Excel =? LLM

In this Q&A about Walmart’s custom-trained, proprietary “My Assistant” language model, I saw an excerpt from another article in which Walmart’s Head of People Product uses Excel as an analogy for generative models.

“𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘭 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 1980𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘭. 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘗𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘛𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘝𝘓𝘖𝘖𝘒𝘜𝘗 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘴, 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩-𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳.”

2024 will be the year that more companies adopt generative models as an aid to their employees. But it is interesting to use an analogy to deterministic functions like PivotTable and VLOOKUP to drive the adoption of a black box model with probabilistic outputs. Let’s see how that plays out for Walmart.

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