Generative AI in SaaS: Use Case and Implementation Approach

The global Generative AI market is projected to reach $126.5 Billion by 2031. In 2021, it was valued at $8.2 Billion. This CAGR of 32% from 2022 to 2031 shows a great interest businesses will be putting into this new age of artificial intelligence.

Cloud computing, and SaaS – Software as a Service in particular, has been around for about 10 years and it certainly transformed the way businesses operate by providing them with software solutions in the cloud.

Generative AI is currently redesigning these apps, changing the way businesses use technology. Many e-commerce startups like Shopify have been utilizing the Generative AI models in their product and organization.

Nonetheless, it’s just the tip of the iceberg as Generative AI can assist SaaS companies in many other ways such as utilizing Generative AI in HR or ChatGPT in IT support and even marketing campaigns.

Throughout this article we’ll discuss how to incorporate Generative AI in SaaS and reasons for the benefits.

Generative AI is a set of algorithms that are capable of creating fresh content like text, pictures, or music. It utilizes deep learning algorithms and neural networks to detect patterns and produce original results. These technologies started as simple machine learning models which evolved into systems that can mimic human creativity.

If you wonder how generative AI can be used for SaaS applications, here are some awesome use cases we’ve found for you.

Generative AI is capable of developing a multitude of content pieces, including blog posts, product descriptions, and promotional copies. The AI integration into content management systems, email management software, and e-commerce platforms permits people to create quality content fast.

Example: WordPress and HubSpot enable their users to produce AI-driven content so that content creation processes become easier and time-saving.

AI can increase user engagement by offering personalized suggestions that are customized for each user. This is good for the use of streaming services, learning management systems and e-commerce solutions. AI searches user behavior and preferences for appropriate content or products in order to keep user engagement.

Example: Netflix and Amazon develop AI algorithms to customize recommendations to individual users which significantly improve the experience by making it more specific and attractive.

AI-driven design tools simplify design tasks, allowing the users to create quality images, illustrations, and website design with little effort. This automation gives competitors an edge through VD by making all users have access to advanced design capabilities.

Example: AI-driven design automation features powered by Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud allow users to create amazing designs in seconds via text prompts.

Generative AIs is able to translate texts and speech, which in turn contributes to improved communication and collaboration among different language groups. This feature is very handy especially for international communication and collaboration SaaS platforms for smooth user interactions.

Example: Slack and Zoom use AI for real-time language translation which improves user communication and collaboration by eliminating linguistic barriers.

AI can mimic the learning process by creating data samples based on the existing data sets, and this results in expansion of the original dataset and better performance of the machine learning models. This use case is particularly useful for BI SaaS companies to get more in-depth knowledge and better to make decisions.

Example: Tableau and AnswerRocket leverage AI for data augmentation, whereby users gain more thorough insights with increased precision of their analyses.

Generative AI can be integrated into your SaaS application in one of three ways. All these methods have advantages and disadvantages and it is for you to choose the best option that suits your interests.

This technique involves plugging your SaaS application into ready-made generative AI service via API. The AI has no way of getting to your data lakes, data warehouses, wiki, or documents. Although AI knows what your SaaS is about, it cannot provide highly tailored information or content.

Advantage: Instantaneous use of AI technology.

Limitation: Limited room for customization.

Use Cases: Answering business-related questions e.g., industry regulations, supply chain management, risk assessment, and legal consultations. Helpful with sentiment analysis regardless of no access to corporate data.

AI Technologies: Azure OpenAI Service (GPT-4, GPT-3). (5 turbo), Google Cloud (PaLM 2), Amazon Bedrock (Titan, Claude 2), Nvidia NeMo.

Cost: Monthly expenditure relates to the data volume to be processed and generated. For instance, the cost of using a sentiment analysis tool to review 100,000 customer reviews per month could range from $500 to $1,500 depending on the service provider and the complexity of analysis needed.

Generative AI systems (large language models – LLMs) that are already trained with your data can be used by embedding the data without re-training by yourself. With this approach, the AI is able to generate customized content based on your own data instead of general data that everyone is able to access from the internet.

Advantage: Shift to the details of your SaaS in the AI-generated content.

Limitation: More effort from the development team, including setting the rules for data extraction and adjusting the data infrastructure for embedding the data, is essential.

Use Cases: Situations that depend on corporate data and expertise, such as customer support, marketing content creation, reporting, and AI job assistants.

AI Technologies: Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Embedding API, Cohere, and Nvidia NeMo.

Cost: For example, according to usage, such as the number of tokens processed or the volume of data indexed. Budgets can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the scale of use and the selected provider.

If you need highly specific and business data, you can train a machine learning (ML) model on your data. It is the longest and expensive way, however, it gives the highest precision and full control over the created content.

Advantage: Highest level of personalization and customization.

Limitation: Demands high input of resources, both time and money, to train a machine learning model for your SaaS.

Use Cases: Providing the best fit for sectors like health, finance or law in which the accuracy of content is vital. For example, a healthcare SaaS could use patient data to train a custom AI model to offer personalized treatment recommendations.

AI Technologies: Google Vertex AI, Amazon SageMaker, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, HuggingFace Hub, and Nvidia NeMo.

Cost: Calculated per the data processed, compute resources used (CPU, GPU hours), and any other services needed. The price may range from mere thousands to billions of dollars.

While deciding on the right implementation approach, SaaS product owners need to understand the challenges that might hamper the success. Here are some of the key challenges:

Data privacy and security are among the key obstacles in the process of incorporating Generative AI to SaaS. Artificial intelligence systems need a lot of data, which often contain personal information that belongs to users. It is important to follow the data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Implement strong encryption techniques and access controls that will safeguard data. Regular security audits as well as updates help in locating and resolving existing vulnerabilities.

AI systems might unintentionally reproduce the biases of data used for the training. Ensuring ethical use of AI requires identification and mitigation of these biases. Conduct fairness checks and collect diverse data sets for training AI models. Come up with ethical guidelines and frameworks for the AI utilization within your organization. Transparency of AI decisions is another key factor in creating trust with the users.

Another important issue is scalability. Along with the growing users and data, the AI system must be able to keep pace without performance degradation. Apply scalable cloud-based solutions and distributed computing that will efficiently handle growing user loads. Optimize AI models for performance such that they can process large amounts of data quickly. Timely performance testing ensures the smooth running of the system.

Generative AI is shaking SaaS applications to the core by enriching user experiences, streamlining the operations, and bringing in game-changing solutions. With this trend taking place, you need to be ready with what the market and customers expect – it’s the high time to introduce Generative AI into your SaaS application.

Bringing AI smoothly into your SaaS products, Techtic is your perfect partner. Our expertise in state-of-the-art AI technologies and proven success in AI integrations help you utilize generative AI to transform your SaaS applications and go ahead of your rivals.

Connect with Techtic now to discover how generative AI can push your SaaS solutions to the pinnacle.