Title: Automating Sector-Specific Problem Analysis with Streamlit and OpenAI
In today’s fast-paced world, businesses often struggle to identify key problems, break them down into manageable segments, and propose actionable solutions, all without spending considerable time and resources on brainstorming and research. The code snippet below showcases an elegant solution to this challenge—leveraging Streamlit for a user-friendly web interface and OpenAI’s GPT-based language model for intelligent, hierarchical analysis.
1. What Does This Code Do?
This application is built using Streamlit for the front-end and leverages OpenAI’s GPT-3.5-turbo model to generate:
- High-level business problems relevant to a user-specified sector (e.g., “Automobile,” “Healthcare,” “Finance,” etc.).
- Next-level problem areas that further refine each high-level problem.
- Functional problem statements that describe the business issue in operational terms.
- Technical problem statements that delve into potential AI/ML use cases.
- Recommended AI/ML solutions that guide how these technical problems can be addressed with data science and machine learning techniques.
By inputting a sector name, the application automatically generates a structured breakdown of potential issues and corresponding solutions, effectively streamlining the problem analysis process.
2. How Does the Code Work?
-
User Input:
- The user enters the name of a sector (e.g., “Automobile”).
-
Generate Business Problems:
- The code makes an API call to OpenAI’s
chat.completions.create
method with a prompt requesting “5 business problems” for the chosen sector. - The model’s response is split into separate lines, each representing a different business problem.
- The code makes an API call to OpenAI’s
-
High-Level Problem Areas:
- For each business problem, the code again calls the OpenAI API with a prompt requesting “3 high-level problem areas.”
- These are displayed as bullet points under each main business problem.
-
Next-Level Problem Areas:
- Each high-level problem is further broken down into “2 next-level problem areas,” providing more granular detail.
-
Functional and Technical Problem Statements:
- The application then prompts the model to generate a functional problem statement, explaining how the issue impacts operations or processes.
- It follows with a technical problem statement specifically targeting AI/ML possibilities.
-
Recommended Solution:
- Finally, the application requests a recommended AI/ML solution to tackle the technical problem. The response is displayed in a more descriptive format, providing guidance on data, algorithms, and methodologies.
-
Streamlit Display:
- Streamlit organizes all the generated content neatly into headers, subheaders, and bullet points. This structure allows for easy reading and comprehension of the problem areas and proposed solutions.
3. Advantages of Using This Automated Approach
- Speed and Efficiency:
- Automated generation of business problems, sub-problems, and solutions can save hours of research and brainstorming time.
- Consistency:
- By relying on a powerful language model, you get consistent, well-structured answers every time.
- Scalability:
- The same code can be applied to various sectors or even different contexts, making it highly scalable for consulting, project planning, or academic research.
- Expert Suggestions:
- GPT-3.5-turbo has been trained on vast amounts of data, offering expert-like insights on technical and AI/ML use cases that a small team may not quickly derive on their own.
4. Disadvantages of Doing This Work Manually
- Time-Consuming:
- Manually brainstorming and outlining problems and solutions for each business scenario can be extremely laborious.
- Lack of Comprehensive Insights:
- Without a tool like GPT-3.5, you might miss certain innovative or less obvious problems and solutions.
- Inconsistency:
- Different teams or individuals might describe and prioritize problems in varying ways, leading to confusion or disorganized documentation.
- Resource-Heavy:
- Hiring domain experts or scheduling endless brainstorming sessions is often expensive and logistically challenging.
5. What Problem Does This Code Solve?
The primary issue this code addresses is the lack of a systematic approach to problem discovery and solution planning within a specific sector. By automating the creation of hierarchical problem statements—ranging from high-level industry-specific issues to detailed functional and technical aspects—this application helps teams quickly identify where to focus their resources and how to leverage AI/ML to solve these issues.
It acts like a virtual analyst, guiding you from a broad sector-level challenge to a refined, actionable AI/ML project plan. This level of detail is invaluable for:
- Strategic Planning: Quickly pinpointing key focus areas for investment or further research.
- Project Scoping: Providing well-defined problem statements for business or technology teams.
- Innovation: Stimulating new ideas about how AI/ML can be integrated into traditional processes and industries.
6. Step-by-Step Overview of Usage
-
Install Dependencies:
- Ensure you have
streamlit
andopenai
libraries installed in your Python environment.
- Ensure you have
-
Set Your API Key:
- Replace
"sk-proj-wnZcCaF3DfuWZBuFw7Ls4scotL6Ua4KBrfNKV_txNm9nyUA"
with your own OpenAI API key.
- Replace
-
Run the Streamlit App:
streamlit run your_script.py
- This will open a local URL in your browser.
-
Enter the Sector Name:
- Type in a sector like “Automobile,” “Retail,” etc., into the provided text input field.
-
Review Generated Hierarchy:
- Wait a few seconds for the GPT model to respond. The application will display:
- 5 business problems for the sector.
- 3 high-level problems for each business problem.
- 2 next-level problems for each high-level problem.
- Functional and technical problem statements.
- Recommended AI/ML solution for each technical issue.
- Wait a few seconds for the GPT model to respond. The application will display:
-
Iterate and Refine:
- If any part of the breakdown seems off or incomplete, you can adjust prompts or run the application again with revised instructions.
7. Conclusion
By automating sector-specific problem analysis, this Streamlit application effectively turns hours of manual work into minutes of guided discovery and documentation. It provides a structured, efficient, and thorough way to evaluate business problems and propose AI/ML-based solutions.
While manual brainstorming still has its place—particularly in niche or highly specialized sectors—this tool offers a significant advantage in speed, scalability, and comprehensiveness. With a little creativity, you can adapt the prompts to cover different angles of problem-solving, making it a powerful foundation for strategic planning, consulting, and data science project ideation.