As businesses clamour for workplace AI, tech companies rush to provide It

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It seemed to be a game-changer, Austin said. But since ChatGPT is a publicly available tool, he wondered if it was secure for businesses to use. So in January, AT&T tried a product from Microsoft called Azure OpenAI Services that lets businesses build their own artificial-intelligence-powered chatbots.

AT&T used it to create a proprietary AI assistant, Ask AT&T, which helps its developers automate their coding process. AT&T's customer service representatives also began using the chatbot to help summarize their calls, among other tasks. «Once they realize what it can do, they love it,» Austin said.

Forms that once took hours to complete needed only two minutes with Ask AT&T so employees could focus on more complicated tasks, he said, and developers who used the chatbot increased their productivity by 20% to 50%. AT&T is one of many businesses eager to find ways to tap the power of generative AI, the technology that powers chatbots and that has gripped Silicon Valley with excitement in recent months. Generative AI can produce its own text, photos and video in response to prompts, capabilities that can help automate tasks such as taking meeting minutes and cut down on paperwork.

To meet this new demand, tech companies are racing to introduce products for businesses that incorporate generative AI. Over the past three months, Amazon, Box and Cisco have unveiled plans for generative AI-powered products that produce code, analyze documents and summarize meetings. Salesforce also recently rolled out generative AI products used in sales, marketing and its Slack messaging service, while Oracle announced a new AI feature for human resources teams.