Business AI: Assistant or Replacement?

We’re definitely at the dawn of a new era; technology has never been so advanced or convenient. I mean, we’ve got cars that drive themselves, and planes that submerge underwater. But perhaps the most significant achievement the human mind has achieved to date is to recreate a non organic version of itself – artificial intelligence.

Thanks to AI, today’s breed of tech and machines can actually comprehend, act, learn, think, and alter behavior according to new data in real time. AI is surely poised to transform numerous processes and overall productivity across the economy as a whole. But even in this epoch of unbelievable, sci-fi like advancements, you’d be surprised how many misconceptions still run unchecked.

One popular myth purported by scholars, conspiracy theorists, and movie producers alike is the ‘rise of the machines’ where computers and robots replace human workers and eventually take over the world with one main objective – to eliminate the ever wasteful, illogical and inferior human species. While based on some truth (humans are wasteful and illogical, no argument there), the reality couldn’t be further away from what you’ve seen on the silver screen.

The True Value of AI

Truth is, plenty of business risk being passed by the promise of AI unless they rethink how their people can partner with intelligent machines. According to Jim Wilson (MD at Information Technology and Business Research at Accenture, the most lasting and impactful performance boosts in companies happen when man and AI powered machine work together to create a concept known as collaborative intelligence.

While working on his book (Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the AI Age), Wilson carried out research on over 100 companies worldwide. He and his colleague Paul discovered that whenever AI was deployed with the main aim of displacing humans, the best outcome was short term gains in productivity at the most. Eventually, the progress stalls because the AI is lacking one essential aspect – a human brain and a teacher to go along with it.

By contrast, Wilson and Paul also noted that companies that tailored their processes around human AI collaboration outperformed others by a factor of 3 – and even as high as 6 at times in areas such as scalability, flexibility, speed, and decision making. From their data, it’s clear that unlocking the true power of AI rests highly on effective collaboration between man and machine.

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.... this article was originally published in Veloxy