The Fusion of Data Quality and Generative AI: Crucial Insights

According to Mr. Salome Guchu, “The shortage of good data is a crucial barrier to progress”. 

In a world ruled by artificial intelligence and data, generative AI has become the latest trend across numerous industries. At the core of generative AI lies LLMs (large language models), which have grabbed attention along with their barriers and misunderstandings.

For professional data experts, the performance of the data gathered determines the success of GenAI and LLMs. Therefore, the high demand for AI solutions means a high demand for errorless and good quality data for development.

A top data strategy is vital. Aiming for high-quality data has always been key, and  the expansion of generative AI solutions simply indicates it must be considered as a top priority.

This blog mainly deals with major data quality dimensions, their significance, and how to tackle data quality challenges using Generative AI.

Knowing Data Quality

To start, it’s important to understand how important  data quality is to organizational decision-making.

Data quality is determined by how complete, valid, and relevant the data is, as well as structuring it to make sure it is all set for use for the planned purpose.

Understanding the importance of data quality is essential for making intelligent decisions and reducing risk of failure in major business operations.

Generative AI is similarly dependent on the quality of the  dataset to develop good synthetic data.

Major Dimensions of Data Quality

Quality data is defined by 8 different metrics. To maintain the consistency of data quality, it has to pass through all these criteria. 

Let’s illustrate each in detail:

Accuracy

Data should clearly define and reflect the events or real-world things it is meant to model. Accurate or perfect data is faultless and offers a true illustration of reality. 

Consistency

Data should not have contradictions when compared across several datasets or within the same dataset.  

Dependability

Data should not change or become incorrect when used in the future, and should be applicable in any context where the phenomena it measures are being considered. 

Appropriateness

The data should fit the context and requirements of its user. Data should not be irrelevant or detrimental to the user’s needs.

Timeliness

Data should be up-to-date and available when the observations it captures are relevant. 

Validity

Data should stick to the parameters and constraints of the user’s needs and requirements, and should be able to be verified when compared to other data from the same dataset.

Uniqueness

Each data point should capture a single snapshot observation that is not easily substituted by another data point; in other words, each data point should add value to the data set, and not simply duplicate existing data.

Data Quality Challenges in AI 

The impact of poor data quality is reduced trust in an AI’s output.

According to the AI Pulse Survey conducted by Forrester in September 2023, 85% of decision-makers of AI think that internal data is good quality and accessible for AI applications, whereas 56% don’t believe the data offered by generative AI.

In other words, people believe in the quality of the data going into the Generative AI algorithm, but not the data coming out.

The question arises here: why is there such a breakdown in faith? 

There are a few major issues related to the data quality with generative AI: 

Generative AI inaccurately corrects

Similar to how autocorrect may choose the wrong word when it is correcting misspelling or grammatical errors,  generative AI might inaccurately assume meaning and offer results that are incorrect. 

Imposter syndrome affects generative AI

Generative AI models result in what they “believe” the right answer should be based on the latent patterns it has identified, and may select an incorrect pattern to generate new data points. . 

Generative AI “hallucinates”

Occasionally, a Generative AI model will extrapolate or otherwise produce results that appear correct at first instance but, after verifying deeply, are not correct. 

Apart from these, data quality usually encounters the following challenges:

Duplicate data

Duplicate entries can affect how the model weights different qualities of the data, changing the process of model training and thus resulting in incorrect results. 

Data timeliness

Similar to humans, building insights using outdated data makes models incapable of producing suitable results for the present business conditions and trends. 

Irregularities

Incorrectly labelled or formatted data  disrupts the model training process, and tends to lead to dubious results. 

Missing values

Incomplete data affects accuracy of predictions, which in turn affects how well the model generalizes. 

Scarcity of right context

Scarcity of proper context can disrupt an AI model’s ability to know and interpret data perfectly, resulting in misinterpretations or incorrect outputs.

Why is Data Quality a Fundamental Component of GenAI Progress?

Quality data is crucial to any element of digital transformation.

With the increase in demand for Gen AI, the significance of quality parameters is increasing nowadays since Gen AI is directly associated with major developments and business decisions.

With queries asked to ChatGPT, invalid replies are produced called AI hallucinations. 

Such AI hallucinations directly result in incorrect information and reduce the hope in genAI models, so businesses try to reduce their occurrences.

Hence, organizations develop their LLMs with their own sets of data or import LLMs in a protective atmosphere where proprietary data can be included. 

If businesses are adjusting their AI models to suit their requirements, they must follow datasets of high quality for outstanding performance. 

Soon after understanding data thoroughly, it helps them understand their clients’ needs.

The whole AI lifespan must have data at the centre, ensuring suitable processes throughout the process to secure quality guidelines. 

When hallucinations occur, inaccurate answers are created. The model begins to proceed too deep to obtain the responses; data accuracy may be affected.

This is the time to initiate the process of data structuring with caution.

The whole process of model creation and the data results must be inspected suitably for their outcomes. 

