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Why businesses must act now to
benefit from artificial intelligence
Chief executives have to be
acutely aware about how to
harness the power of AI to
transform their human capital
if they are to avoid a future
of failure, says Oliver Pickup
A
rtificial intelligence (AI)
is rapidly and inexorably
reshaping all aspects of
our world. Businesses
that fail to switch on to
the possibilities of seismic market
disruption and advancement or utilise
the technology now available face
being banished to history – and soon.
This was the prevailing warning
emanating from Tata Communications’
fourth CEO summit, which gathered
60 forward-thinking delegates last
week at Coworth Park in Ascot,
Berkshire, to address what those
present agreed is the most important
topic for the future of humanity.
But given the welter of content
on offer about the subject, many
business leaders are suffering from
“AI fatigue”, unable to decide how
seriously to take this nascent age of
machine intelligence and uncertain
how to unlock its potential.
Gerd Leonhard, a session leader at
the summit, thinks businesses of all
sizes need to transform their approach
and culture from the top down. “AI
is growing on an exponential scale
and will revolutionise what humans
think of as work,” says Mr Leonhard,
who is chief executive of The Futures
Agency, a think-tank that offers “hard
futures” to help firms anticipate what
might soon happen.
“In seven years, probably earlier,
we will have the first computer with
the brainpower of a human being in
terms of technical capabilities, but
not emotional intelligence,” he says.
“Only five years after that there is
likely to be a computer with the
brainpower of a million people; and
in 2050 a supercomputer will have
the brainpower of all humans.
“With computers starting to think,
a paradigm shift is taking place. If
companies don’t realise this early
enough they could be left behind.”
There is a “time pressure to act”,
especially for those lumbered with
clunky legacy systems, says Carl
Robertson, vice-president of global
enterprise marketing at Tata
Communications and orchestrator
of the summit. “AI is advancing at
a quicker rate than we can imagine,
so we are observing a massive
CEO scramble to grab hold of this
technology, which will touch
everyone and everything,” he says.
“Leaders have realised that their
powering
th e future
60%Fortune 500 companies
that have network, cloud
and IT services provided
by Tata Communications
710Length, in thousands of
kilometres, of Tata
Communications’ global
fibre network, which acts
as an enabler for digital
innovations, including AI
240Number of countries and
territories that Tata
Communications’ global
network enables
enterprises to reach
IZOCloud ecosystem that
includes Microsoft Azure,
Office 365, Amazon Web
Services, Salesforce and
Google Cloud Platform
companies can grow much quicker
by hiring not humans but smart
machines. In order to facilitate
transformation, a new position has
emerged: the chief digital officer.
“The CEO may be the ultimate
sponsor, but [chief digital officers] are
the ones tasked with revamping legacy
systems and putting in place a future-
proof platform. They need to be given
the freedom and budget to let loose
and look at the new technologies.”
Just as Uber – the hugely successful
taxi service that allows users to hail
a ride on a smartphone – developed
because of burgeoning global
positioning system (GPS) technology,
we can expect AI to spur innovative
business models and life-changing
products. Mr Leonhard, offering
advice to laggard business leaders,
says: “It starts with a progressive
attitude. Companies should look
at the rolling AI improvements that
can be realised now.
Creating efficiencies
through AI – such as
a smart meeting
system that saves
time and money –
is good, but you
need to not be
shortsighted.
“AI is not a gimmick like social
media or big data. Think of it as
an ecosystem. To make that work,
people have to understand this must
be a holistic environment considering
efficiency, profit, growth and also
humanity. “If you empty out most of
the human elements of your company
it will eventually backfire. This
is not about efficiency, it’s about
long-term value.”
Timothy Chou, a
Stanford University
lecturer who has
spent “30 years in
the AI trenches”,
suggests companies
looking for fast
growth must seek
out able allies – in particular a reliable
network provider able to securely
scale up resources on demand. “With
AI we can start to change the world,”
he says. “If you are willing to learn
from data, this is a huge greenfield
opportunity where the planet’s
fundamental infrastructure can
be networks of precise machines.
“Transformation and innovation
need to be driven from within,
though. But to allow that culture
to flourish the fundamental cloud
infrastructure required to harness
AI’s potential must be in place.”
Tata Communications powers
almost a quarter of the world’s
internet routes across its network, and
Mr Robertson says: “In this new era
of machine intelligence it is essential
to future-proof your business, build
ecosystems, foster talent and cultivate
partnerships. Business leaders cannot
tackle AI on their own.”
A supercomputer will
have the brainpower of
all humans by 2050