By Ernest T (Wee Keong), Senior Manager - Singapore
Introduction
The word “Artificial Intelligence,” or AI, is heard more often these days. My two boys, aged 11 and 9, started discussing AI in school this year and became more interested in how technologies can help humans fulfill certain tasks.
I have been hearing and reading about how AI transformation can help businesses. For example, in Singapore, where the labor force is a challenge, AI can help fill this gap. AI can help automate specific repeatable tasks, allowing personalization at scale and enhancing productivity rather than replacing jobs. A chatbot serving customers and helping them resolve issues is a good example.
AI for Business- Good or Bad?
Recently, I was in a workshop held by an educational institution. The students are from diverse backgrounds, and everyone shared their opinion on how their companies have started leveraging AI as part of their organization's digital transformation plan for value-creation and value-captured. Everyone agreed that the AI wave is coming big and will stay whether we like it. I reflected on this and started to relate the impact on my company. My company embarked on a few AI initiatives to create value and provide a competitive advantage. These have significantly improved how our support team works.
While AI brings good to the business, improving productivity and efficiency, it is a double-edged sword. Research (Khan et al., 2023) shows that AI-based systems raise data security and privacy and are usually targeted during data breaches. As with other technologies, data security, privacy, and ethics should be considered when designing solutions. An article shared by Devineni (2024) shows that the conventional method to ensure data privacy and security needs to be revised due to the increasing amount of data and the dynamic cyber threats.
The additional measures required for data privacy and security might be considered an additional cost to some companies. Companies need to find the balance between data security, privacy, and the innovation brought by AI. However, will the companies be willing to take that extra effort and cost to achieve data security and privacy, and if so, at what stage of AI implementation? This depends on the companies themselves, as no single solution fits all companies.
Entering the World of Uncertainty
As one of my MBA professors always said, "We are living in a non-perfect world; we will not be able to find that perfect solution to all issues". While looking at the current impact and value that AI brings to the world, the business, and the everyday life around me, I wonder what the future holds. The AI wave is real. Every day, I hear radio news, TV, and people talking about AI, how excited (and scared) people are about AI, and what they can do to embrace the AI wave. No one will be able to accurately advise what will happen to the world, businesses, and our surroundings with the AI wave in the next five or even ten years. However, one thing that I am sure of is that everything has its pros and cons, and so does AI.
Recently, there has been news about companies laying off their employee (Lam, 2024) because they are trying to make way for AI. However, when I think about this, it is somewhat contradicting. Isn't technology supposed to help us human beings to be more efficient instead of making us redundant? Or have we positioned ourselves in the wrong way? Do not get me wrong; I am not against companies who are adopting AI. However, before adopting AI, we need to know what problem we are trying to resolve. Moreover, while we try to resolve this issue with AI transformation solutions, can we continue practicing empathy and being "Human"? I firmly believe we can. It is about something other than making people redundant but upskilling the people. Domain knowledge is necessary for the company to be successful when embarking on the AI transformation journey. As NUS' Assoc Prof Kan mentioned in the article (Lam, 2024), it is essential to pair AI with the subject matter expertise to benefit from the technology.
In my recent conversation with a friend in the airline industry, he shared with me how their company has used AI to increase efficiency and save money by predicting flight delays, managing fuel consumption, and identifying potential aircraft malfunctions. All these are great examples of how AI can help businesses save costs. However, I learned from him that it is not easy as there is a shift in the culture, and only some are ready for this change as people are afraid that they might lose their jobs. With this example, a formal change management process and clear communication from the top management are essential for successfully implementing the AI transformation project. The fear and the uncertainty within individuals need to be addressed. Companies need to help employees navigate the uncertainty and ensure constant communication about the AI transformation progress is shared with the employees.
Conclusion
With the many conversations I have had with people from different industries and the articles I have read over the past few months, there are generally two groups. One who embraces the change and is excited about the benefits that the AI transformation journey will bring to them and their business, there is another group of people who fear that they might be made obsolete.
With the many successful cases of the AI transformation journey we can find online; the AI wave will continue to be here or even become more considerable. However, while we and our businesses are adopting AI, let us remember the human side of the technology. Do not be lazy and start losing the ability to make decisions. Based on the study by Ahmad et al. (2023), the impact of AI has made people lose their decision-making and become lazy, and there is a need to continue to strike a balance between privacy and security with AI solutions.
While I do not know what the future holds for AI transformation in business, I would like to think that AI will continue to benefit humans and help us resolve issues that we are currently unable to. This includes the possibility of inventing things that our current technology is unable to and having AI contribute to the greater good, for example, in sustainability.
No matter how AI transformation is going to influence the business and our future, I am sure there is one thing AI will not achieve—emotion. Or at least, this is not what I hope AI can do in the future.
