Our North Star for technology is that any innovation must benefit our clients and/or our company. AI is no exception.
We have history of pioneering advances in customer communications, with Expresso® as one of the first, if not the first, cloud CCM system and more than two dozen patented engines for specific Expresso inventions and capabilities. We also remain ahead of the curve in integrating payments technologies as well as digital and print delivery on a single platform for client ease of use, enhanced productivity and improved customer experience.
Like the prior innovations, we are excited about the promise of artificial intelligence. AI will help propel Nordis and our clients to a higher level of performance and market competitiveness.
But we are in the very early days, especially for generative AI. Rather than leapfrogging to test multiple possible applications or quick wins, we instead are putting in place the building blocks that will create an essential foundation to make the most of AI, not just for today, but for the long run.
Our initial focus has been on data systems, infrastructure, governance and internal use cases.
Data Systems
Like many companies, Nordis had its data largely siloed into multiple corporate systems and repositories. With our improved data warehouse, we’ve consolidated our data in one location and made it accessible for any approved business use. With secure validation protocols that can manage and classify data, we are confident in its integrity and have opened up a new type of visibility across the organization.
This step is crucial. It’s no exaggeration to say data is key to AI success.
Take large language models (LLMs). The output quality and accuracy of public and some private LLMs will degrade over time as GenAI-produced hallucinations, erroneous and outdated information, biases, redundancies, inconsistent formatting and other problems get added to the mix. We have ensured our data is well understood to avoid any AI anomalies.
Infrastructure
Our hybrid environment includes not only enterprise cloud for our applications, data warehouse and secure data exchange, but we also keep essential business systems and AI developments on secure company on-prem servers.
Governance
Even before developing our own AI tools and applications, we established policies to control where AI can be used and who in the company is able to use third-party AI and how. The ability to control and manage the operations and systems that are AI-enabled or AI-centric is core to management of risk-reward.
Initial use cases
We chose the following initiatives because they build on each other in terms of laying out the context model to get more consistent and accurate answers from AI that will allow us to confidently add more complex tasks. They are also seen as opportunities to increase our operating efficiency.
- Engineering enabler. Nordis is leveraging AI-enabled engineering solutions to assist with code reviews, quality checks, and other time-intensive tasks. Using AI to generate new code isn’t the plan, but using AI-assisted coding tools to validate and improve code deployment is.
- Information synthesis. We are developing proprietary closed-loop LLMs that will learn who Nordis is and what we do. We started with a base, open-source LLM and are training it on validated data from the data warehouse, Expresso and other internal enterprise systems as we look to leverage the quick access to knowledge that would take a human hours, days, even weeks to understand.
- Data and analytics. We have started using natural language processing to identify patterns and develop visualizations by collecting information for each machine, operator, location and so on throughout the processing and production process. We are looking for opportunities to improve efficiency with our technologies and with our workforce through more customized data metrics and training.
Importantly, we don’t see AI replacing people at Nordis. Instead we see AI as a great partner to leadership. As we continue to transform and grow as an organization, we do expect AI to change and improve how we see tasks, manage work and most likely it will lead to leveraging employees in new ways as we gain clarity around the work.
New client tools on the horizon
Just as we’ve begun leveraging AI for data analytics for Nordis, we didn’t forget about our clients and understand their need for AI-enabled tools as well. We are developing an AI-ready layer within Expresso that will allow clients to gain new insights through analytics and data options within their own program data for visibility and clarity across their setups, communications and payment programs.
In 2026, the first of the client-facing AI essentials will be a solid context layer and security model that we are in the process of designing and developing now. We are committed to innovation, client satisfaction and building the future of AI for all of us to succeed. More soon on some exciting AI tools in 2026!
