If one looks at the generative artificial intelligence movement today, it’s all about next-gen applications and AI product integrations.

Those applications are either being retrofitted, repurposed or refactored to net new applications being built in the open-source development community, according to theCUBE Research executive analyst John Furrier. There’s very robust demand from developers for gen AI, and Boomi LP is well-positioned given its installed base workflow and data access.

“Boomi has the keys to the kingdom,” Furrier said. “They have the access to the jewels of all the top enterprises, and they’re in a good position to make that work.”

Furrier and his co-host Savannah Peterson (pictured, right), were on-site at Boomi World to provide exclusive industry analysis. They examined use cases in technical API integrations and management, while discussing with executives how Boomi is positioning itself for modern AI product integrations. Kicking off the show, Peterson spoke with four industry experts on the show floor that are making AI integration happen. (* Disclosure below.)

Boomi wants to make chatbots useful

Boomi World was a chance for the company to unveil its gen AI journey since spinning out from Dell Technologies Inc. The company’s strategy involves two different approaches, according to Michael Bachman (pictured, left), head of architecture and AI strategy at Boomi.

“One is AI in the platform, and one is using the platform to create good AI-related outcomes. That’s where we’re focused for practical AI today,” he said. “It’s an awesome set of stories. It’s an awesome set of technology and capabilities.”

By now, everyone knows about large language models, and everyone’s most likely used some analog of ChatGPT. But the model underneath ChatGPT can be exposed in a useful way, Bachman noted.

“Those models aren’t really trained on data sets that are private,” he said. “It’s important to be able to train those models safely and securely and accurately or to use those models safely, securely and accurately with your own data.”

While some might be nervous about that, when it comes to practical implementations of gen AI, that can be augmented with retrieval augmented generation. It’s a way to use one’s own data to make an LLM hallucinate less, Bachman explained.

Michael Bachman discussed how Boomi is positioning itself for modern AI product integrations.

“If you have the right set of capabilities within a platform to be able to make AI not only less hallucinogenic, but actually grounded, and you can provide safety wrappers around everything, the opposite of hallucination is grounded,” he said. “One aside on that, Boomi actually means ground or earth in Hindi. It really fits into the way our platform was conceived back in the day.”

The company’s platform can make LLMs useful and practical, so businesses can actually put them into production, according to Bachman. The goal is simple.

“We want chatbots that don’t suck. Actually, we’re at a point in history where we can make sure that chatbots are actually good, useful and can serve people well,” he said.

One way that chatbots are useful is with data from one’s public website, according to Bachman. The company has customers that are using RAG-based approaches to LLMs to incorporate their data so that the LLM doesn’t hallucinate.

“Customers no longer need to do keyword search lookups and that sort of thing,” Bachman said. “Or a chatbot has an inadequate response to whatever the query is going to be. Now, you can just talk in plain-speak in your native language.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Michael Bachman:

The role of AI in enhancing customer experience

Drew Crocker told theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson that Boomi’s sales pitch is that it is an integration automation play.

Boomi has a base of more than 20,000 customers. The company’s sales pitch is that it is an integration automation play that does everything a company needs to do in moving data throughout an organization, according to Drew Crocker, regional sales director at Boomi.

“From an API to direct connects to EDI, mastering data. Anytime you’re moving data throughout an organization, Boomi has a play in that space,” Crocker said.

For the past eight or nine months, the focus has been on AI from a customer’s perspective. It’s been a chance to work through the challenges of a new technology while avoiding risks and capitalizing on opportunity, according to Crocker.

“I think it’s a very tough and daunting position for them to be in, but I think it really comes down to partnerships,” he said. “Looking at companies that want to work with you and really partner on finding solutions that solve the business challenges that they’re facing.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Drew Crocker:

Boomi World: A chance to learn about partnerships

Zeev Avidan discussed OpenLegacy’s partnership with Boomi during Boom World 2024.

Boomi World was also a chance to connect with other companies on the show floor, including OpenLegacy Technologies Ltd. The company is a platform for legacy integration, according to Zeev Avidan, chief product officer of OpenLegacy.

“Specifically, we deal with very complex legacy systems. What we do together with Boomi is we basically make Boomi available for all kinds of legacy systems,” Avidan said. “We are kind of the last mile of integration to those types of applications.”

OpenLegacy and Boomi have partnered for a while, and it’s been a great partnership, according to Avidan. That’s because where one company ends, the other starts, and vice versa, he noted.

“We deal with those types of very customized legacy systems, and Boomi is really great at being the orchestrator and being the layer that provides the actual integration in terms of the illustration, choreography — depends on how you want to call it,” Avidan said. “That combination works very well.”

Some organizations may already have Boomi while doing a lot with it. But there may be a place in the organization that nobody touches, where it’s dark and nobody wants to go, according to Avidan.

“You can bring OpenLegacy and all of a sudden shed new light on that part, bring it into the Boomi architecture and have the same benefits throughout your entire organization,” he said.

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Zeev Avidan:

R Systems believes AI needs to be human-centric

Another company that attended Boomi World was R Systems Inc. The software product engineering organization is focused on helping build software for companies that solve business problems, according to Nitesh Bansal, managing director and chief executive officer of R Systems.

“In doing that, integrating the fabric, bringing all the data silos together, helping them leverage the part of their data is what we excel at,” he said. “What we say is … AI-powered integration and building solutions that bring value.”

Nitesh Bansal, chief executive officer of R Systems, discussed why AI needs to be human-centric during Boomi World 2024.

Every technology has the potential to do big things and bring lots of business value, but in doing so, it has to be human-centric, according to Bansal. It has to solve day-to-day problems being faced in a manner that elevates one’s experience.

“Grounding it in real-life problems, day-to-day problems that need to be solved, keeping the view of the people who are going to be interacting with it so that their job becomes easier,” Bansal said. “We, of course, also have to re-skill some of those people to use AI in the right manner and then to look at it from the organization landscape, where your data fabric, the data silos are not brushed under a large initiative for, let’s say, ERP implementation or CRM implementation.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Nitesh Bansal:

Check out all of theCUBE’s Boomi World coverage below:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Boomi World. Neither Boomi LP, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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