Elastic, a leading company in enterprise search, has embraced generative AI to revolutionize its search technology strategy. By integrating the Elasticsearch Relevance Engine (ESRE), Elastic now combines traditional keyword-based search methods with advanced vector search capabilities. This hybrid approach allows for a more nuanced understanding of context and semantics in vast data repositories. With ESRE, Elastic can offer customers more sophisticated ways to retrieve relevant documents from their Elasticsearch stores.
Additionally, Elastic has incorporated retrieval augmented generation (RAG) into its vector database technology. This integration provides comprehensive capabilities like permissions, faceted search, hybrid search, and the ability to use multiple search techniques such as BM25 basic search and vector search. Elastic’s commitment to flexibility and developer choice is evident in its approach, allowing developers to have all the functionality and openness they need.
**AI-Powered Contract Management Advancements**
DocuSign is leveraging AI to transform contract management with its Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform. The platform’s core components, including Maestro, Navigator, and App Center, work together to analyze contracts and convert static contract data into actionable insights. IAM fills a critical gap in enterprise digitization by enabling reasoning, querying, and understanding of contracts at scale.
By aggregating and systematically analyzing contracts, DocuSign’s approach has enabled businesses to identify inconsistencies and opportunities. For example, one customer with 70 contracts realized they were spending hundreds of millions of dollars due to different negotiated terms. Through automated analysis, DocuSign helped the customer shave off over $100 million in spend. IAM has the potential to transform contract management from a labor-intensive task to a strategic business function.
**Navigating AI Adoption Challenges responsibly**
Both Elastic and DocuSign emphasize responsible AI adoption. They understand the need to move fast while ensuring caution and addressing questions that arise from using AI. When dealing with sensitive data like contracts, data security and transparency are of utmost importance.
DocuSign is particularly cautious and transparent in its approach. They prioritize customer data security and explicitly request implicit permission when using customer data for training AI models. Both companies focus on delivering end-to-end solutions rather than piecemeal offerings to solve customers’ problems effectively.
**Optimizing AI Costs and Resources**
Cost optimization plays a crucial role in AI adoption. Efficient resource utilization is necessary for sustainable AI scaling, especially for companies handling massive data volumes. Elastic’s CEO, Ash Kulkarni, predicts that the cost of inference will continue to decrease due to improvements in hardware and technology, as well as competition in the area of large language models (LLMs).
Both Kulkarni and DocuSign’s CPO, Dmitri Krakovsky, discuss the expanding capabilities of AI. They highlight the importance of multimodal AI models that can handle multiple types of data and provide the right responses across different modalities. In contract management, AI can automatically find insights, address ambiguities, and ensure compliance.
**Real-World AI Implementation Examples**
The discussion includes real-world applications of AI in enterprise settings. Cisco, for instance, used Elastic’s technology to automate tasks and free up engineers for more valuable work. In the financial sector, a Fortune 100 bank leveraged Elastic to revolutionize how wealth managers interact with clients by creating a personalized “one-person Bloomberg terminal.”
From improving search capabilities to automating contract negotiation, the potential applications of AI are vast. However, navigating technical, ethical, and operational challenges is essential. Issues such as data privacy, model transparency, and cost-effective scaling remain at the forefront of discussions.
In conclusion, the integration of generative AI into enterprise search and contract management has the potential to transform businesses’ operations. Elastic and DocuSign are at the forefront of this transformation, providing innovative solutions that enhance search capabilities, automate contract analysis, and optimize resource utilization. As AI continues to evolve, responsible adoption and addressing challenges will be key to unlocking its full potential.
