Mike Ruane President and CEO
AI and OpenInsight—A Partnership That Works
AI—whether you think of it as Artificial Intelligence or Augmented Intelligence—is a double-edged sword, like most technologies. A hammer can be used to build a house, or it can be used as a weapon. Similarly, AI can help recommend your next song or movie, prevent your car from crashing, or provide customer support chat. At the same time, the same technologies have disrupted employment, reducing the need for tens of thousands of software developers and discouraging many more from entering the field.
The genie is out of the bottle. AI is here to stay, and it will continue to evolve.
For OpenInsight developers and end users, AI offers a powerful way to support, maintain, and even enhance OI systems. While AI isn’t yet capable of fully replacing an experienced OpenInsight developer, it can provide step-by-step guidance for tasks such as editing BASIC+ programs or creating TCL reports. In many cases, these instructions are sufficient to allow you to accomplish your goals efficiently.
This capability is particularly valuable for end users and support staff working with OpenInsight applications whose original developers or consultants are no longer available. AI can help them continue using these applications, make necessary adaptations, and maintain business continuity—all without migrating to a different platform and facing the challenges that entail.
We are experimenting with approaches for coding assistance and for responding to AI queries of OI data, though we think it prudent to wait a couple more AI iterations before formally incorporating any AI features into OpenInsight.
As developers, we strive to use the best tools available for the tasks at hand. AI systems are a tool that can extend the life and usefulness of OpenInsight applications in the field. It’s up to us to leverage them wisely.
Revelation Software
www.revelation.com