Artificial Intelligence

I had two opportunities, while at IMA Financial Group, to manage tests and implementations of AI-based technologies.

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot that was launched in 2022. In late 2023, IMA Financial Group sought to test ChatGPT in a controlled yet practical setting. Collaborating with the company’s Marketing Team, a suitable initial test of the technology was identified.

At the time, the company’s insurance sales associates, known as Producers, relied on a 600-plus-page document called the Producer Playbook. This comprehensive manual contained processes, procedures, policies, facts, and figures essential for guiding Producers in their roles. For new Producers, the Playbook was vital for learning company operations, but its extensive length made it unwieldy and cumbersome. This characteristic made the Playbook an ideal candidate for piloting ChatGPT.

To ensure a structured approach, IMA Financial Group engaged the consulting firm West Monroe. IT and Marketing leadership collaborated to develop requirements for integrating the AI with the Producer Playbook. A crucial consideration was that the Playbook contained proprietary company intellectual property. Therefore, it was essential to ensure that the Playbook data was self-contained and not used to train ChatGPT.

To achieve this, a dedicated Resource Group was created within our Azure tenant. An Azure OpenAI Service, leveraging GPT-4, was deployed to the Resource Group and configured to restrict source data usage to within our tenant. West Monroe developed a user interface within the Resource Group and uploaded a copy of the Producer Playbook as the source data.

Following successful initial testing, the new tool, named "Ask IMA," was launched to the company’s Producers. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the project was considered a significant success. Moving forward, the Producer Playbook will continue to be maintained and developed in Word format, as many Producers prefer to keep a reference copy. However, Ask IMA is designed to easily consume and integrate new versions of the Playbook as they are updated.

The entire project duration, from initiation to go-live, was six weeks. 

Another AI test I initiated was a pilot for Microsoft Copilot, promptly after it became available to Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscriptions. For the pilot, I acquired 50 add-on subscriptions at a cost of $30 per user per month. I collaborated with the Internal Communications Department to post an announcement on the corporate intranet, seeking volunteers for the pilot program. The sole requirement for volunteers was to attend two training sessions, provide feedback, and respond to any surveys they received.
The number of volunteers exceeded the available subscriptions, so I selected participants representing a broad spectrum of business units and job functions. Once a license was assigned to a user, the tool was automatically deployed within 24 hours.I developed training materials for the two sessions. The first session utilized available materials provided by Microsoft, while the second session's materials were based on my own hands-on experience. During the second session, I also encouraged participants to share any additional learnings or ideas they had.
After a month of usage, I created a survey using Microsoft Forms and distributed it to the test participants. Overall, the feedback was very positive. Most participants found Copilot to be an effective productivity enhancer. They particularly appreciated Copilot's ability to organize basic data, information, and bullet points in Word into formal communications, proposals, and PowerPoint presentations with minimal effort. Although Microsoft Copilot was deemed effective, the annual cost per user was considered too prohibitive for company-wide deployment. Consequently, senior company leadership decided that Copilot would be made available to employees upon request and with manager approval.