Happy Birthday, CLARITA! Celebrating a first year of AI-powered innovation

One year ago, we embarked on an ambitious journey to harness the power of generative AI with the launch of CLARITA, our pioneering AI assistant. Today, we celebrate the remarkable achievements and widespread adoption of CLARITA across our company.

The seeds of innovation

The concept of CLARITA took root in early 2023 through internal discussions exploring the vast potential of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). By March 2023, we signed off on the initial investment, paving the way for the formation of a dedicated GenAI core team and steering committee. Months of diligent work culminated in CLARITA's highly anticipated release on August 17, 2023. 

"CLARITA represents a paradigm shift in how we operate and innovate at Clariant," says Chris Hansen, our Chief Corporate Development Officer and sponsor of the CLARITA program.

A year of transformative impact

In just 12 months, CLARITA has made incredible strides, rapidly becoming an indispensable tool for employees across Clariant. Key milestones include:

• Successful deployment of high-impact CLARITA solutions for R&D, Sales, Customer Service, Production, and Operations.
• CLARITA has experienced a fast adoption across our global workforce, with more than a fifth of all employees already utilizing her capabilities. Compared to last quarter, we measured a 66% user increase and 71% higher average utilization per user.
• Continuous enhancements, including improved data integration, new AI models for faster and higher-quality responses, and self-service capabilities.

"The enthusiastic embrace of CLARITA across Clariant underscores the immense value this technology delivers," says César Chocou, CLARITA Program Head. “However, this is merely the beginning of an exciting journey.”

A resounding endorsement from employees

CLARITA's first anniversary celebrations would be incomplete without acknowledging the resounding endorsement from employees worldwide. In a recent survey, colleagues across functions and business units shared their favorite ways of leveraging CLARITA's capabilities:

Many highlighted that they lean on CLARITA for drafting and refining emails, reports, presentations, and other communications – ensuring clarity, conciseness, and a professional tone. Others frequently use CLARITA for summarizing lengthy documents, transcripts, and data sets, accelerating information processing. 

CLARITA has also become an invaluable research companion, adeptly summarizing complex topics and offering fresh perspectives to fuel ideation. Additionally, employees appreciate CLARITA's multilingual abilities for translation tasks.

The road ahead

As our organization continues mobilizing for the generative AI revolution, the CLARITA team remains laser-focused on driving even greater impact. Upcoming initiatives include:

• Enhanced data access, allowing CLARITA to draw insights from a wider range of internal and external sources;
• Seamless integrations with essential Microsoft applications like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint;
• AI-powered visualizations, enabling CLARITA to generate insightful charts, graphs, and images on demand;
• Empowering users to create their own tailored CLARITA solutions through self-service tools.

CLARITA will be key in redefining roles across Clariant , tracking and maximizing impact, enabling focused development, and championing proactive change management as generative AI reshapes the business landscape.

"CLARITA is far more than a tool – it's a catalyst for innovation that will shape our future success. With the full commitment of Clariant's leadership, I'm confident we will continue unlocking new frontiers of what's possible with generative AI," affirms Chris Hansen.

The first year was merely the beginning. As CLARITA's second year commences, the opportunities and potential impact are staggering. We are prepared to embrace this transformative technology wholeheartedly and lead our industry into the generative AI era.