SEI this week announced the launch of SEIGPT, its new framework for building generative AI applications.
For now, the technology, investment and turnkey asset management provider to advisors is only using the new tools and SEIGPT-powered applications internally to boost efficiency and cost reduction in areas that include client service, process automation, human resources, contract analysis and code development. It is an outgrowth of SEI’s AI Center of Excellence, launched in 2023 and led by Director of AI Vlad Coric.
“We have approximately 400 employees utilizing SEIGPT applications in production and pilots across various business areas, including client service, middle office, marketing, human resources, legal, operations and development,” Coric wrote in an email.
SEIGPT is based on a retrieval-augmented generation architecture, which provides exact references to the data used to create an answer and thus provides greater transparency, Coric said. As a result, the RAG framework provides an attractive architecture for companies.
While the new technology has been developed in house, SEI utilized some Microsoft components, like their OpenAI service and AI Search service, according to Coric.
As the name might suggest, SEI is using OpenAI’s general pre-trained transformers (GPT) to apply the power of large language models to its massive amounts of data, which are spread across disparate data sources.
By leveraging the new framework and applying advanced natural language processing capabilities to all that data, the firm intends to improve its search functionality, support content creation (including personalized content), streamline workflows, answer user inquiries and provide automated summaries of information and data.
According to SEI Chief Data Officer Deepak Bhardwaj, the new AI-powered applications—seven of which are currently in production—have helped the firm’s employees respond to more than 7,000 client service inquiries and analyze tens of thousands of legal contract pages so far. Another five SEIGPT-powered applications are on the roadmap for internal rollout by the end of 2024.
“The optimization benefit extends beyond SEI to our clients,” SEI Chief Technology Officer Zach Womack said in a statement announcing the technology.
“The faster we can deliver information or address a concern, the more time our employees and clients have to focus on what they do best: serving customers,” he said.
In addition to launching its AI Center of Excellence last year, SEI invested $10 million in AI developer and incubator TIFIN in February.
SEI manages, advises or administers approximately $1.6 trillion in assets.
