Worried about missing the AI outlet? Deutsche Bank's heavy report: everything has just begun

Author: Zhou Xiaowen

From the emergence of generative AI to its real application in a wide range of industries, there is still a long way to go.

Facing the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, Deutsche Bank pointed out in a report released recently that "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out) is one of the key words occupying this industry at present.

Enterprises are flooding technology companies with demands for AI products and services. Investors are piling into chipmakers and software companies. Since it started supporting the most well-known chatbot ChatGPT at the end of March, entrepreneurs have connected nearly 600 plugins to it.

But despite such enthusiasm for AI, Deutsche Bank believes that "FOMO" at this time may be too early.

History tells us that new technologies, such as the Internet or mobile devices, take years to move beyond enhancements to existing activities and translate into new use cases.

Unlike most other revolutionary technologies, Deutsche Bank pointed out that the current generative AI is still dominated by individuals, but enterprise-side applications often require more rigorous testing. At the same time, AI faces ethical, regulatory, and cultural hurdles. **

Evidence suggests that adoption of generative AI remains relatively limited due to people, governance and operational barriers. These issues will take time to be resolved through manual monitoring, segregated data, training and policy, etc.

In this report, Deutsche Bank analyzed the current situation and application prospects of generative AI, and pointed out that as time goes by, the impact of AI on human society will gradually appear in the future.

Current state of artificial intelligence use

Deutsche Bank believes that the current use of AI is not as high as people think.

Last year, almost no companies mentioned the word "artificial intelligence", but this year, it has become the favorite word of various listed companies in conference calls.

In the fourth quarter of last year, companies included in the S&P 500 mentioned “artificial intelligence” just 10 times in their earnings calls. By the first quarter of this year, this number became 159, and in the second quarter it was 504. In contrast, European companies were mentioned less frequently.

For those companies that really benefited from this wave, such as Nvidia, AI is the reason for skyrocketing stock prices.

However, unlike listed companies, Deutsche Bank’s survey shows that since the launch of ChatGPT, although most European and American respondents know about it,** but there are not many real application scenarios:**

More than half of Europeans and Americans have heard of AI applications. ChatGPT is best known in Europe. But less than 20 percent have tried chatbots so far.

While more Europeans have heard of ChatGPT, Americans are more actively using AI at work. By far the three most popular use cases for AI applications are at home, though a significant portion of people also use Bing AI at work.

Customer service is by far the area that uses AI the most:

Service operations is the top function using AI, led by consumer goods/retail, with almost a third of respondents in a recent survey using AI. AI for product and service development is led by financial services at 31%

A recent study of 5,179 customer service agents found that AI-based conversational assistants helped them improve productivity, especially for new hires, and AI also helped them improve metrics such as productivity and customer satisfaction .

Where are the opportunities in the industry?

Since the application of generative artificial intelligence has not been rolled out on a large scale, all walks of life are facing opportunities and challenges.

Deutsche Bank believes that for a wide range of industries, the application of artificial intelligence is most likely to focus on the following three areas: data analysis, content creation and editing, customer service and support.

Data analysis: Accounting firms can use AI to conduct financial analysis and evaluate company growth potential (especially M&A business); consulting firms can use ChatGPT to analyze unstructured data and generate business insights; media can use AI to analyze social media information and public opinion , to verify user posting information. Content creation: Advertising companies can use artificial intelligence to create advertising campaigns and develop personalized advertisements; game companies can use generative AI to enrich NPC personality, behavior and dialogue; video program production companies can use generative AI to create personalized scripts. Customer service and support: The catering industry can use generative AI chatbots to welcome guests and take orders; online shopping platforms can use generative AI to provide customers with purchasing suggestions; social platforms can use AI to answer customer questions and detect fraud on the platform Behavior.

In addition, in view of the fact that more applications of generative AI by users can only be realized through third-party plug-ins and search engines embedded in generative AI, Deutsche Bank believes that this represents the next three major development themes of AI:

Rise of fully AI-integrated software such as Microsoft 365 CoPilot: AI-integrated software remains largely unpopular, but often works across different everyday applications and in a secure, private, compatible manner Connect to business data for content and context. Enhanced Search Engine: A rapidly emerging third-party plug-in provides features similar to Enhanced Search, including real-time information, integrated reservation and purchase, and the ability to search pdf documents and websites by link; Third-party websites send traffic to earn advertising revenue. AI Personal Assistant: In the future, users may access products and services through apps embedded in chatbot personal assistants, or via chatbots embedded in apps.

What happens next? Where is the focus of investment in artificial intelligence?

Based on the above application directions, Deutsche Bank pointed out that in the future, investment in artificial intelligence may focus on medical care, data and financial technology. **

Global private investment in AI peaks at $125 billion in 2021, before slipping to $92 billion in 2022. Healthcare, data and fintech investments dominate.

Leading indicators such as patents and corporate filings point to an imminent surge in new uses of artificial intelligence in areas such as natural language processing, computer vision and generating audio.

Although generative AI currently mainly exists in the role of auxiliary work, it has not yet affected more industries. However, Deutsche Bank believes that in due course, innovations related to generative AI will disrupt business models.

Finally, Deutsche Bank pointed out that the use of artificial intelligence in the future may be multimodal, involving "hyper-personalized" content and services, and the ultimate goal is to achieve "superintelligence". **