This is the reality of AI democratization, and it’s poised to revolutionize how enterprises approach technology.
Democratizing AI means more accessibility to AI tools and technologies by non-experts. It’s about putting the power of AI into the hands of the many rather than confining it to a specialized few. This shift is poised to disrupt industries and transform the way enterprises leverage technology. From healthcare to finance or manufacturing, the democratization of AI is empowering everyone to work smarter, more efficiently, and with greater agility. And for IT leaders, the implications are immense.
In this post, we’ll dive deep into the democratization of AI and its impact on enterprise IT. We’ll explore what exactly AI democratization means, the different forms it can take, and six specific ways it’s reshaping IT as we know it.
What is the democratization of AI?
AI models traditionally require vast, diverse datasets, significant computing power, and deep technical expertise, limiting their development and use to specialized professionals like data scientists.
Democratizing AI aims to break down these barriers by:
- Enhancing access: Introducing user-friendly, intuitive interfaces that let individuals without specialized training use AI tools. For example, platforms like Google AutoML provide a guided environment for building machine learning models.
- Making AI affordable: Reducing the costs associated with AI development by providing free or subsidized access to necessary computing infrastructure.
- Bridging knowledge gaps: Offering extensive educational resources and training platforms, such as Coursera and Udacity, that democratize the learning process for managing and deploying AI technologies.
By removing these obstacles, democratization exposes a wider audience to AI, which will lead to more innovation.
Types of AI democratizations
AI democratization can be categorized into several primary types, each addressing different aspects of making artificial intelligence more accessible to a broader audience. These include:
Tool democratization
This involves creating more user-friendly AI tools that require minimal to no coding skills. Examples include drag-and-drop interfaces, visual programming environments, and automated machine learning (AutoML) platforms. These tools allow individuals without a deep computer science or data science background to build, train, and deploy AI models.
Algorithm democratization
Open-source libraries and frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Scikit-learn make advanced algorithms available to everyone. Open-source software allows developers and researchers to use, modify, and redistribute AI algorithms without the restrictions associated with proprietary systems.
Knowledge democratization
This focuses on spreading AI literacy and skills across a broader range of people. It includes educational programs, online courses, workshops, and certifications accessible to various skill levels through public learning platforms like Google, Coursera, edX, and Udacity. Furthermore, developers and AI enthusiasts can share techniques and code with open-source communities like StackOverflow to help resolve issues. By making AI education widely available and free or affordable, more people can understand, use, and innovate with AI.
In addition to direct types of AI democratization, two other types of democratization are foundational enablers for AI democratization. Those are:
Data democratization
AI systems rely heavily on data for training models. Without access to quality data, the scope and effectiveness of AI applications are severely limited. Thus, democratizing data is critical to democratizing AI because it lays the foundational layer that enables broad participation in AI development and application.
Data democratization primarily refers to making data accessible to a broader range of users within an organization or community. This involves ensuring that individuals can easily access, understand, and use data regardless of their technical expertise. It’s essential to remove the gatekeeping that often surrounds data access, enabling more informed decision-making across various levels of an organization.
Resource (storage & compute) democratization
This ensures the necessary computational resources are available for AI development and deployment, similar to how data democratization ensures the availability of necessary data. Access to cloud computing services and scalable AI processing capabilities enable a more comprehensive range of entities to participate in AI development. One popular solution is the Google CoLab, which makes high-processing GPU freely available for ML and data science.
What to democratize?
Source: PwC Analysis
Five ways AI democratization impacts enterprise IT
As AI tools and technologies become more accessible and integrated into various business functions, their impact on Enterprise IT is profound and multifaceted. The democratization of AI will empower users at all levels and transform the traditional roles and responsibilities of IT departments.
Five key ways in which AI democratization is reshaping Enterprise IT are the:
1. Shift in IT roles and responsibilities
As AI tools become more prevalent, the role of Enterprise IT shifts from being predominantly about managing infrastructure and basic software to providing more strategic, integrative support across different AI applications. IT professionals will need to focus on ensuring these tools are used securely and effectively, integrating AI systems with existing IT infrastructure, and managing data governance.
2. Need to address security and ethical concerns
As AI tools become more widespread, risks related to data privacy and security breaches increase. There are also ethical concerns around AI decision-making. Enterprise IT must develop robust frameworks and policies to address these issues, ensuring AI is used responsibly and in compliance with regulations.
3. Move to (even more) continuous learning and development
With AI technologies evolving rapidly, there is a continuous need for training and development programs for IT staff. This ensures that the workforce stays up-to-date with the latest AI technologies and understands how to leverage them effectively.
4. Tackle challenges in integration and scalability
Integrating AI technologies with existing enterprise systems can be challenging. IT departments must ensure that legacy systems are modernized and ready to integrate with AI tools — and that selected AI tools are compatible with existing software and are scalable across the organization. This requires significant technical expertise and strategic planning.
5. Increased need for cost management
While AI can drive cost savings in the long run, the initial implementation can be expensive, particularly in terms of acquiring the right tools, modifying infrastructure, and training staff. IT departments need to manage these costs effectively to ensure a good return on investment.
Benefits of democratizing AI for enterprise IT
The democratization of AI across an organization lets business users make better decisions faster, innovate more frequently, and do more with less. Empowering everyone in an organization this way provides distinct benefits to IT departments.
