KMWorld 2024 kicks off with a major focus on humans and AI working together

Seven Lessons Learned from Search and GenAI

The world of information is exploding but finding what you truly need can still feel like searching for a needle in a pile of needles. Sid Probstein, founder and CEO, SWIRL, explored how search and GenAI are joining forces to revolutionize how we discover information, during his keynote, “Lessons Learned from Search and GenAI.”

“Search is the very human way we want to interact with information,” Probstein said.

The first lessons learned are GenAI and search have different goals. It’s on the user to review the documents, he explained. GenAI’s goal is direct access to pieces of knowledge. AI and LLMs are not reasoning, they’re just text generators.

The second lesson learned is search supercharges experts. Search is powerful and allows people to drill in and find what you’re looking for.

The third lesson learned is GenAI democratizes knowledge. It can help with pulling knowledge to write software code and more.

“It’ll gradually accumulate expertise and become very knowledgeable,” he said.

Lesson four is the winner is search plus GenAI. It allows you to get an answer for a question within your own documents. The conversational power is unmatched in the search world. It allows follow-up questions, and it supercharges productivity.

Lesson five is privacy matters. Making sure data is protected is non-negotiable.

Lesson six is data management is critical. If employees can’t find information, how is the AI going to find it? And Leson seven is to start now.

“Projects need to start now, we need to start learning,” he said.

KMWorld returned to the J.W. Marriott in Washington D.C. on November 19-21, with pre-conference workshops held on November 18.

KMWorld 2024 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences, which also includes Enterprise Search & Discovery, Enterprise AI World, Taxonomy Boot Camp, and Text Analytics Forum.