Book Review: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Business. A No-Nonsense Guide to Data Driven Technologies.

1. Personal Evaluation

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Business (AIMLB) lives up to its title. Written using ordinary, jargon-free language, it provides a no-nonsense guide to many aspects of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how they are deployed in the enterprise world. Dr Steven Finlay’s book is very honestly-written, very informative and very practical; hence I strongly recommend it both for non-technical business people (investors, C-suits, project managers), as well as experienced data-science practitioners.

If you are a business person and a neophyte in regard to AI projects, Steven’s book can help you stop treating AI as a panacea or as something esoteric. It can also help you make educated decisions regarding AI investments, better manage AI projects and ensure positive business outcomes. That is because AIMLB provides us with more than just a glimpse of the inner workings of ML and AI; it also provides an understanding of how different business and real-world factors shape AI outcomes.

Data-science professionals, especially the ones only focused on the research/maths side of things, can improve their communication and story-telling abilities by mimicking Steve’s layman-type narrative. This book will also help them appreciate the importance of applied business skills and their relevance to predictive modelling. If you are a practitioner possessing research, mathematical, development and applied business skills, you can still find this book very useful and that is because it can help you create a system and add structure to your data-science activities.

This book has many good elements but my personal favourite is chapter 15: ‘When Can I buy a Self-Driving Car’ and that is because it makes the reader aware of the hype surrounding AI. My favourite quote from this chapter and I hope that I am not giving away too much information is: ‘If I have to pass a driving test then so should a driving car’.

2. Evaluation from Members of the Bookclub

We’ve read and discussed Steven’s book at The London Business Bookclub and one of our members, that did not buy or read the book commented: “This is a self-published book. It seems that anyone can write and publish a book this days”. Her quote couldn’t be further from the truth in this case, and maybe AIMLB being self-published is what kept it pragmatic and straight to the point. With a PhD in predictive modelling and more than two decades of experience in multiple industries, Dr Steven Finlay has been an ML and AI practitioner before the terms even became fashionable. His expertise is hard to match and his multiple books and peer-reviewed articles on ML and AI speak for themselves.

Members of our bookclub come from various technical backgrounds and here I provide a couple more of their quotes. A project manager with a quantitative but not computational background mentioned: “Now I know what ML and AI are and why they are useful”. An experienced developer mentioned: “………..It provides accessible language for non-technical people, while considering the business context, operational, data protection, ethical and political issues often overlooked implementing Machine Learning solutions. It is a good starting point read before going in-depth into the topic”.

3. How to Read AIMLB

This book is a great, easy read but in order to derive maximum value from AIMLB I urge you to not take the author’s proposal and not read the 3rd or even the 2nd edition in 112 minutes; especially if you are a non-technical person. I ‘ve read the 2nd edition this way but whilst going through the -almost double the size- 3rd edition, not only did I underline important parts, I also wrote down the summary accompanied with a not-so granular inventory for each chapter. I aim to use these notes for delivering future presentations as well as enhancing and solidifying my ‘personal data strategy’.

4. How could AIMLB improve?

• The chapters of this book are fairly short and mostly self-contained. If you 've read the book and later need to refer back to something, you ‘ll know where to search. However, an index or perhaps a more detailed table of contents wouldn’t hurt. To be fair this is somewhat compensated by excellent appendices that among other things, they provide an explanation of technical terms. My favourite appendix is Appendix D titled ‘A checklist for business success’.
• I ordered Steve’s book from an independent book-seller and it took 3 weeks to arrive from the US because they couldn’t find it in the UK. Another member of the bookclub did not buy the book because his local book-store told him it was not available. If you are in a rush to obtain this book, then going through the Amazon ecosphere is perhaps the best way to go.

5. Summary

AIMLB is an excellent, easy to read book that offers great insights on how AI and ML are deployed in the enterprise world. It can be used for introducing someone into the field and it is a great tool for bridging the communication gap between business and technical people.