Apps have been getting “smarter” for some time now, thanks to an infusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation capabilities that make software more intuitive and more efficient. And now a new generation of intelligent apps is raising software IQ levels even higher, with native AI and generative AI (genAI) capabilities that offer unique opportunities to create more value for customers and employees.
Intelligent apps combine cloud-scale compute and data with AI capabilities such as natural-language processing, computer vision, speech recognition, machine learning, and genAI to provide more intelligent and responsive experiences. Developers now have the platforms and tools they need in order to bring innovative AI apps to production quickly and at scale.
“The new generation of intelligent apps seamlessly incorporates AI functionality and capabilities in a way that can fundamentally change the user experience,” says Nikisha Reyes-Grange, Director of Product Marketing for Azure Data at Microsoft.
An important characteristic of an intelligent app is context awareness. In other words, it knows what the user is doing at any given time as well as key details about the surrounding environment. This enables the software to make personalized recommendations in real time, based on their behavior, preferences, or even environmental factors such as their location.
The new generation of intelligent apps adds a collaborative layer to this contextual awareness. “Apps will be able to make some decisions on the user’s behalf while keeping the user in the loop to validate that they’re making the right decisions,” says Zion Brewer, AI Technology Strategy Leader at NVIDIA.
Here are some examples of intelligent apps:
- Connected products such as GPS systems in cars
- Service and support bots that improve customer service operations
- Personalization and recommendation apps that tailor content, products, or services to individuals
- “Copilot” apps that go beyond traditional chatbots to enable richer and more contextual interactions
For example, KPMG Australia deployed a genAI agent called KymChat to revolutionize how the firm’s 10,000 employees communicate and collaborate. The app enhances discoverability of the firm’s large repositories of unstructured data, automates routine tasks, and offers rapid responses to common queries, making it easy to incorporate conversational AI into internal or client-facing workloads. To date, 70% of the firm’s employees have adopted KymChat, making more than 120,000 requests. The solution has led to as much as a 50% productivity jump across workloads such as document drafting, communications, sales proposal development, and research.
AI-infused cloud-native apps are also having a tangible impact on developer productivity. Forrester Consulting studies looking at the Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Azure AI[1] and Microsoft Azure App Innovation[2] found a range of benefits, including a 10% to 25% increase in developer efficiency, an average 10% to 25% reduction in app downtime, and shorter time to market for new apps.
NVIDIA and Microsoft: New possibilities
The combined AI leadership of Microsoft Azure and NVIDIA enables organizations in every industry to easily build and modernize intelligent apps. The partnership brings together Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure and extensive software lineup with NVIDIA AI Enterprise, an end-to-end cloud-native software platform that brings genAI within reach for every business.
Learn more about how to simplify your tool chain with the interconnected Microsoft and NVIDIA ecosystems and bring AI-enabled apps to market faster. Click here.
[1] The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Azure AI, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting (May 2023).
[2] Ibid.