Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI has received large and increasing amounts of attention and investment. We believe this is entirely warranted – AI in various forms is poised to change the way that businesses work. But one consequence of the ChatGPT release being the catalyst for this wave of attention is that people equate AI with large language models (LLMs), and they equate LLMs with chatbots.

We love chatbots – ChatGPT and others in its class are amazing tools – but, as an AI consultancy with a long history of projects in the space before the current mania, we’re sensitive to the conflation of LLMs and chatbots. Many of the most exciting potential uses for LLMs have little to do with the chatbot interface, and we think those should get more attention.