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At VentureBeat’s Transform 2024, Elastic CEO Ash Kulkarni and DocuSign CPO Dmitri Krakovsky discussed how generative AI is revolutionizing enterprise search and contract management. They stressed the growing importance of AI-driven search for businesses handling large amounts of data and complex contracts.
Enhancing Unstructured Data Analysis
Elastic has significantly advanced its enterprise search with the introduction of generative AI. In May 2023, they rolled out the Elasticsearch Relevance Engine (ESRE), which merges traditional keyword search with advanced vector search, enhancing context and semantics understanding in large data sets. This hybrid method allows more precise document retrieval from Elasticsearch stores through various techniques, including BM25 text search.
Kulkarni emphasized the company’s progress, particularly integrating retrieval augmented generation (RAG) into its vector database technology, showcasing comprehensive features such as permissions and hybrid search out-of-the-box. He underscored Elastic’s commitment to providing developers with flexibility and choices in using different AI models, essential given the rapid pace of AI development. Customers are already using multiple large language models to balance accuracy and cost.
AI-Driven Contract Management Advancements
DocuSign is leveraging AI to transform contract management. Krakovsky highlighted their vision where AI agents assist in negotiating contracts, aiming for a future where AI actively participates in these processes. Their Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform turns static contract data into actionable insights, filling a crucial gap in enterprise digitization. This platform, consisting of Maestro, Navigator, and App Center, makes contract data easily analyzable and actionable.
A practical example detailed a customer who identified spending inconsistencies across 70 contracts with a system integrator, ultimately saving over $100 million. This efficiency leap from manual review to automation shows IAM’s potential to shift contract management to a strategic business function.
Navigating AI Adoption Challenges
Both executives stressed responsible AI adoption. Krakovsky highlighted the need to balance speed with caution, especially when handling sensitive data like contracts. Data security and transparency are top priorities for DocuSign, ensuring customers are well informed about data usage and consent.
Delivering complete solutions, rather than fragmented ones, is essential. Customers prefer end-to-end problem-solving without the hassle of piecing together multiple solutions.
Optimizing AI Costs and Resources
Optimizing costs is critical in AI adoption. Companies need to manage resources efficiently to scale AI sustainably, especially with large data volumes. Future improvements in hardware and technology, along with competition in large language models, will likely reduce inference costs, as noted by Kulkarni.
Looking forward, AI’s capabilities are expected to expand, particularly with multimodal models handling various data types and providing relevant responses. In contract management, AI can automate finding insights, resolving ambiguities, and ensuring compliance.
Real-World AI Implementation Examples
The conversation included real-world AI applications. For instance, Cisco used Elastic’s technology to enhance customer support, automating tasks previously handled by engineers, allowing them to focus on more critical work.
In the financial sector, a Fortune 100 bank transformed client interactions in wealth management with AI-powered search tools, effectively creating a highly personalized client interface.
The extensive potential of AI—from intelligent search to contract negotiation—requires navigating technical, ethical, and operational challenges, with data privacy, model transparency, and cost-effective scaling being key discussion points.
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