What is an LLM?

A Large Language Model (LLM) is a type of artificial intelligence trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language. LLMs power applications like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini, enabling them to answer questions, write content, translate languages, and assist with various tasks.

For SMEs, LLMs offer transformative capabilities without requiring technical expertise. These models can draft emails, create marketing content, summarize documents, answer customer questions, write code, and assist with research. The key advantage is that they understand context and can handle nuanced, complex tasks that previously required human intelligence.

LLMs work through a technology called transformer architecture, which allows them to process and generate text by predicting the most likely next word based on context. They're trained on billions of text examples, learning patterns in language, facts about the world, and reasoning capabilities. Modern LLMs can maintain context across long conversations and follow complex instructions.

Business applications include customer service chatbots, content generation, data analysis and reporting, code generation, document summarization, language translation, and knowledge management. SMEs can access LLMs through APIs, web interfaces, or integrated into business applications. Many tools now embed LLM capabilities, making them accessible without direct interaction.

Considerations when using LLMs include accuracy (they can generate plausible but incorrect information), data privacy (sensitive information shouldn't be shared), bias (they reflect biases in training data), and cost (API usage can add up at scale). Despite limitations, LLMs represent one of the most accessible and impactful AI technologies for SMEs, offering capabilities that were impossible or prohibitively expensive just a few years ago.