Picture a world where technology can scan your plate and calculate how much your meal costs in seconds.

It’s not a futuristic fantasy – it’s another day in the Deloitte London office canteen. Our new AI-powered check-out is transforming lunchtime as we know it.

From facial biometrics to unlock our phones to recommendations on what to watch on streaming platforms, AI has quietly made its way into our everyday lives.

It’s a technology that has largely been in the background, subtly transforming our experiences over the past few years, until the topic of generative AI went viral in mainstream media at the end of 2022.

For anyone in the dark about it, generative AI uses existing data on the internet to create new content, such as images, videos, text or even music.

“Generative AI has captured the imagination of UK citizens and fuelled discussion among businesses and policymakers,” says Paul Lee, partner and head of technology, media and telecommunications research at Deloitte.

“Within just a few months of the launch of the most popular generative AI tools, a quarter of people in the UK have already tried out the technology. It is incredibly rare for any emerging technology to achieve these levels of adoption and frequency of usage so rapidly.”

According to Deloitte’s 2023 Digital Consumer Trends research, around four million people in the UK have already used generative AI tools for work.

AI is a hot topic and lots of businesses are excited by it. We are too. But it’s important to think about what we want the relationship between humans and AI to look like.

“With all the buzz around generative AI, it can be difficult to separate hype from reality and to understand the multitude of different ways in which it will create value for companies and for society,” explains our chief AI officer Sulabh Soral.

“Here at Deloitte, we’ve been market leaders at the intersection between technology, innovation and industry since our inception. Through successive waves of technology-led disruption, we’ve enabled organisations both big and small to successfully manage and exploit new technologies as they progress from science fiction to business-as-usual.”

As part of our ongoing work in this space, we recently launched the Global Generative AI Market Incubator, in conjunction with Deloitte’s AI Institute. Delivering early-stage proofs of concept and rapid prototypes in generative AI, it will help to secure opportunities with clients in different geographies.

While there are many potential benefits to using AI, Joanna Conway, partner and internet regulation lead at Deloitte Legal, reminds us about the importance of using it ethically:

“Governments, policymakers and regulators are looking to tap into the potential of AI, while also managing its risks. As more lives and jobs are impacted by AI, the technology must be trustworthy, ethical and as accurate as possible for all of its benefits to be felt.”

How are businesses using AI?

Working with clients all over the world brings fantastic opportunities to explore how it can be used in real life to make progress on some of today's biggest issues.

AI moves fast and, what we learn on one project, we can take on to the next.

Here are just a few examples of how we’ve supported clients with AI solutions with the potential to support people and the planet.