Given the rapid evolution of technology in the customer engagement space over the last year, and after attending a few other vendor customer events in recent months, I was keen to hear about Pega’s latest thinking and the advancements they had made to their platform at this year’s PegaWorld, given that they are leading player in this space.

Now, amidst all of the usual keynotes, customer stories and announcements, two things stood out for me:

1. A Pragmatic Approach To Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Unlike many other vendor presentations where every other sentence is peppered with references to Generative AI (Gen AI) and how it is going to solve many of the world’s problems, Pega’s approach felt refreshingly pragmatic.

That’s not to say that Gen AI wasn’t mentioned, isn’t being used or doesn’t feature within the advancements and new functionality within their technology.

Not at all.

Gen AI features heavily in the development of the Pega platform and it’s new functionality.

But, what stood out for me was their left-brain, right-brain framing of how to think about applying AI to a business challenge.

For example, if a business encounters a problem which requires an analytical solution that needs to be understood, audited, and defended, then that would be a left-brain problem, and the business should choose an AI technique, like machine learning or predictive analytics.

Conversely, if a business encounters a problem that requires some creative thinking, like creating text or images or generating ideas for new apps or processes, that would be a right-brain problem, and the business should consider using an AI technique like Gen AI.

Now, that does not mean that organisations may not combine the two types of thinking to solve a problem.

But it is a useful starting point and will help enterprises and executives make sense of and cut through the Gen AI hoopla and noise that is dominating the market right now and make sure they select the right tools for the right jobs.

As one Pega executive quipped when I spoke to them at the event, many customers come to us asking about implementing GenAI, but we end up implementing a predictive AI solution for them once we have better understood their challenge and have decided what would be the most appropriate approach.

The value of this type of approach is only likely to get more relevant in the coming years as the number of AI techniques that are available to businesses increases.

To put that into context, according to Pega’s AI experts at a roundtable at the event, we are currently only scratching the surface of the number of techniques that are potentially available to us or will become available to us in the coming years. In fact, it was posited that we are only using 3-4% of the possible tools and techniques that potentially are in the AI toolbox.

2. Making It Easier To Get Started

The second thing that stood out for me was hearing Pega CEO Alan Trefler say that they are not the easiest platform to use or to get started with during his opening day keynote.

Now, while the Pega community and the wider marketplace have long understood that Pega may be one of the best platforms in the customer engagement platform space, they also understand it is not an easy lift.

But, once in place, the returns and value that customers get are enviable.

So, with that declaration from Trefler in mind, the announcement of Pega GenAI Blueprint™ and Pega GenAI Socrates™ at PegaWorld made complete sense.

• Pega GenAI Blueprint™ is essentially an app design-as-a-service tool that allows organizations to imagine what a best-in-class workflow or process would look like. The tool starts by asking the user to describe their app concept. It then crafts tailored workflows based on best practices, Pega’s decades of industry experience and generative AI to design the required components in seconds. This could be anything from processing insurance claims to handling credit card chargebacks to managing patient care. Moreover, if the user is a current Pega client, these ‘blueprints’ can be imported into their Pega environment and quickly turned into a prototype for testing and further development.
• Pega GenAI Socrates™ is a generative AI tutor that helps users learn Pega faster and more effectively while retaining more knowledge, resulting in a more deeply skilled workforce. Inspired by the time-tested Socratic teaching method, Pega GenAI Socrates educates students through a two-way conversation interspersed with open-ended questions on each learning objective – just as an engaged human teacher would in a classroom.

Now, while Socrates was announced at the event, Blueprint was given a ‘soft’ launch about five weeks prior to PegaWorld. At the time of the event, clients and partners had already generated 35,000 process blueprints, which represents the fastest adoption and most excitement generated by any offering in the company’s history. It’s also a clear testament to its value.

Both of these announcements speak to making it easier to envision what’s possible, get started with Pega and maintain momentum by building internal capability.

This is completely aligned with recent research findings from Gartner, which found that the top two challenges to implementing AI solutions are finding ways to estimate and demonstrate value, reported by 49% of their survey participants, and a lack of talent/skills, reported by 42% of participants.

Overall, PegaWorld was a breath of fresh air. It wasn’t all about the technology. It spoke clearly to the problems that large enterprises face when it comes to buying and harnessing technology to help drive better customer, employee and business outcomes.

They did that by focusing on how to choose the right kit, imagine what to do with it, and then become better users of it.

That was welcome.

This post was originally published on Forbes.com.