This article was written by Caroline Kinlaw and first appeared on the SAS blog.
For the 12th annual SAS NC State College of Design project, students used generative AI within B2B products in varying industries.
The annual NC State Design Day came back for its 12th year. Like many years before, the future designers brought their “A game” to SAS world headquarters, showcasing innovative concepts, cutting-edge creativity and a bold vision for B2B industries.
The challenge: Using generative AI in B2B products
For this year’s project, the NC State College of Design students were tasked with creating an original B2B application incorporating generative AI to satisfy business and user needs. Using SAS’ tech stack for generative AI, students were asked to understand the data collection and output of generative AI.
The students presented the results of their work. Each group was tasked with understanding their assigned industry’s needs and learning each sector’s work and roles. The result was five product prototypes spanning these five focus industries:
- Retail
- Social media
- Media and entertainment
- Finance
- Education and learning
SAS Head of Product Design Rajiv Ramarajan opened by welcoming attendees and thanking the many stakeholders of this event, including NC State faculty and staff and SAS employees. He also discussed the purpose behind this year’s project assignment and the challenge proposed to students.
“We are witnessing a rapid adoption of generative AI in our daily lives,” Ramarajan said. “But let’s face it. There is still work to develop use cases that harness this technology for business. For this project, we challenged the class to conceptualize applications of generative AI in a business context, specifically, B2B applications.”
NC State Graphic and Experience Design professor Jarrett Fuller, now in his fourth year leading this project, gave insights into the details and processes behind the students’ work before inviting them to present. At the core of their efforts was a shared commitment to applying powerful technology in meaningful ways – specifically, leveraging it to address business use cases and solve real-world problems.
Fuller kicked off his talk with a relatable sentiment: “I’m kind of tired of talking about AI. Anyone else feel similar?” His words resonated with many in the audience, especially those interacting with AI daily. He highlighted a prevalent issue: “Studies show that a lot of time people will use these new AI tools for a couple of weeks and then abandon them.”
He emphasized the need for AI beyond novelty, stating, “We know that AI is a very powerful set of technologies, but it is still in search of some use case, and it is not always actually solving the specific problems that we want it to solve.” By framing the conversation around meaningful implementation, Fuller set the stage for the students to demonstrate how they had tackled this challenge with their innovative designs.
He went on to describe the students’ design process, including:
- Concept development
- Persona creation
- Task flows
- Wireframes
- Visual design and branding
- High-fidelity prototypes
The projects demonstrate how cutting-edge technology, when thoughtfully applied, can address specific challenges in business settings. By focusing on real-world applications, their designs showcased the potential of these powerful tools to streamline processes, enhance customer experiences and solve tangible problems that industries face today.
SAS employees served as mentors throughout the wireframe phase of the project. Their guidance was instrumental as they tested the students’ prototypes and provided valuable feedback, helping the designers refine and enhance their ideas. This collaboration ensured the students’ designs were impactful and polished, contributing to the event’s overall success.
“The AI hype is over,” Fuller stated. “We know these tools are here; they are very powerful, but we cannot lead with them anymore. They are becoming a part of everything else. Adding AI on top of things that already exist is not enough.” His words emphasized the need to move beyond superficial applications of AI and instead focus on integrating it in ways that transform and solve problems.
- Categories:
