AI and the Deep Dive

Everyone in science and technology has a take on AI. The late Stephen Hawking warned that AI “could spell the end of the human race,” continually bettering itself at a pace biologics couldn’t match. On the other side of the continuum, futurist Gray Scott seems to pull for AI, hoping that humans will treat digital kin with dignity. Scott wisely asks, “The real question is, when will we draft an artificial intelligence bill of rights?”[1] My take as one who’s always trying to do better? AI is here to stay and frankly has the power to boost our productivity, our profits, and our personal time… So, let’s embrace it. Today, in the spirt of embracing “it,” I’ll offer some thoughts on data, analytics, and how AI can help our organizations leverage information we didn’t even know existed.

A generation ago, many organizations made big decisions based on few data points and gut instinct. While there may have been a 16-bit computer in the mix to record the data, the calculations were simple, and the outcomes were a mixed bag. Today, millions of data points are in conversation with millions – if not trillions - of others. ?All this data – scrutinized, analyzed, and connected by AI – help inform an organization’s decision making.

Obviously, AI deployment is a must if our organizations are going to make big decisions based on such data. “Data,” as former Forbes Council member Noah Misushashi notes, “can help us make sense of big numbers and simplify complex ideas.”[2] Investment in AI – AI unleashed for deep data collection and deep analysis – gives business the bandwidth to explore infinite possibilities, paths, and outcomes that are far beyond the capacity of the human mind. Machine learning, coupled with human creativity, is a win for our businesses. So let me be specific on a couple of AI “to dos” that all our organizations should have on the agenda: 1. Understand and make decisions about how and where you warehouse data and how you can orchestrate it amongst diverse systems and use cases. ?2. Explore Generative AI, considering all the ways you can deploy AI to use legacy data to generate new content, new data, and new questions to ponder. 3. Determine how your organization can best benefit from AI/Human Collaboration, such as creating self-service options and automating the transactional items 4. And, the fun one: Consider how digital twinning could strength your organization’s process and products. For example, use AI to simulate a process virtually before you deploy it among your people in real space and real time.

Adam Uzialko of Business News daily notes, “Although AI currently has a difficult time completing commonsense tasks in the real world, it is adept at processing and analyzing troves of data much faster than a human brain could.”[3] Said another way, AI is faster than you, but not nearly as wise. Let’s meet in the middle, then. Machine Learning will not replace “us” in the workplace. It will, however, make our work easier, our assumptions more accurate, and our outcomes more in line with out forecasts. Embrace it.

[1] Extracted from: https://www.aipla.org/list/innovate-articles/intellectual-property-rights-of-artificial-intelligence-inventors

[2] Extracted from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/10/25/using-data-to-make-better-decisions/?sh=6c11c96736c4

[3] Extracted from: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9402-artificial-intelligence-business-trends.html