How can CEOs add AI to their Agendas?

Helen Fu Thomas
6 min readJul 20, 2023

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Let’s face it; AI has become the booster for market caps on Wall Street. Companies that embrace AQ can leverage AI technology to add value to their workforce and stay ahead in the digital age.

Elon Musk underlined the astounding scale of Microsoft and Nvidia’s combined market-value surge on Tuesday with a two-word twee:”Crazy times.”

As a CEO, you know your employees are using generative AI as tools, such as a CoPilot, writing assistant, designer, and video producer; if not, you may have other concerns because tech is the engine for efficiency and innovation. However, such bottom-up applications may not move the needle of a corporate strategy. What’s your AI play? Stakeholders expect your answer for the enterprise capabilities that turn digital and AI into a source of ongoing competitive advantage.

IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient) have become crucial for success and personal fulfillment. A new concept called AQ (AI quotient) is emerging, which refers to a company’s capability to systematically leverage generative AI technology and stay ahead of the competition in the next digital evolution.

IQ (Intelligence Quotient):
IQ measures a person’s cognitive abilities, such as reasoning, problem-solving, and logical thinking. It is traditionally associated with academic achievements and professional success. IQ equips individuals with the capacity to analyze complex problems, think critically, and make informed decisions. In a fast-paced world, high cognitive abilities enable individuals to adapt, learn new skills, and navigate challenges effectively.
A great example of IQ in action is Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur behind companies like Tesla and SpaceX. Musk’s exceptional cognitive abilities and strategic thinking have enabled him to revolutionize the automotive and space industries. His ability to analyze complex problems, think critically, and make informed decisions has propelled his companies to the forefront of technological innovation.

EQ (Emotional Quotient):
EQ relates to a person’s emotional intelligence and social skills. It encompasses the ability to recognize, understand, manage, and express emotions, both in oneself and in others. EQ plays a fundamental role in interpersonal relationships, teamwork, leadership, and overall well-being. It fosters collaboration, productivity, and personal fulfillment through effective communication, empathy, and building strong relationships.
Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo, exemplifies the power of EQ in leadership. Throughout her career, Nooyi displayed exceptional emotional intelligence, fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment. Her empathetic leadership style, effective communication skills, and ability to understand and connect with others contributed to PepsiCo’s success and the development of a robust organizational culture.

AQ (AI Quotient):
AQ refers to a company’s capability to leverage generative AI technology and its fast evolution. It enables companies to stay ahead of the competition, generate growth and revenue, and operate more efficiently. AQ is about leveraging AI technology to add value to a company’s workforce and drive success in a technology-driven society.
An organization that embodies a high AQ early on is Amazon. Through its extensive use of internet technology, Amazon has transformed the retail landscape and disrupted traditional business models. The company’s ability to leverage AI algorithms for personalized recommendations, efficient supply chain management, and seamless customer experiences has allowed it to maintain a competitive edge and dominate the e-commerce industry.

The significance of IQ, EQ, and AQ in today’s world for success:
Cognitive abilities provided by IQ are crucial for critical thinking, problem-solving, and adapting to a rapidly changing environment.
Emotional intelligence offered by EQ is essential for effective communication, collaboration, leadership, and resilience.
AQ allows companies to leverage generative AI technology, stay competitive, and drive growth and efficiency.

What every CEO should know about generative AI?

Generative AI technology is advancing rapidly, with many start-ups and integration into existing software applications. CEOs should consider the transformative opportunities that generative AI presents for their companies, from research and development to marketing and sales. Generative AI can provide value to businesses by improving existing tasks and unlocking novel use cases.

Benefits of generative AI for CEOs to consider:
- Transformative opportunity for companies to reimagine various aspects of their operations, from research and development to marketing and sales to customer operations.
- Increased productivity of knowledge workers through features embedded in existing software applications.
- Customizable solutions that meet specific company needs and context.
- Improved efficiency and speed in analyzing large documents and synthesizing answers to questions.
- Potential for capturing insights that may have been overlooked.
- Competitive advantage in staying ahead of competitors.

Integration of generative AI into existing software applications:
- AI experts can follow technical pathways to execute the strategy, depending on the specific use case.
- Much of the value from generative AI will come from workers employing features embedded in their existing software.
- Email systems can provide options to write first drafts of messages.
- Productivity applications can create first drafts of presentations based on descriptions.
- Financial software can generate prose descriptions of notable features in financial reports.
- Customer-relationship-management systems can suggest ways to interact with customers.

Potential risks and downsides of generative AI implementation:
- Fairness: Models may generate algorithmic bias due to imperfect training data or decisions made by engineers.
- Intellectual property (IP): Training data and model outputs can generate significant IP risks, including infringement on copyrighted, trademarked, patented, or legally protected materials.
- Privacy: Concerns may arise if users’ input information ends up in model outputs in a form that makes individuals identifiable. Generative AI could also be used to create and disseminate malicious content.
- Security: Bad actors may use generative AI to accelerate cyberattacks or provide malicious outputs.
- Explainability: Generative AI relies on neural networks with billions of parameters, making it challenging to explain how answers are produced.
- Reliability: Models can produce different answers to the same prompts, making it challenging to assess accuracy and reliability.
- Organizational impact: Generative AI may significantly affect the workforce, with potential negative effects on specific groups and local communities.
- Social and environmental impact: The development and training of foundation models may lead to detrimental social and environmental consequences, including increased carbon emissions.

To mitigate risks and harness value, CEOs should take a strategic and holistic approach to this digital and AI transformation.

The current gap that company CEOs are facing when it comes to AI-enabled applications and services is the difficulty in bridging the difference between random, public, general-purpose foundation models and predictable, task-specific, secured enterprise applications. As an AI-as-a-Service platform, AnyQuest bridges the gap:

  • AnyQuest leverages pre-trained general-purpose foundation AI models that can be customized for specific tasks by providing limited task-specific data.
  • Large language models, a type of foundation model, can perform a broad range of tasks with little to no customization.
  • AnyQuest’s solution democratizes the development of AI-enabled applications and services by making it easier to add AI to an application.
  • AnyQuest’s no-code development tools and runtime services ensure that enterprise applications are predictable, task-specific, and current, addressing the challenges introduced by foundation models.
  • The co-founders of AnyQuest, Dmitri Tcherevik and I, have decades of experience in AI and enterprise software development, providing a solid foundation for their solutions.

In summary, AnyQuest bridges the gap between random, general-purpose foundation models and predictable, task-specific enterprise applications by providing no-code development tools and runtime services that enable the development of impactful, safe, and secure AI-enabled applications and services, that is to increase AQ by adding AI to the workforce at companies across various industries. Visit us and get a demo https://www.anyquest.ai/

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Helen Fu Thomas

Writer for ILLUMINATION and Startup Stash. Award-winning Entrepreneur, Builder, Growth Hacker, Creative Problem Solver, Strategist.