Large language models are trained on various sets of data gathered from different sources, as low-quality data can distract LLM training.

It is referred to as noisy data as it interrupts the model’s functionality in generating useful content with secured quality.

In case the model is behaving properly with the data but fails to understand the inputs, it produces irrelevant results.

How Do You Ensure Data Quality for AI?

Businesses don’t have limits for data to employ in their AI projects. Many sectors gather millions of data points in their daily operations.

Moreover, not even a single bit of data can’t be used for training AI models. So, how do you secure data quality for AI applications?

The initial step is to conduct data profiling to understand the characteristics and quality of your data.

Modify the dataset to prepare it to ensure the smoother functionality of data within the parameters of the AI model.   

The upcoming step is to rapidly verify and inspect your dataset quality with pre-developed standardization formats or quality rules. 

The final step is constant data quality tracking and inspection to find particular challenges any attribute may have and choose whether they will be or will not be helpful to your ML model.

Overcoming Data Quality Issues

So how do you overcome these challenges and make good datasets that lead to good Generative AI output?

The process of addressing data quality issues involves organizational commitment and an extensive approach. Overcoming strategies contain:

Data profiling

Pointing out irregularities and duplicates via rigorous data profiling. 

Metadata management

Classifying metadata related to data origins, context, and quality to offer AI applications suitable circumstantial information at the time of data processing. 

Data integration

Set up tooling and an integration strategy to organize diverse data across systems. 

Data cleaning

Involves the use of de-duplication and normalization techniques to fix errors and maintain data integrity. 

Data validation

Validating data consistency, accuracy, and completeness before model use. 

Constant monitoring

Performing complex data monitoring processes to find and fix real-time issues. 

Data progressions

Modern approaches, including data streaming, data mesh, and considering data as a product, can enhance overcoming strategies.

Advantages of using Generative AI in Data Quality Enhancement

The major benefits of using generative AI in data quality enhancement are:

Agility

Generative AI can allow testing and prototyping of models and data, enabling businesses to reply rapidly to modify situations. 

Increased decisioning ability

Proper use of generative AI allows organizations to make more strategic decisions according to the data that is created. 

Improved efficiency

Organized data simplifies the functionality of AI systems. 

Increased model reliability

The data quality used for training the generative AI model is crucial in determining how perfect the model will be.

It may offer incorrect findings in case the training data fails to display the data in the real world. Hence, it is critical to verify that the training data perfectly defines the data used in real time.

Use Cases of Generative AI in Data Quality

In different use cases and sectors, generative AI can be mainly used to increase data quality. For instance:

Healthcare: Generative AI can produce synthetic patient data to develop new treatments and drugs and to train ML models. 

Finance: Generative AI enhances customer communications with customized financial advice with service/product recommendations. 

Retail: According to McKinsey’s research, retailers who use high-quality data for customized marketing expect a 10-15% rise in conversion rates. 

Government: Generative AI can point out fraud and enrich public services.

How can Generative AI Data Solutions from Express Analytics Help Your Business?

The abundant features of AI can improve the way the business globe operates. No matter which industry your organization belongs to, keeping an eye on data quality in AI and GenAI applications has massive possibilities.

Express Analytics’ generative AI and data quality management services allows you to use AI data analysis and reimagine your business by improving its operations.

Future Guidelines for Data Quality in AI

With the evolution of artificial intelligence across different industries, the future of data quality in AI is promising.

Looking forward to the future, various major guidelines are expected to change the outlook of data quality in AI. 

Combination of modern analytics

Future progress in data quality will use modern analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to forecast and fix issues associated with data quality before they make an impact on system performance.

This approach method will allow more smart and dynamic management of data inconsistencies. 

Improved live data processing 

With the development of IoT and live data streams, assuring the data quality in real-time will become important.

Techniques to validate and process data immediately will be crucial for applications demanding instant insights like real-time fraud identification and autonomous vehicles. 

Trend forecasting and time series analysis 

The ability of AI to conduct time series analysis and forecast trends will become clear, using past data to predict events for the future with greater accuracy.

This will include improvements in managing seasonal variations and unplanned shifts. Retail, weather forecasting and finance sectors will benefit heavily from these enhancements.  

Quality management and data validation

Moving forward, quality management and data validation will become deeply merged into data operations with automated systems inspecting and correcting real-time data.

Predictive models will predict errors at the initial stage and automatically apply corrections. 

Developing links between datasets

The capability to properly connect and use bonds between various datasets will be a major focus.

Modern algorithms will be used to identify and understand links between apparently irrelevant data sources, improving data utility and richness. 

Conclusion

As businesses progressively depend on data-oriented strategies, there is a high demand for high-quality data. Generative AI can produce value from progressive businesses.

Moreover, with technological developments, taking generative AI applications from analysis to scale can be difficult. By implementing high-quality data for generative AI, you can expect greater ROI and reliability of AI models.   

If you are looking for AI development and future-proof proper consultation, contact Express Analytics.