GenAI Assistants: build, buy, or partner? Choosing the right path for your business

Also known as a virtual or digital assistant, a GenAI assistant is software that leverages generative artificial intelligence technologies (GenAI) to help its users with various tasks.  When you hear the term, prominent household devices like Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ or Apple’s ‘Siri may be some of the first examples that spring to mind.  

However, AI assistants are not limited to home use and are now widely adopted by businesses in a multitude of industries to streamline and enhance operations. From analyzing patterns in data and automating email campaigns to assisting with onboarding and providing personalized responses to customer queries, companies deploy AI assistants to save time, reduce costs, and boost productivity. 

Yet many remain cautious about the technology. According to the National University, roughly 35% of business owners cite a lack of technical skills as one of the key barriers to adoption. Alongside this, 45% of people questioned in a 2023 survey conducted by Authority Hacker believe knowledge gaps on the capabilities of AI assistants to be a cause for delay, whilst 23% described implementation challenges as another major obstacle. 

But for innovative businesses, the rewards offered by the technology far exceed the challenges. They are not only essential today but will soon become a baseline expectation. It’s no longer a matter of ‘if’ they should be leveraging AI assistants, but of ‘how’ they should be leveraging AI assistants. 

Broadly, there are three options available to business owners:

Do you buy an AI assistant, build your own, or choose an AI adoption partner, like Ragu, to build a custom solution?

Building Your Own AI Assistant

Many companies, once they’ve decided to incorporate an AI assistant into their wider transformation strategy, consider creating their own. Let’s take a closer look at this strategy as we outline the key advantages, disadvantages, and resources required for this route. 

Advantages:

• Full customization and control  – Developing your own AI assistant allows for 100% tailored functionality and means it is built with your specific business use case in mind. 

• Proprietary technology – You build it, you own it. As well as positioning you as an innovator and giving you a competitive edge, owning a self-built AI assistant enables you to continuously monitor and update the tool in line with changing regulatory requirements. 

• Potential long-term cost savings – When you compare upfront development costs with the ongoing licensing fees of ready-made tools, it can be a more cost-effective option in the long run. 

Challenges:

• Requires extensive technical expertise – To build a custom AI assistant individuals must be highly skilled in software development, machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP). Many businesses may not have the expertise needed in-house. 

• Time-consuming development process – A technically complex build such as this can take months to years to complete, taking team members’ focus away from other important business operations. 

• Ongoing maintenance and updates – It’s essential an AI assistant is properly monitored to ensure accuracy and optimal performance. Another potential drain on resources.  

Resources needed:

• AI/Machine learning development team
• Data scientists
• Digital infrastructure and computing power

When to consider this option:

This route may work well if you’re a large enterprise with internal expertise and substantial resources. Because this option allows for full customization and control, it’s also appropriate for those with unique, complex requirements who want to prioritize data privacy and security at the same time. 

Does this sound like you? Don’t make a decision just yet – be sure to check out the partnership option, which has similar advantages with fewer challenges for most organizations. 

Buying Off-The-Shelf AI assistants 

For some, purchasing a ready-made AI assistant may be an attractive and sensible idea. If this is something you might be interested in, we break down the pros and cons of this option. 

Advantages:

• Quick implementation – Typically requiring minimal setup, if you have a need for speed then there’s no doubt buying an off-the-shelf AI assistant is a quick and easy option.

• Lower upfront costs – Compared to a custom-built AI assistant, a ready-made tool will likely require less financial investment to begin with as well as predictable subscription fees. 

• Proven technology – The product will be continuously tested and updated by the supplier to enhance its performance – one less thing for you to think about. 

Challenges:

• Limited customization options – A generic, off-the-shelf AI assistant will provide fewer ways to tailor the tool to your specific business use case, meaning it could be inefficient. 

• Potential integration issues – Some legacy systems may not be compatible with a ready-made AI assistant solution. The need for upgrades to IT infrastructure as well as differences in data formatting may present serious integration challenges. 

• Dependency on third-party vendors  – Choosing an off-the-shelf option may lock you into one vendor’s technology and solutions. This severely limits your freedom to change providers in the future and could lead to integration and data migration issues in the future. 

Other factors to consider:

• • Scalability challenges – As your business grows, and subsequently your data, you may encounter performance-related issues with a solution that isn’t specifically designed to grow with you. 

