By Harsh Kaur
Is AI the new language that has helped us embrace digitization and its benefits?
Well certainly not! From business to personal activity, artificial intelligence has increasingly entwined in multiple aspects of our daily routines. But of course, unlocking the true potential of AI and its transformational value can be envisioned in this boundaryless era.
A significant chapter of AI story is unfolding across the marketplace, boardrooms, manufacturing plants and the list continues.
- Health is Wealth: From diagnosing patients and their illnesses accurately to discovering new drugs, healthcare providers are leveraging artificial intelligence to analyse large amount of patient medical data. The same helps identify patterns and trends that enable insights for more effective treatments and care. According to NASSCOM’s analysis, data and AI adoption in healthcare have potential to add $25-30 billion to India’s GDP by 2025.
- Customer is the King: AI-driven marketing helps companies analyse customer behaviour (online), past purchases and offer better targeted advertising campaigns with personalized recommendations. CRM teams are harnessing the power of sentiment analysis tools that use natural language processing and machine learning. This analyses the emotions (anger, frustration or satisfaction) expressed by customers and share granular insights on how they differ across varied market segments, products, over time and after resolution offered.
- Leaders win through logistics: According toMcKinsey, successful implementation of AI has helped organisations reduce logistics costs by 15%, improve inventory levels by 35%, and service levels by 65%. Providing a precise estimate of when materials will arrive across supply chains, to real-time monitoring of inventory through AI-driven sensors, to warehouse automation with AI-powered robots are a few notable use cases.
- Augmenting Cybersecurity Guardrails: ML algorithms today detect and respond to unknown signatureless threats on a real-time basis and the GenAI assistant simplifies the SOC analyst experience plus assists in leveraging the threat intel capabilities of SecOps platforms, etc. Indeed, artificial intelligence is promoting next gen security trends for the modern age. Cybersecurity leader Trend Micro, powered by AI, employs ‘Writing Style DNA’ with 7,000 writing characteristics to block email frauds and targeted phishing attacks. A focus on email content, email intent and behaviour is the key to secure the most abused vector.
Indeed, the unstoppable rise of AI/ML is revolutionizing industries, but the next chapter of this saga is to promote sustainable innovation.
Riding Next Level of Digital Maturity with #AIEverywhere
As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.
To embed the next level of digital maturity, AI visionaries today are debating and exploring resolutions on important aspects like security risks, ethics and governance, future of work and talent. On the road ahead is:
- Collaboration of Coding and Connection: Simplifying the complicated quotient of humans and AI by transforming from ‘Race of Control to Mindset of Collaboration’ will serve as one stepping stone. As aptly quoted by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, “Artificial intelligence is a tribute to human intellectual power; the power to think enabled humans to make tools and technologies. Today, these tools and technologies have also acquired the power to learn and think.” Considering this as a big victory of ours. Humans need to accept, learn and grow with AI as an ally.
- Trust as a Defining Characteristic: Can AI actually be everywhere without the magic of human touch? The most defining characteristic that binds us with AI is trust. ‘Morals needs to be learned and trust will then be earned.’ The journey to make AI responsible, humane, inclusive, progressive, secure and regulated is vital. According to ISACA’s recent Generative AI Pulse Poll, 41 percent of respondents say not enough attention is being paid to ethical standards for AI implementation. Building trust by design, evaluating holistic views of AI risks, ensuring accountability of a system’s outcome and promising reliable performance with transparent workflows are among the critical pillars.
- AI Observability and FinOps: This “AI Everywhere” era requires more computing, storage, resources and data transfers, which will also result in budget overshoot. Constantly observing and analysing the ROI of artificial intelligence investments, proactively monitoring resource utilization and algorithm performance, and ensuring data accuracy across all phases of the AI lifecycle is thus the need of the hour. Powered by observability and FinOps, AI-augmented applications can bundle the benefits of operational efficiency, product innovation and cost optimization.
- The Game Changer- Composite AI: 2023 Gartner Hype Cycle considers composite AI and the perfect marriage of multiple AI techniques as the solution to have it all. This includes scaling business with speed, promoting productivity, ensuring accurate insights with a next level of personalization and providing simplified AI techniques that empower everyone to access and analyse For example, ‘Unity is strength’ with the partnership of generative, predictive and causal AI.
To sum up, to adopt a holistic approach to AI and leverage its complete power, we need the family of “Six Thinking Hats:” constant brainstorming and balanced investments in AI dimensions with Facts, Emotions, Creativity, Caution, Optimism and Control will bridge the gap between promise and potential.
(The author is Harsh Kaur, Regional account manager, Trend Micro; member of the ISACA Emerging Trends Working Group and Founding Member of CyberGurukul, and the views expressed in this article are her own)
