OpenAI's revolutionary chatbot ChatGPT has been all over the news in recent months, triggering technology giants such as Google and Baidu to accelerate their AI roadmaps. ChatGPT is built on OpenAI's GPT language model and provides a variety of functions, such as engaging in conversations, answering questions, generating written text, debugging code, conducting sentiment analysis, translating languages and much more. Looking at the technologies of this moment in time, nothing seems to be as pivotal to the future of humanity as generative AI. The idea of scaling the creation of intelligence through machines will touch on everything that happens around us, and the momentum in the generative AI space created by ChatGPT's sudden ascent is inspiring. How should enterprise business leaders react to this?

The concept of immediacy is ingrained in 21st-century life. From shopping on Amazon with next-day delivery to internet and location services providing real-time information in the palm of our hands, it is clear that instant results are only going to become more prevalent in everyday life. In an era when many are jaded about tech -- and it is increasingly harder to surprise and excite people about what it can do -- ChatGPT has been a refreshing development. It is engaging, can be a lot of fun to test-drive and has proved beneficial for students and professionals looking to generate content. And it is all done in an instant.

Strolling down the picturesque paths surrounding Felixstowe, a port town on the heath-speckled coast of southern England, it's hard to imagine that such a peaceful-looking place has played host to events that disrupted the global logistics industry. The connected and interdependent nature of our modern economy means that when port workers in Felixstowe went on an eight-day strike in September 2022, it caused major issues around the world. What's more, "once-in-a-generation" events are becoming the new normal, producing even greater upheaval and begging the question: "Can supply chain technology come to the rescue?" The last three years have redefined what global supply chain disruption means. The COVID-19 pandemic, Suez Canal blockage and port congestion have brought chaos to many companies' logistics operations.

Businesses of all sizes are bracing for a recession. Still, while it may sound counterintuitive, this is actually the right time to accelerate digital transformation. Historically, an economic downturn is a boon for innovation. According to Morgan Stanley, roughly half of Fortune 500 companies were founded in times of recession or economic crisis. Investing in digital transformation will help businesses overcome a slowdown and address talent shortages.

The general buzz around AI is not fading away anytime soon. However, a technical understanding of these tools remains a complicated conversation. Large Language Models (LLMs) cannot understand and emulate human-like conversations. They are trained with huge volumes of data to give a particular output based on the specific input. But they lack the ability to comprehend the true meaning behind those words. Any response generated by LLMs will lack a basic understanding of the context.

Over time, the route to external financing has become a standardized, inefficient process. Founders will go to venture capitalists or wealthy'angels', map out their vision and ask for funding in return for a stake in the business. Investors will do their own research and deals will always hinge on subjectivity. Entrepreneurs must persuade investors that their company mission warrants backing and that they, as individuals, are capable of making it a reality. Despite the advanced technologies and sectors that investors bankroll, these existing methods are outdated and not fit for purpose.

AI has entered a new phase. The last few months have seen an explosion in generative AI. The ability to use text to automatically write narratives and create art is maturing very fast. Early applications of these new capabilities in co-authoring software, writing news articles and business reports, and creating commercials are already emerging. We can expect entire industries -- from software engineering to creative marketing -- to be disrupted.

Generative AI is generating a lot of interest from both the public and investors. But they are overlooking a fundamental risk. When ChatGPT launched in November, allowing users to submit questions to a chatbot and get AI-produced responses, the internet went into a frenzy. Thought leaders proclaimed that the new technology could transform sectors from media to healthcare (it recently passed all three parts of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination). Microsoft has already invested billions of dollars into its partnership with creator OpenAI, aiming to deploy the technology on a global scale, such as integrating it into the search engine Bing. Undoubtedly executives hope this will help the tech giant, which has lagged in search, catch up to market leader Google.

Across industries, businesses are expanding their use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. AI isn't just for the tech giants like Meta and Google anymore; logistics firms leverage AI to streamline operations, advertisers use AI to target specific markets and even your online bank uses AI to power its automated customer service experience. For these companies, dealing with ethical risks and operational challenges related to AI is inevitable – but how should they prepare to face them? Poorly executed AI products can violate individual privacy and in the extreme, even weaken our social and political systems. In the U.S., an algorithm used to predict likelihood of future crime was revealed to be biased against Black Americans, reinforcing racial discriminatory practices in the criminal justice system.

Consumers today live in a mobile-first world. According to research from App Annie, "consumers logged a record 3.8 trillion hours on their mobiles in 2021 and downloaded some 230 billion apps." Further putting a stamp on mobile dominance is that Americans, on average, are now spending less time watching TV and spending more time on their mobile phones. As we all spend more time on our devices, technology leaders are being pressured to deliver more and better native mobile experiences faster than ever before. From banking to retail, healthcare to transportation, every industry is realizing that offering mobile app experiences is critical to survival.