What if you could give an LLM the task of creating a complete domain-specific taxonomy from a corresponding set of documents? Ideally, relations between the concepts, alternative labels and definitions would also be listed. In this way, a large language model (LLM) would practically take over the work of a taxonomist and domain expert completely. Attempts to use Generative AI for taxonomy creation are already underway, but they are also unsatisfactory. The complex processes in the collaboration between taxonomists and domain experts are not so easy to map for the machine. Likewise, the linguistic analysis of content is not suited to clearly capturing and assigning the context of concepts.
And finally, the important question arises as to whether you should leave the creation of a taxonomy to GenAI when I want to use precisely this taxonomy to ground my RAG or chatbot later on.
The PoolParty Taxonomy Advisor
The sweet spot for GenAI in taxonomy management is the suggestion function, which leaves the final decision to approve or reject the LLM-suggested concept to the employee. With this in mind, we have designed and implemented our latest LLM-supported application, the Taxonomy Advisor. The PoolParty Taxonomy Advisor allows the taxonomist or subject matter expert to
- select from suggested narrower concepts and edit them
- select from suggested related concepts and edit them
- select from suggested definitions and edit them
- perform single or bulk suggestion operations
- check the created entries for consistency with the whole taxonomy
Most importantly, aside from drastically reducing the workload of taxonomy creation, it also ensures that the suggestions are specific to the company’s expertise or domain. The results are tailored to the company’s business case and not simply pulled from external open sources.
In the following preview, you can see how much the Taxonomy Advisor can speed up the process of concept creation branch by branch. Instead of having to look up other sources, the Taxonomy Advisor provides suggestions that only need to be validated.
The expert is still in a determining position but has to do less base research and structuring.
Although the function is still in the beta phase, we can already see that – especially in combination with corpus analysis and/or seed taxonomies – the construction of a company taxonomy can be shortened by 50%.
Making taxonomies fun
Leading taxonomists have been calling for the use of these technologies in taxonomy management since the advent of LLM and GenAI. Evangelist Heather Hedden (Enterprise Knowledge) recently acknowledged the Taxonomy Advisor approach and also described the opportunities that GenAI opens up for taxonomists in one of her recent blog post.
An initial version of the PoolParty Taxonomy Advisor is already being delivered free of charge as a trial in the current PoolParty 2024 R1. The next version is expected in the autumn. Take your time and arrange a non-binding demonstration appointment with one of our experts.
