P&G’s ChatPG Generative AI Tool Scaling Across Business
Procter & Gamble’s internal generative AI tool, known as ChatPG, has reached 30,000 users, as artificial intelligence upskilling becomes part of the company’s standard onboarding procedure.
Rather than a small trial, P&G made the decision to test ChatPG with thousands of people in order to get it in use more quickly, a trio of AI leaders shared in the company’s annual Signal event this week.
“That was instrumental to learn fast and validate where the value is,” noted Lorenz Maierhofer, genAI data science lead, “and led us to a companywide launch within 2-3 months.”
As of June 30, 2023, there are around 107,000 P&G employees, according to their most recent annual report.
Navigating Launch Challenges
Within the first two hours of launching ChatPG, their team received 8,000 requests, said Budi Saputra, genAI product lead, with the amount of interest and excitement taking even them by surprise.
“It was an extreme amount of effort to understand what and how we approach it, and how we enable others to kind of start piloting these things that don't have reference architecture, reference evaluations, reference governance,” said Rafal Kawala, genAI - AI engineering. “We had to figure out controls, safety, [and] make sure that P&G data assets are correct.”
Per P&G policy, employees who wish to use the ChatPG must first undergo and pass governance training.
Now, individual teams also have their own embedded AI champions who run their own upskilling training, per Maierhofer. “It's becoming part of the standard onboarding procedures. That's the way to make this the new normal.”
Looking Ahead
P&G determined early on it would avoid locking into one specific generative AI platform and instead build one that enables switching between models as deemed necessary from a business perspective. While Maierhofer stressed that the company will not approach “every problem as a genAI problem,” the technology nonetheless has opened the door for many new conversations.
- See also: P&G welcomed a new CIO this year
“People get into this technology with their eyes wide open, understanding the benefits, but also being aware of the potential risks,” noted Saputra.
“Our strategy to be flexible is a recipe for success,” said Kawala, “and we can firmly say that we're ready for new models, for new tools, for new AI.”
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