(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) With Artificial Intelligence (AI) growing in its reach throughout society, any business looking to capitalise on AI's potential must also acknowledge its impact.
Much more than just a technological tool, AI has grown to the point where it often has as much influence as the people putting it to use, both within and outside the company. For businesses, this means deploying AI is no longer just about training it to perform a given task. It's about "raising" it to act as a responsible representative of the business, and a contributing member of society.
Researchers at New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai have a unique collaborator in the hospital: their in-house AI system, affectionately known as Deep Patient. Armed with the electronic health records of 700,000 patients, Deep Patient taught itself to predict risk factors for 78 different diseases - and doctors now turn to the system to aid in diagnoses.
Deep Patient may not be a person, but it's more than just a programme. Artificially intelligent systems learn, make autonomous decisions, and have grown from a technological tool to a partner among people, coordinating and collaborating with humans in the workforce and society. With increasing autonomy and sophisticated capabilities, AI now often has as much influence as the people putting it to use. According to our survey, four out of five executives (81 per cent) believe that within the next two years, AI will work next to humans in their organisations, as a co-worker, collaborator and trusted advisor.
Already, AI-based solutions help fashion stylists at San Francisco-based Stitch Fix curate customers' outfits and assist claims adjustors at Ant Financial Insurance in China in making insurance payout decisions. An AI system even has a position on the leadership team at the Nordic software maker, Tieto, where the company looks to its AI, called "Alicia T," to help the team become more data driven. For some organisations, AI is already the public face of the business, handling everything from initial interactions via chat, voice, and email, through to filling vital customer service roles. And these roles will only grow: IDC forecasts that global corporate spending on cognitive/AI systems will increase at a 54 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2015 and 2020.
As AI-based decisions increasingly impact human lives, a new imperative becomes clear: just as parents hope to raise children who act responsibly and communicate effectively, businesses now need to "raise" their AI systems so that they reflect business and societal norms of responsibility, fairness and transparency. Many enterprises still treat AI as a technology tool, but no one would expect a tool to "act" responsibly, to explain its decisions, or work well with others. However, it is important that we take a high-principled approach to creating these machines to avoid catastrophic effects.
According to the 2018 Fjord Trends report, to ensure that we get the most out of AI, companies must make algorithmic transparency a central part of their corporate values, design machines that ask questions and clarify instructions and create a work environment where humans and machines can complement each other's skills. In addition, companies must take on a new responsibility of "raising" AI, to create portfolios of AI systems with varied skills. Once AIs are trained, these skills can be redirected throughout the workforce as needed and remain available to the company as long as it needs them.
These carefully raised AIs will not only be able to scale operations, but also adapt to new needs via feedback loops from other deployed models - similar to how continuing education enables employees to adapt to new tasks. By treating AI in a way that recognises the impact it now has in society, companies can create a collaborative and powerful new member of the workforce.
- Xavier Anglada is Managing Director and Accenture Digital lead in the Middle East and Turkey.
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