As the buzz around generative AI (GenAI) has begun to quiet from the fever pitch it reached over the past year, business leaders and their teams are taking a step back and evaluating the technology with a more sober perspective. After a year of dominating news cycles and dinner conversations alike, GenAI is no longer a novelty—it’s being implemented in businesses every day. A recent Gartner survey found that 55% of organizations report they’re increasing investment in GenAI.

As more and more teams are discovering the real results GenAI can offer, business leaders are working hard to develop AI strategies for the coming year and beyond. As they do, it would be wise not to think of GenAI as a stand-alone tool, but rather how it fits into a broader AI strategy. Because while GenAI is currently top of mind, it’s certainly not the only type of AI businesses need. In fact, its capabilities multiply when it’s used as part of a robust AI approach.

AI: A TIME-TESTED TOOL

While the recent buzz has been specifically about generative AI, AI itself has been part of the business landscape for years. It’s long been a secret weapon of successful companies that want to analyze and extract meaning from their data.

In industries and functions as far-ranging as construction, manufacturing, human resources, and revenue, AI has a proven track record of improving efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness. It’s good for business, but it also benefits employees who embrace it by taking the rote tasks off their plate, focusing their efforts in the right places, and making them more successful in their jobs.

We have reason to believe the same will be true for generative AI as it achieves more widespread adoption. A recent study by the U.N.’s International Labour Organization (ILO) found that AI will augment a wide variety of jobs in coming years. Most roles, the report says, are “more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by AI.”

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR GENAI

McKinsey recently estimated that the productivity improvements achieved through generative AI could add up to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy. In the banking industry alone, generative AI is poised to deliver up to $340 billion per year in value. In retail and consumer packaged goods, the impact could total $660 billion per year.

Those gains will come from a variety of use cases, including supporting customer interactions, generating marketing and sales content, and drafting computer code. For people worried that AI might make their jobs obsolete, Gartner has a promising prediction: By 2033, AI solutions are expected to net more than half a billion new jobs.

AI APPLICATIONS WITH REAL VALUE

It’s hard to imagine a single role that can’t be augmented or made more efficient with the help of AI. According to McKinsey, “current generative AI and other technologies have the potential to automate work activities that absorb 60 to 70% of employees’ time today.”

At 6sense, we’ve challenged our employees to get curious and creative about how to lean on AI for the parts of their job that they can—even if that means saving just one hour per week.

By handing off rote tasks to AI, we aim to not only boost efficiency, but also to improve work quality, provide more work-life harmony, and save money. The team has jumped right in and found ways to automate parts of their workflows.

Here are just some of the opportunities they found to improve efficiency with AI:

• The sales team changed up its approach to outbound calling, with AI detecting voicemails and using automated rules to allow for multiple calls at once as a way to save time while prioritizing human connection.
• The content team created 100 blog posts in 100 minutes by using generative AI to repurpose existing content for different audiences and verticals.
• The marketing operations team began generating 10% of pipeline autonomously in just two months by using generative AI–powered conversational email to scale and build out new account-based marketing programs.

In total, we’ve saved nearly 100,000 hours in under a year. And that’s because, across the organization, difference-makers are examining their roles and identifying ways to use AI to do their jobs better. Obviously, increased efficiency is a benefit to the company, but it also serves individuals by eliminating the sometimes-annoying, repetitive tasks and providing more job satisfaction.

NO LONGER A CHOICE

As hype around generative AI abates, we all have an opportunity to develop a more informed and strategic approach to the technology. Whether you’re a business leader looking to improve operational efficiency and performance, or an individual contributor seeking to offload the busywork so you can focus on the more interesting stuff, you’ll likely find AI-powered tools that can help.

The fact is, AI is here to stay. Adopting it is no longer a choice, it’s an imperative.