• Compatibility with existing systems – Off-the-shelf solutions may not be set up to communicate and exchange data effectively with your current software applications leading to potential data silos.

• Ongoing costs and licensing fees – Subscription models can vary hugely and businesses should factor into their budget hidden costs such as setup fees, maintenance costs, and additional charges for specific functionality like analytics dashboards. 

When to consider this option

If your use cases are pretty standard and well defined then a lack of customization may not be an issue, making an off-the-shelf tool an attractive option. This route may also be a good choice for small to medium-sized businesses in need of rapid deployment. 

However, SMBs and smaller businesses aren’t constrained to ready-made technology and we urge you not to make a decision quite yet as custom solutions are available too. 

Partnering With Ragu to Build Your AI Assistants

At Ragu, we’ve partnered with many businesses to create secure, custom-built AI assistants that seamlessly integrate with their existing technology stack and solve real-world business problems. Take a look at some of the reasons Ragu is perfectly positioned to design a unique AI assistant specifically for your organization. 

Advantages:

• Customized solutions without in-house expertise – Choosing Ragu to build your custom AI assistant ensures your tool is built using cutting-edge technology and the best possible practices without having to employ a specialized internal team. 

• Faster development compared to building in-house – Building an AI assistant is a time-consuming process and could take months to years for an internal team to complete. Deploying Ragu’s AI assistants is a much faster and more efficient route to improved operational efficiency. 

• • Access to specialized knowledge and experience – Our team is composed of technology veterans, world-class marketers, and GenAI pioneers meaning we don’t just understand the technology, we understand your business needs too. 

• Seamless integration with existing systems – Integration and versatility are key priorities at Ragu. We design AI assistants that connect with a wide variety of data sources including Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Slack, WhatsApp, and direct API integrations into client applications. 

• Enhanced security and compliance features – We build all our GenAI solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and implement robust security measures to ensure the highest standards of data security. 

Why Ragu 

• Simplifies complex AI technologies – Ragu was designed not only to streamline complex AI infrastructures but to make sense of the jargon surrounding generative AI itself. We offer businesses a headache-free integration experience and fully customizable tools that connect seamlessly with your existing technology stack.  

• Provides secure LLM environments – Our technology securely integrates with any Large Language Model (LLM) to combine the power of LLMs with your company’s proprietary data subsequently generating highly accurate, context-aware responses to user queries.

• Offers data transformation and automated communications – Our AI assistants can transform unstructured data into structured data making it readily available for reporting, analysis, automated email management, and many other key business applications.

• Tailored pricing based on individual customer needs – At Ragu, we’re interested in building long-term relationships so we’re always happy to discuss pricing models based on your specific business needs and stages.

• Hands-on approach with comprehensive AI training – We want you to derive maximum value from your AI assistant so we provide in-depth training and support for your teams for a smooth adoption process. 

• Modular design for easy updates and integration – Our AI assistants are built with a modular architecture enabling quick and easy integration of new technological components and updates as they become available. 

When to consider this option

If you’re looking for a bespoke, custom AI assistant and you have limited in-house resources then Ragu is certainly the best choice for you. We offer the perfect balance between customization, easy maintenance, and speed to deployment positioning us as the perfect ‘all-rounder’ within one platform.  

Likewise, if you’re unsure of where the opportunities lie with generative AI and need some guidance, our team is well-equipped to help guide you on this transformation journey. 

The Deciding Factor

Making the decision to incorporate an AI assistant into a wider AI enablement strategy is a great first step. AI assistants are essential today and leveraging their technology is quickly becoming a fundamental and integral component of successful business strategies. Leveraging GenAI tools enhances decision-making, improves customer experience, and not only gives your company a significant competitive advantage but ensures you meet today’s baseline expectations of both stakeholders and customers. 

However, choosing the right approach to AI assistant adoption for your business is equally as important. While previously you would have been forced to choose between customization, cost, and speed, now there is such a thing as having your cake and eating it too. That’s where Ragu comes into play.

So before you commit to hefty licensing fees or a long-term internal project to create your own, make sure you’ve reached out to us to see how you could benefit from one of our custom-built AI assistants. 

AI assistants are one piece of a much larger artificial enablement strategy for your business. Regardless of the stage of the roadmap, you’re currently in, Ragu is here to support your business and enhance your output. 

Take your operational efficiency to the next level and book a demo with Ragu today.