This is the slide deck of a talk given at UCL (University College London) in December 2017. The aim of the talk is to give a very simple overview of AI and its potential future impact on business professionals with a non-technical background.

1. How can business professionals
succeed in a future with AI
Semir Jahic
MSc Technology Management, UCL
linkedin.com/in/jahic
semir@union4digital.com
05. December 2017
University College London (UCL), Innovation Practices
Guest Lecture Fall 2017

3. “AI is the new electricity”
Andrew Ng, AI Pioneer
“1 in 2 jobs could be automated”
Oxford Research Study (2013)

4. Objective:
Understand how YOU as a young business
graduate can succeed in a future with AI

5. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Outline
1. What is AI?
2. How does it work?
3. Why now?
4. Where is AI going?
5. What does it mean for me?
6. Q&A and Career Debriefing

6. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
What is AI NOT?

7. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
What is AI?
Other terms you will hear
people throwing around when
talking about AI:
● Machine Learning (ML)
● Deep Learning
● Reinforcement Learning
● Machine Intelligence
● Robot Automation
● Machine Algorithms
● Neural Networks

8. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
So, what the heck is AI?

9. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
One Easy Example
1. You take data points. E.g. house sizes and prices
2. You find a line that is well-aligned to the points
3. Based on the line, new house sizes can be placed
on the right spot giving you a price for a house
In everyday-people terms, that is all what Machine
Learning does. The difference is, it not only uses two
aspects (size and price) but uses dozens or hundreds. It
then uses algorithms to find the best “line” to make
predictions and automate processes.
House size
House price

10. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
How does it work?
Input Data, Learn and Produce an Output
Feature Extraction,
Modelling and
Training
Prediction
Data Input Machine Learning Training Output

11. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Automation - We’ve seen it before
First ATM in London - June 1967Elevator operatorsWeaving industry in the 1800s

12. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Why is the AI revolution different?
AI will impact us all, also White Collar jobs
Radiologists Auditors Journalists

13. Quote
AI, and technology in general, allow us to do
much more with much less. There are many
fields in which AI still has a lot to influence.
Look for opportunities of improvement and
change in your company. Then be the one to
bring that change.
Software Engineer, Real Estate Startup,
MSc Computer Science, ETH Zurich

14. Key Takeaway #1
Job replacements due to AI are more
fundamental than by previous technologies

15. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Why now?
Trends and Innovation Triggers
“AI will be the most disruptive class of
technologies over the next 10 years; these will
enable organizations with AI technologies to
harness data in order to adapt to new situations
and solve problems that no one has ever
encountered previously.” - Gartner Research
Technologies are all growing up
at the same time!
Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2017
Source: Gartner

16. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Why now?
Technology
Data Models
Have been around for some time e.g. Deep Learning from
the 1940s. They were too slow, inefficient and there was
not enough data.
Processing Power
Processors, the brains of computers, have become faster
every year (Moore’s Law) and can now process the data.
Big Data
Everything can and is being measured, stored and
processed. This collected data from social networks, the
internet, devices (internet of things) is aggregated and
ready to be used.
Source: Salesforce

17. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Why now?
Investment and M&A
Venture Capital funding is strong for
AI-based startups because this
technology can fundamentally impact
every industry and has great potential
to create new services and products.
“It has been estimated that AI could
add an additional USD $814 billion
(£630bn) to the UK economy by 2035”
(UK Government Report, 2017)

18. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Why now?
Investment and M&A
● Large corporations are very active in
acquiring AI technology and AI talent
(Acquihiring)
● Internal R&D for Google and Baidu exceed
£20bn
● Data is hard to get and a crucial element
to create great AI products. The big
players get bigger
Source: CB Insights

19. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Why now?
Investment - Where does it go?
All of these fields are very young
and most investment goes to
Machine Learning based
applications.
Source: McKinsey

20. Quote
Advancements in AI will allow us to develop
products and services that will change the way
we interact with the world and among
ourselves. They will enhance our productivity
and create completely new markets. We all need
to be ready for this.
Software Engineer, Large Tech Company,
MSc Computer Science, Columbia University

21. Key Takeaway #2
AI is an opportunity which should be
embraced and used to create a better world

22. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Where are we going?
Jobs for machines, jobs for people...
Characteristics of jobs susceptible to automation
● Highly predictive environment (e.g. Auditor)
● Repetitive (e.g. Machinist)
● Structured tasks (e.g. Financial Analyst)
Characteristics of jobs less susceptible to automation
● Interactive, dynamic environment (e.g. Dentist)
● Unpredictable human interaction (e.g. Nurse, Manager)
Note: Susceptibility to automation shows no correlation with
educational attainment
Source: Economist

23. Key Takeaway #3
Repetitive, predictable activities will be
automated in all professions. Focus on the
parts of your job where tasks are
unpredictable and dynamic to add value and
succeed.

24. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
What does this mean for Your career?
How to spot a great AI opportunity for non-Statisticians
Ask yourself what outcomes is it worth
guessing (remember the housing prices
example)
Do you have example data in your
organisation to train a machine learning
model and start predicting?
Ask yourself, if it were automated, how
would it help customers or internal users
(saved time, higher productivity)
1
2
3

25. Quote
We are in the beginning of the AI revolution,
there will be two kind of professionals: the ones
that will understand AI and how to apply it to
their jobs, and the ones that will be completely
replaced by AIs. For those that don't want to be
part of the second group, my advice is to
research and be up to date with AI applications
in your industry.
José Vicente, Founder & CTO Relendo,
MSc Computer Science, Columbia University

26. Key Takeaway #4
Understand AI from a business perspective
and start to look for opportunities to
become a thought-leader in your company

27. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Case Studies of Customer Service
Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship in Real Life - AI Augmentation
Sentient Machines (sentientmachines.tech)
Understanding emotions using call centre data
to help predict what causes frustration
Salesforce Einstein (www.salesforce.com)
Predicting who will click what kind of email and
how long it takes to solve a customer issue

28. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
Case Studies of Customer Service
Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship in Real Life - AI Augmentation
Salesforce Einstein
Be an Intrapreneur to build a new product
on top of a great platform which uses the
latest technology
Salesforce Customers
Realise the potential of using all your
customer data to better service them and
better understand customer needs from
R&D up to the Sales people
Sentient Machines
Become an Entrepreneur if you find a great
opportunity
Sentient Machines Customers
Intrapreneurs, who have realised that they can
use their call centre data to analyse and
predict outcome and improve their business
and augment customer service
representatives

29. Quote
AI is likely to change as many areas of life as
other enabling technologies before it (motor,
electricity, internet). Therefore, understanding
how it works and what it likely will and won't
be able to do is important. One concern that I
share, though, is, that too much concentration
of AI capabilities within a few private actors
could pose a problem: AI is powerful and
concentration of power is dangerous.
Lorenz Fischer, Founder & CTO,
Sentient Machines, PhD Computer Science,
University of Zurich

30. Impact of AI for Future Business Professionals
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Bias, Manipulation and Surveillance

31. Key Takeaway #5
AI is a powerful technology which needs to
be used responsibly and ethically

32. Summary of Key Takeaways
1. Job replacements due to AI are fundamental
2. AI is an opportunity which should be embraced
3. Repetitive tasks will be automated, focus on real added value
4. Understand AI and start to look for opportunities
5. AI needs to be used responsibly and ethically

33. Resources
Coursera Machine Learning
course by Andrew Ng
Book: The Second Machine Age
TED Talk Playlist on AI

34. Sources
● Oxford Future of Employment Study (2013),
https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf
● Andrew Ng, https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/ai-is-the-new-electricity
● Simple examples, https://medium.com/simple-ai/linear-regression-intro-to-machine-learning-6-6e320dbdaf06
● Gartner Hype Cycle, https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3784363
● AI technology image, https://trailhead.salesforce.com/modules/ai_basics/units/ai_basics_getstarted
● AI startup investments, https://www.cbinsights.com/research/top-acquirers-ai-startups-ma-timeline/
● FT Investment in AI, https://www.ft.com/content/856753d6-8d31-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d
● UK Government Report on AI,
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652097/Growing_the_artificial_intelligence_
industry_in_the_UK.pdf
● McKinsey AI report, https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/overview
● Economist catalogue of fears,
https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21700758-will-smarter-machines-cause-mass-unemployment-automation-
and-anxiety
● McKinsey job replacement,
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/where-machines-could-replace-humans-and-w
here-they-cant-yet
● HBR - How to spot an AI opportunity,
https://hbr.org/2017/10/how-to-spot-a-machine-learning-opportunity-even-if-you-arent-a-data-scientist
● Wired Big Data Meets Big Brother, http://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score-privacy-invasion

35. Image Sources
● https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/HAL9000.svg/1200px-HAL9000.svg.png
● https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/342/613/5613342.jpg
● http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/powerlisting/images/b/bd/Neo_The_One.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131018055648
● https://d15shllkswkct0.cloudfront.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/12/robot_army.jpg
● https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/artificial_intelligence
● https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/492682174.jpg
● https://galaxyis.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Siri-app.jpg
● http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/549466_81_58982_URtPCkWCG.jpg
● https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/RegVarneyATM.jpg
● http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KKVISRr3LDc/UTdWQ_fNefI/AAAAAAAAQrE/cgLzhYENj6w/s1600/Harold+Blackman%252C+eleva
tor+operator+Baker+Bldg%252C+1913.JPG
● Various images from: https://unsplash.com/