Reduced IT burden for routine support
When AI tools are accessible across departments, non-IT employees can handle many routine tasks that would otherwise require IT support. For instance, AI-enabled self-service portals can help employees resolve common technical issues, access data, or configure systems without direct IT intervention. This frees up IT resources for more complex and value-add activities.
Better alignment with business needs
As different departments begin to use and understand AI tools, there’s a greater opportunity for cross-departmental collaboration. IT can benefit from insights and innovations developed in other parts of the organization, such as marketing or operations, which can lead to improved IT strategies and solutions that are more aligned with business needs.
Improved organizational resilience
Wider AI adoption across the organization enhances overall business resilience, which indirectly benefits IT. For example, AI-driven analytics in operations can predict and mitigate disruptions that might otherwise impact IT infrastructure. Additionally, AI in cybersecurity can enhance threat detection across the company, supporting IT in safeguarding the entire organizational network.
Better adoption of new technologies
Since AI democratization focuses on making tech easier to use, AI related-tech reduces the training burden on IT and increases the adoption new tech. When you can literally talk to your new software in straightforward language versus sifting through help topics or user forums, it’s much easier to use.
Feedback loop for improvement
As various departments use AI tools, they generate valuable feedback about these tools’ functionality and effectiveness. This feedback can help IT to better customize, configure, and improve the AI solutions within the organization, ensuring they are optimally tuned to meet the specific needs of the business.
By democratizing AI, an organization enhances the capacity of IT to serve the organization more effectively. This improvement in capabilities and efficiencies can significantly impact the organization’s bottom line and operational success.
AI democratization in practice
Though it’s been around for some time, AI is still in its infancy in the enterprise. Many initiatives will require technical expertise. But there are several ready-made AI-based tools that are accessible to everyone in an organization, with very low learning curves.
Salesforce Einstein is an AI layer integrated within the Salesforce CRM platform that provides predictive analytics, natural language processing, and automated task management directly to end-users like the sales and marketing teams. Users can leverage AI to forecast sales, prioritize leads, and automate data entry without any coding skills. Einstein’s integration into everyday tasks simplifies complex AI functionalities into user-friendly actions that directly benefit non-technical staff.
Tableau Pulse is a metrics and insights program that lets non-technical employees integrate AI-powered insights seamlessly into their workflows. Users can ask questions in plain English and it will give intelligent, personalized, and contextual insights, making data-driven decision-making accessible to everyone in the organization.
Google’s Teachable Machine is a web-based tool that allows anyone to create models based on their own images, sounds, and poses without any coding. It’s designed to teach the basics of machine learning through a simple interface where users can train a model to recognize images or sounds in just a few clicks. This tool is particularly educational and allows non-technical users to experiment with and understand AI.
Microsoft’s Copilot uses generative AI to allow any user to complete sophisticated tasks across the Microsoft 365 suite with simple, conversational prompts. Now anyone can quickly and easily create formulas in Excel, full presentation drafts in PowerPoint, and transform text into structured tables, regardless of their level of data analysis or design expertise.
When AI is this easy, people get excited about the potential — and that makes it easier for IT and engineering teams to roll out bigger and more strategic AI initiatives.
But it’s not just ready-made tools that can help democratize AI.
How Intellias revolutionized enterprise-wide insights for a fleet management services provider
The challenge
With more than 300,000 customers in over 50 countries, this organization managed massive amounts of internal data across physical and digital properties.
The company turned to Intellias to help them streamline knowledge management flows and make enterprise-scale information search easier. The goal was to create a unified platform that organized the company’s internal information and facilitated intuitive search across all resources, fostering better contextual understanding and insight generation.
The solution
To unify and centralize the company’s knowledge management platform in a place with powerful information processing and retrieval capabilities, Intellias turned to large language models (LLMs). This is the same type of AI that ChatGPT is created on, which lets users find answers by asking questions in natural language.
To refine and enhance search and retrieval across the company’s database, we supplemented the LLM with a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework, increasing the precision of the model’s responses. The platform integrates various information repositories maintained in the company, enabling data discovery from both enterprise collaboration tools and database engines.
And to fully democratize solution, the company’s employees can easily access information using their usual communication tools.
The results
The client now has a centralized interface for data retrieval, which raises their overall data management efficiency and contributes to maintaining a high level of employee satisfaction, streamlining multiple business processes. In addition, the solution has:
- Refined employee onboarding procedures
- Improved effectiveness of internal collaboration
- Increased employee retention as a result of higher employee satisfaction and less stress
The AI-Powered future is now
The democratization of AI is a game-changer for enterprise IT. By making AI tools and technologies accessible to everyone, businesses can unlock unprecedented levels of innovation, efficiency, and agility. From empowering non-technical employees to make data-driven decisions to freeing up IT resources for more strategic initiatives, the benefits of AI democratization are clear.
However, this shift also presents new challenges, such as ensuring data security, managing costs, and integrating AI with existing systems. IT leaders must navigate these challenges while also embracing the opportunities that AI democratization presents.
Intellias can help you incorporate and democratize AI in your business. From pieces of applying language implementing large language models for efficient information processing to facilitating effective communication between employees, Intellias can help with every stage of your AI journey, from problem analysis to implementation.
As AI continues to evolve and mature, its impact will only grow. Organizations that embrace this change and empower their employees with AI will be well-positioned to thrive in the digital age. The future of work is here – and it’s powered by AI. Talk to our expert about your project today.
