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BusinessDay: GPT technology is being adopted across industries


By Johan Steyn, 12 April 2023


By now it is fairly old news to write about the upheaval caused by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4 large language models. It has taken the world by storm and has brought the rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms to the attention of large swathes of people who were not familiar with the technology.


A generative pretrained transformer (GPT) is a type of advanced AI language model designed to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives.


Given the extensive media coverage of OpenAI’s platforms, it is easy to think that they rule the roost. GPT has been around for some time and many platforms have been using the technology for some time already. A number of companies are making steady progress in deploying GPT platforms.


Bloomberg has developed a proprietary language model, BloombergGPT. It is specifically tuned for finance, leveraging the massive amounts of financial data and news available at the Bloomberg Terminal. By integrating GPT technology into its platform, Bloomberg aims to streamline and enhance data analysis, automating the interpretation of complex financial documents and generating more accurate market predictions. This financial language model is expected to bring a new level of efficiency and reliability to the finance sector, ultimately benefiting investors and analysts alike.


Not one to be left behind, Amazon has released its own GPT model designed to support a wide range of applications across its various services, from Alexa to AWS. They strive to enhance user experience, improve the quality of generated content and expand the potential for AI-driven automation. Amazon’s investment in GPT technology is a testament to its commitment to staying at the forefront of innovation and providing state-of-the-art solutions to its customers.


Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is also embracing GPT technology, developing its own rival to ChatGPT. This language model will be integrated across all of Alibaba’s products, aiming to streamline communication between buyers and sellers, enhance product descriptions and improve customer service. With this ambitious move, Alibaba is poised to strengthen its position as a leader in the e-commerce industry, offering a competitive edge by leveraging advanced AI capabilities in its vast range of products and services.


By leveraging GPT technology the healthcare sector stands to benefit from increased efficiency, enhanced patient experiences, and more accessible healthcare services, ultimately transforming the way medical professionals and patients interact and reshaping healthcare as we know it. It can improve access to medical information, streamlining administrative tasks, personalising patient care, expanding mental health services, and facilitating medical research.


GPT had the potential for legal professionals to automate tasks such as document review, drafting and research, allowing them to save time and resources, and focus on more strategic and critical aspects of their work. The adoption of these platforms in the legal industry has the potential to transform the way lawyers work, improving productivity and client satisfaction.


By implementing GPT platforms, businesses can automate responses to customer queries, provide round-the-clock assistance and reduce response times. The integration of these in customer service not only enhances efficiency but also improves overall customer satisfaction, setting a new standard for support experiences across industries.


The increasingly widespread adoption of GPT technology across industries is likely to demonstrate its potential to transform the way businesses operate. As a business leader it is crucial to recognise the value of GPT technology in streamlining operations, enhancing user experience and staying competitive in today’s rapidly evolving landscape. Now is the time to explore and invest in GPT solutions, harnessing the power of AI to unlock new opportunities and drive your organisation’s success into the future.

• Steyn is on the faculty at Woxsen University, a research fellow at Stellenbosch University and founder of AIforBusiness.net


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