Having already introduced observability tools for generative artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT, New Relic Inc. is now turning around and leveraging generative AI’s capabilities to assist with observability tasks.

The company said today it’s launching a new AI assistant for observability called Grok in limited preview that will eliminate the need for engineers to sift through large volumes of data manually. With Grok, New Relic said, observability becomes accessible to every information technology worker, bringing new insights to them from almost any kind of telemetry data source.

New Relic is one of the leading observability platforms around, offering various tools that enable companies to monitor their software applications and DevOps environments, plus the infrastructure that supports them. Its offerings are especially popular with developers, as it gives them an easy way to identify and resolve problems with their apps.

However, there is a downside to New Relic’s tools: They require a degree of skill and expertise to use properly. New Relic users are often faced with overwhelming amounts of telemetry data, and many lack experience in identifying the problems it surfaces. Some users also struggle to ask the right questions of their telemetry data.

New Relic Grok is designed to eliminate all of these hurdles, the company said. Integrated with more than 30 correlated monitoring services, Grok can provide AI assistance and expertise across the observability process.

For instance, it can help to set up instrumentation and monitoring in the first place, identifying any gaps and providing instructions on how to implement different services. It will also help to set up missing alerts and automate these using Terraform. Engineers can use natural language to ask any kind of question, such as why a specific service or app is not working. Grok will analyze the corresponding telemetry data and try to identify the root cause, saving the user from doing this manually.

Other capabilities include debugging code-level issues that are causing problems with apps, generating health reports and dashboards for specific apps and services, and managing administrative tasks related to observability.

The launch of New Relic Grok comes just weeks after the company announced a new OpenAI quickstart, which allows companies to monitor the performance of generative AI-based apps based on Open AI LP’s GPT-4. With just two lines of code, users can automatically generate a simple dashboard that shows various GPT-4 performance metrics. Its capabilities include real-time cost tracking, plus metrics such as average response times, and other performance metrics around GPT-4 requests that can help teams to use the service more efficiently.

With Grok, the company is now in a unique position to use generative AI to monitor generative AI itself, and it’s something that will be a game-changer for organizations, New Relic Chief Executive Bill Staples said. “Ever since we invented cloud APM in 2008, we have pioneered innovations years ahead of competitors,” he added. “New Relic Grok is the continuation of this DNA and defines how generative AI will transform our industry.”

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that generative AI is transforming many aspects of business automation. “Application monitoring is no exception to this, and the capabilities New Relic is providing with Grok are badly needed, because the capacity of humans to process observability data are limited,” he said. “Humans cannot stay on top of the data deluge created by modern information technology infrastructure, so organizations will be keen to see how New Relic Grok can help with their daily observability battles.”

New Relic said Grok will be made available to customers as part of its all-in-one observability platform at no added cost.

Images: New Relic