Every discussion about doing what matters with innovation must include AI. With generative AI, we are on the brink of a new era of innovation that will truly transform how we interact with the digital world.

At Avanade, we have a lot of discussions about innovation. It is a regular topic with our clients, whether we are dreaming big about how technology can transform their businesses or looking at incremental changes to make things work better. Last year, we launched our School of Innovation, an opportunity for our client executives to start an ongoing dialogue with Avanade experts and their regional peers about where innovation can—and should—take us next.

We’ve replicated the School of Innovation idea for our own people as well, hosting the Pathway to Innovation program in various regions around the world. And soon we will launch our Innovate Fest event, where we provide daily content for our people to consume and interact with, every day for two weeks. Our theme this year is “Doing what matters with innovation,” which speaks both to the power of innovation and the responsibility of using it ethically.

All of these conversations have a strong generative AI component. We have an opportunity at Avanade to help our clients embrace generative AI and the potential it has for transformation. And we are well poised to do it, as we’ve been working with Microsoft on OpenAI since 2021. We’re also working with Microsoft as it integrates generative AI into its solutions. And we are exploring ways to give organizations the chance to make the most of their own knowledge bases to get better insights, increase processing speed and enhance interactions among employees and with customers.

No one wants to be left behind in this quick shift to a new way of thinking about what AI can do for us.  Yet there is an essential element to all of Generative AI that I want to make sure we keep foremost in our thoughts, and that is the need for humans to be a part of the process (and processing). Generative AI left alone could quickly run amok. Part of our jobs is to model the importance of human oversight and help clients build that behavior into their own operations.

That is why we keep the conversation flowing through events like Innovate Fest 2023.

Everyone at Avanade shares a passion for technology and innovating with purpose. We do our best work when we find client organizations with that same passion, curiosity and commitment to doing what matters. And we look forward to an ever-evolving dialogue around how best to use innovations like gen AI to help us make a genuine human impact.