FEATURE : ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE that are critical to the business goals ,” she said . “ This way , CIOs will design AI that successfully connects every strategic data and to the defined business objectives of a company . Once the intent of AI in the organisation is set , leaders should then define the types of AI solutions needed by the users and that will eventually be integrated into your infrastructure . AI is rapidly advancing in numerous fields , from computer vision that determines what ’ s in an image to the natural language processing AI that you find in chatbots and virtual assistants . What are the ways these applications can advance the intentions you outlined ?”
Carvalho said the next question for CIOs will then be to figure out what data they need to make the use cases identified effective and that their AI is being fed accurate , clean data that draws from the entire organisation . “ This will need to be followed by setting concrete actions in place for the technical implementation . This will ensure AI is operationalised through the business by connecting every solution to the defined AI strategy ,” she said . experimentation are extremely important , the biggest and most common strategic mistake companies make when exploring AI is failing to define a clear use case and desired outcomes with a clear , quantifiable metric for the technology in the first place .”
She explained that CIOs need to start with a clear understanding on who will be consuming the AI solution , how they will be consuming it , and why AI is even needed . “ This starts with thinking critically about the problems the organisation is facing , framing those challenges in ways that are potentially solvable by AI , and then identifying and refining use cases that are critical to the business goals ,” she said . “ Without this approach they risk issues such as training a Machine Learning model using data that contains human bias or suggests humans make unfair decisions . The reality is that by putting trust at the cornerstone of AI innovation , business leaders have a major opportunity to use AI as a force for positive change , both for their companies and for society at large .
Julia Carvalho , General Manager , IBM Africa Growth Markets
Ravi , Co-founder and President , Uniphore APAC , said : “ In recent years , AI has rapidly evolved from a fringe technology , to now being a crucial component in the Digital Transformation and innovation strategies of businesses . This change requires organisations to adopt a more comprehensive , long-term outlook for AIadoption which inevitably calls for the incorporation of an overarching AI architecture . Such a robust architecture will allow the seamless integration of AI with other advanced solutions like natural language processing ( NLP ), automation , machine learning ( ML ), and more – allowing for holistic value creation across a multitude of use cases .” Saraogi pointed out that customer service stands out as an especially relevant area of application and could serve as an ‘ easy win ’ for MEA organisations looking to make their first foray into AI . “ By optimising conversations between people and automated systems , AI has augmented – not replaced – human capabilities to enhance the way businesses interact with their customers . After achieving this first milestone , MEA organisations can look to unleash AI ’ s true value for enriching customer experience and enhancing conversations , by exploring how this technology can be infused into existing business systems to build a multilayered AI architecture of the future ,” Saraogi said .
Given that there are many technologies and disciplines that involve Artificial Intelligence , Tucker believes voice , visual , text recognition and incorporating services that automatically recognise speech must be part of the AI solution . Tucker said without a doubt , AI will become more strategically significant with a focus on long-term scalability in the next five years for large organisations .
“ But for end consumers like us , we can anticipate ‘ Alexa ’ and other similar home pods to travel with us . Alexa won ’ t just be turning your specific playlist on while you cook dinner , but she ’ ll be with you permanently : monitoring how your body is functioning and make suggestions on how to be healthier , she ’ ll be reading all your correspondence and writing your to-do lists , solve potential problems for you , submit your online shopping orders and pick the best delivery time . She may even be able to read our thoughts – what that looks like is almost inconceivable right now , but I ’ m sure it ’ s coming .” p
According to Carvalho , organisations must ensure that AI systems operate within a basic ethical framework and AI machines are embedded with values . “ They must begin by creating a set of rules with which the system must comply and then – over time – identify subtler , ethically ambiguous situations , accepting training and direction on how to handle those situations going forward ,” she explained . “ Bad algorithms will yield bad results . While investment and
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