.

Its latest AI addition is the AI DJ, which pulls data from user listening history and other factors to create curated set lists and explanations of the music that gets played. Spotify is available for both Android and iOS users.

Facetune icon.

Facetune

Facetune by Lightricks has been a popular photo and video editing app since the earliest days of Instagram, owing to its easy-to-use interface and wide variety of photo-editing features.

More recently, the company has added various AI-enhanced and AI-powered features, including the AI Selfie Generator, AI avatars, and the AI Photo Enhancer. With the selfie generator tool, users can generate different image styles for their selfies with their own prompts or they can use Facetune’s own library of AI-generated presets. Facetune is available to both Android and iOS users.

Character.ai icon.

Character AI

Character AI is an AI and generative AI tool that allows users to have realistic conversations with AI avatars and characters.

These characters can be created for more serious purposes, like preparing for a job interview or imagining what it would be like to speak with a dead relative, but they can also be used for more fun conversations, like pretending to chat with your favorite celebrity. Character AI is available to both iOS and Android users.

AI Dungeon icon.

AI Dungeon

AI Dungeon is a generative AI tool that allows users to simulate and create characters, adventure prompts, and virtual worlds for virtual gaming experiences.

Although users have full freedom to create scenarios from their imagination, the tool also comes with a few foundational prompts if anyone needs assistance getting started. AI Dungeon is available to both iOS and Android users.

Photoleap icon.

Photoleap

Photoleap is another image editing app from Lightricks that focuses on AI-powered image generation and photo editing.

Users can submit text prompts to create unique images and can also benefit from a tool for AI avatar generation. Photoleap is available to both Android and iOS users.

Also see: Generative AI Examples

Top 3 AI Apps for Education

Socratic icon.

Socratic by Google

Socratic is an education-focused application that is powered by Google AI.

Students in subjects ranging from science and math to literature and social studies are able to submit questions — either through typed text, voice prompts, or homework screenshots — and receive detailed responses that blend text explanations, diagrams and images, and internet results to give users a more well-rounded response. Socratic is available to both iOS and Android users.

ELSA icon.

ELSA

ELSA is a conversational AI application that focuses primarily on English language-learning initiatives, both in schools and company settings.

Users are given access to ELSA’s AI coach, which is able to detect progress in their speech patterns and pronunciation. AI within the system is also used to create customized curricula for students that fit their specific performance and behaviors over time. ELSA is available to both iOS and Google users.

Grammarly icon.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a writing assistance tool that can help users with simple misspellings and punctuation errors but also goes beyond basic proofreading to offer AI-powered suggestions for improved correctness, clarity, and delivery for particular audiences.

The tool also more recently added generative AI assistance to support brainstorming, content creation, and rewrites of existing content. A version of the Grammarly tool — the Grammar Keyboard — is available to both Android and iOS users.

Also see: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders 

Bottom Line: Top AI Apps

This guide to the best AI apps only scratches the surface of an exciting AI mobile market, especially as new players emerge on a near-daily basis.

The four overarching categories we’ve covered above are where most AI apps for mobile users are focused today, but that’s quickly expanding. More AI developers are launching tools for things like virtual shopping and entertainment experiences, telehealth, and project management, to name a few categories out of many.

Whether you’re looking for a tool that can support key business initiatives or simply want an AI solution for personal use cases, the AI mobile market is a great place to start for user-friendly and low-cost AI applications.

Read next: Best Artificial Intelligence Software

The post 20 Best AI Apps 2023 appeared first on eWEEK.

]]>