SevTech embraces AI to speed up client cloud transformation
In association with SevTech
Senior solutions architect at SevTech Daniel Seavers chats about how the company is using AI to accelerate cloud transitions and giving clients an opportunity to push through ‘bucket list’ projects.
When did you first experience AI in your work as a software architect?
I started working on AI at Coca Cola probably four years ago now. They had an enterprise AI solution and were one of the first companies to integrate it into their enterprise stack. It was great to get early access to it and I’ve been able to see the limitations that existed with AI back then and how those limitations have gone and the technology has grown in leaps and bounds every six weeks, really, in terms of capability, functionality and intelligence.
Where do you think AI stands now and where do you see it being most effective?
It’s at a stage where it’s a fantastic accelerator for getting work done. It builds the templates for our code base, and it does really well at setting up projects. But it still has limitations and requires a lot of human intervention and steering to be able to get the end results. It’s excellent at building prototypes, not so good at the networking and getting things actually into production, that’s where it needs human assistance. But then it’s also learning from those humans as it goes. And those six week leaps I mentioned mean it can scale up in terms of capability very rapidly.
What kind of conversations are you having with your clients about AI?
I think it’s important to be honest with your clients about what the technology can do. I can’t go in and promise something if I don’t understand how it works. So I’ll take the time to research and I’ll build a proof of concept. That’s the way I like to go to a client. And I can do that very easily by knowing the limitations of AI, by knowing what its capabilities, strengths and weaknesses are, and where human needs come in to the equation, and that’s often a surprising factor for a lot of business owners. But it’s only in understanding it that we can use it effectively.
How is SevTech using AI?
Typically, we’re looking at using AI to help our clients make improvements to work streams through automation. A lot of our clients are transitioning into the cloud. We’re using AI as an accelerator to get those transformations up and running a lot faster. We’re also saying to our clients if you have a bucket list of things you want to do, let us know as it’s now more feasible for us to put those ideas in motion because these AI accelerators can get access to the data we need very quickly.
With AI, there’s a standard called ‘model context protocol’, which is a communication layer that allows large language models [LLMs] to interact directly with third party services. So what you can do is string agentic applications and LLMs together in these really cool, complicated workflows and you can do it very quickly. Projects that may have taken a year and a half to complete are now only taking a couple months from conception into function.
How do you rate Irish enterprises in terms of their AI readiness?
I would say we’re probably one of the more open countries when it comes to AI. We have an openness to it. But there are stumbling blocks.
What are those stumbling blocks?
If you put bad data into an AI, you’ll get bad data back. If you can take your data, clean it up, categorise it, then vectorise it, then you’re very much ready to solve for AI, because you can work at a fast pace, but very few companies in the world, I would say, are ready for that. Legacy data is difficult to clean up but this is essential if you’re to get the most out of AI, but hey that’s why SevTech is here. We are helping our clients overcome these challenges and guide them onto the correct path for enterprise ready AI driven solutions that provide real value.
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