Harman introduces GenAI platform for business forecasting

Samsung Electronics-owned Harman has introduced a generative artificial intelligence-based business forecasting and decision-making platform. Called the ForecastGPT, it is developed by Harman’s digital transformation solutions (DTS) unit for predicting future trends, optimising resource allocation, and enhancing overall business performance. 

ForecastGPT can be used for a range of forecasting applications such as sales, supply chain, financial planning, and marketing across industries. For the current version of the model can forecastGPT for up to 16 weeks and the team is testing for a 96-week forecasting model.

“ForecastGPT is a general-purpose forecasting engine and the engine is built on GPT principles. We exposed this engine for the last 18-24 months of data – across revenue, inventory, etc.; the platform was able to learn from it and offer detailed predictions along with contextual explanation,” said Jai Ganesh, Chief Product Officer, Harman DTS, told TechCircle. 

The platform is based on the open-source model Mistral-7B. It can be integrated with BI dashboards like Qlik, Tableau, etc. and with existing applications through APIs. ForecastGPT is now available on the AWS Marketplace for subscribers to utilise. 

High-quality data is ForecastGPT’s moat, added Vikas Gupta, Executive VP and GM, HARMAN DTS.  “We have high-quality data across businesses we operate in. The ability to train on real-time production data has given us a unique positioning. Additionally, we also had the option of doing proof of concepts with our parent Samsung.”

Notably, the platform was built in Harman’s DTS team in India. Of the total 7,000 employees working in this business unit, 5,500 of them are based in India. The BU also has a significant presence in Korea, Poland, and the US. 

Overall, Harman has almost a third of its 30,000-strong workforce based in India. Going forward, the company is looking to build capabilities in data, applies AI, and workflow automation via talent building and acquisition route, said Gupta.