A fast-paced digital landscape has vitalized both a thrilling and challenging pursuit to harness the power of Generative AI (Gen AI). While the potential of Gen AI is widely recognized, with promises of faster insights and automation, many organizations find themselves grappling with a rudimentary step: establishing a potent data foundation.

According to a recent Forrester global study commissioned by SoftServe, only 22% of organizations achieve enterprise-wide Gen AI success. This highlights a critical gap in realizing the full potential of these technologies.

The challenges are abundant. A staggering 89% of businesses face difficulties in preparing their data for Gen AI consumption, often due to compliance risks, quality issues, and outdated technologies. Furthermore, 55% of organizations are compelled to sidestep certain AI use cases entirely because of data-related obstacles, as noted in Deloitte's report on the state of Gen AI in enterprises.

These statistics paint a clear picture: Without the right data foundation, the journey to Gen AI success is precarious, if not impossible.

At the heart of addressing these tests lies a comprehensive data strategy. This strategy is built on three essential pillars:

Value generation from enterprise data assets

Meticulous data management practices paired with a strong governance framework

Scalable technology architecture that supports efficient data platforms

The absence of these elements or misalignment among them creates significant data foundation gaps, undermining AI initiatives and stalling progress.

SoftServe, in partnership with AWS, is at the forefront of resolving these challenges. As a top-tier AWS Partner, SoftServe offers a suite of more than 10 services designed to fortify data ecosystems — crucial for Gen AI's reliable success. The approach bridges existing gaps and sets a strong precedent for future data and analytics initiatives, including artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), governance programs, and other essential technologies and systems.

Transitioning from theory to practice, let's explore how SoftServe's AWS Data Foundation for Generative AI has already transformed the data landscapes of its clients. Here are a couple of real-world success stories that underscore the tangible benefits of a solid data foundation.

Transform data into actionable insights

Optical, imaging, and industrial products maker

One of SoftServe’s success stories revolves around a leading optical, imaging, and industrial products manufacturer that faced a bottleneck with its analytics team. The team was inundated with requests, unable to deliver prompt insights needed by its business leaders for accurate decision-making.

The client’s vision for Gen AI was to empower non-technical users with a business intelligence (BI) solution that processes natural language requests, translates them into queries for its data warehouse, and provides answers in the form of spreadsheets or diagrams. Sales data was identified as the primary focus area. However, the complex structure of the client’s product catalog posed a significant hurdle. Large language models (LLMs) struggled to accurately map user-input product categories to the correct stock keeping units (SKUs) due to the catalog's intricate hierarchy. This led to inaccuracies in the AI-generated answers.

SoftServe stepped in to revamp the data warehouse, reconfiguring the product catalog into an analytics-friendly structure and establishing mappings between the new and original catalogs. This overhaul improved the accuracy of the Gen AI responses by more than 90%, gaining the approval of business stakeholders.

Network monitoring and testing equipment manufacturer

Another story showcases a leading manufacturer of network monitoring and testing equipment. The organization’s sales team faced a familiar challenge: keeping an updated view of customer inventory, needs, and plans. Preparing for customer interactions required extensive research across internal systems and external media sources.

The client envisioned an AI-powered customer 360 solution that integrates data from internal systems like customer relationship management (CRM) and order management, with summarized media news about its specific customers, recommending the next best actions for its sales teams.

Initially, a proof-of-concept project showed the potential of AI news summarization. However, the absence of a comprehensive data platform hindered the project's progress. There was no data lake for storage, no tools for data integration from disparate systems, and no data catalog to manage and protect data assets.

SoftServe launched a Data Platform Foundation project, and through a maturity assessment, built an AWS data lake solution within three months. This included low-code data ingestion pipelines, a lightweight master data management system to consolidate customer records, and Amazon QuickSight dashboards integrated with Gen AI outputs. This comprehensive solution enabled the company to deliver a holistic AI-enabled, customer 360 tool, streamlining sales strategies and enhancing customer interactions.

Guide for your Gen AI data foundation journey

Embarking on your Gen AI data foundation journey starts with ideation, where SoftServe helps organizations explore potential business cases. Through the Gen AI use cases prioritization framework, businesses pinpoint the most promising AI opportunities that align with their strategic goals. The “Data-Driven Everything (D2E)” workshops further enrich this phase by fostering interactive brainstorming sessions to refine these AI use cases, setting the foundation for innovation and ensuring chosen paths are both impactful and possible.

A strategy phase focuses on defining a clear roadmap. SoftServe conducts a data and AI governance maturity assessment to evaluate existing governance practices, confirming they are strong enough to meet AI objectives. Coupled with a data platform maturity assessment, organizations gauge their readiness to integrate AI into their data infrastructure. The data strategy smart start is then developed to provide a strategic blueprint, guiding the business from initial ideas through successful execution.

Building a solid data foundation is crucial, and SoftServe provides the tools to prove this. The data platform foundation offers a healthy, scalable platform tailored to support AI initiatives. Alongside this, a data and AI governance framework is implemented to maintain data integrity and compliance. The Gen AI document landing zone serves as a centralized repository, streamlining access to AI-related documentation and resources, securing consistency and efficiency.

Scaling operations effectively is addressed through scaling solutions. By optimizing data management and ML processes with data ops and machine learning operations (MLOps), organizations improve both efficiency and scalability. This allows them to handle increasing demands without sacrificing performance.

During an experimentation phase, ideas are put to the test. The Gen AI proof-of-value allows organizations to conduct targeted experiments, validating AI concepts and showing potential benefits. To accelerate this process, the 90-day Gen AI MVP helps businesses develop a minimum viable product quickly, enabling the testing of AI solutions in practical, real-world scenarios.

Finally, the adoption phase safeguards that AI solutions deliver their full potential. The Gen AI-to-production assurance accelerator facilitates a seamless transition of AI models into production, maximizing their effectiveness and procuring reliable outcomes. This structured approach empowers organizations to confidently navigate their Gen AI data foundation journey, transforming challenges into opportunities for business growth and innovation.

Conclusion

Building a durable Gen AI data foundation is urgent in a competitive business environment. For SoftServe clients, this approach has proven transformative, enabling them to overcome complex challenges and unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation. Through strategic ideation, precise roadmap planning, solid data foundation building, effective scaling, thorough experimentation, and successful adoption, SoftServe will guide your organization every step of the way.

SoftServe's customized solutions are designed to meet the unique needs of your business, setting up a seamless journey toward Gen AI success. From prioritizing AI use cases to establishing comprehensive data governance frameworks, this approach equips you with the tools needed to harness the full potential of Gen AI.

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