GenAI will raise the bar for internal platforms
People keep saying that GenAI will change everything, but what exactly and how much? While these advances keep making the future ever more difficult to predict, it's easy to see the impacts will be far reaching. ChatGPT experienced the fastest user growth of any new application to that point and businesses large and small are being swept up in the rush to provide GenAI functionality in their products, from customer chat-bots to enterprise productivity tools. Even basic science is seeing big impacts from GenAI. All of these breakthroughs will ultimately put pressure on internal platforms to scale far beyond where they are now. At the same time GenAI can provide support to the very same teams building and supporting these platforms.
Lets look at how this will play out:
GenAI -> Consumer Facing Revolution
It's clear now that GenAI will have a big impact on B2C markets of all kinds. While there is certainly a lot of hype over GenAI, there is an undeniable impact happening across society, from schools to the workplace and beyond. Where previous fads may have left you with a useless picture of a monkey, this is looking to have real staying power, since your average consumer can see the benefits in ordinary daily tasks.
Consumer Facing Revolution -> Demands on Business
Given this interest from the public, there is a huge rush to integrate GenAI features into every product imaginable, reminiscent of when the name of every electronics product needed to start with an "i". Leaving aside how applicable GenAI is to businesses across the board there will be pressure on businesses too build GenAI features into their products.
Demands on Business -> Push for Engineering Speed
This has played out in the past with trends in technology from the internet to mobile to cloud. In the transition to a major new technology, the speed of implementation determines who will get ahead in the new market or even the existing market that is being redefined. This push for speed will impact many areas of the business but will in large part be focused on engineering teams to pick up the pace of innovation and implement GenAI and new features in general.
Push for Engineering Speed -> GenAI Tools Augmentation
Given the broad utility of GenAI, it is becoming a step function for the whole business environment. GenAI doesn't just improve consumer experience. The engineering teams that are being pushed to work faster also have the benefit of GenAI tools like GitHub copilot to help build features faster.
GenAI Tools Augmentation -> Platform Gaps
With developers able to develop code faster, the ability of teams to deploy and operate all of these new features at higher speeds begins to shed light on the gaps in our DevOps and platform implementation. If the rate of development is stepping up, then any friction points in the process of shipping code and operating it will start to impact the newfound gains from these additional tools. Any human in the loop has the potential to cause huge bottlenecks and slowdowns.
Platform Gaps -> Platform Strategy
With the inability to deploy and manage features and products both at speed and at scale becoming a limiting factor, it is a good time to map out your platform strategy.
Value stream mapping - Understand the flow of value through the system
Evaluate your platform - Is it fit for purpose in this new world
Map your strategy - Use Wardley Mapping to identify the most impactful investments
Build a product - Treat your platform like a product and make your customers self-sufficient
Using these tools and methods will help you shore up any gaps that start to show as the enterprise begins to accelerate in the new marketplace.
GenAI -> Problem and Solution?
While the business and developers are both working to accelerate with GenAI, this is a good point to look at the platform team as just another development team, one that can benefit from GenAI tools being offered by tooling providers as well as cloud vendors.
When evaluating the components of your platform it's important to analyze the compatibility with GenAI tools, either with third-party tools, or GenAI integrated directly into the product. When you map out areas for investment, a consideration for areas of investment would be items which are newer and therefore less likely to have robust GenAI tools trained and available. At the same time, the commoditization of many platform components will speed up due to GenAI.
Summary
We've taken a look here at the market forces pushing GenAI and internal platforms together. With a good process for analyzing your platform strategy and the right placement of GenAI tools, your platform can support the accelerating enterprise.
If you are in the process of figuring out your platform strategy in the face of GenAI demands, I’m here to help. Just press the button below!
