Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) versus Automated Human Intelligence (“AHI”)

AI requires large amounts of data, fast computers, and well-developed algorithms. AHI requires one subject matter expert (“SME”), a deployment platform, and clients.

Which sounds more like your business model?

I fully embrace the reality of AI, but I do not believe it’s a panacea. 

At a technology conference in Boston, I cornered a partner of a large Midwest accounting firm. He was there to learn about how AI can integrate into his business. I asked him pointedly if he was clear on how AI would benefit his practice. He said no. But he would keep working on it.

When I explained AHI, he got it immediately. What is AHI? It’s just what it sounds like…the ability to automate human intelligence.

It takes years for most people to become a SME. During those years, the “SME in training” is working like a dog; developing their expertise often at the expense of time with family and friends.

Sound familiar?

With AHI, the SME can now leverage his or her expertise to get payback. 

In the context of the tax department of an accounting firm, it looks like this. The partners program their knowledge and expertise into a multi-faceted deployment platform. The platform becomes the infrastructure for their service delivery model.

As I explained it to the tax partner, think of Henry Ford automating the tax business. Ford knew how to build the Model T. His grand success was because he was able to have others build the Model T while he was off doing something else.

AI is amazingly powerful. Machine learning will continue to shift how we work for years to come. But, until we find a way to capture so much information as to make the algorithms productive, many will find their best option is AHI, Automated Human Intelligence.