AI and Automation — The Future of Free Time
I love reading science fiction books. One of the big appeals for me is seeing the author’s vision of humanity unfold.
For example, how will society evolve if everything you need is just a simple ask away like in The Culture Series by Ian Banks? For everyone who has not read this series, Ian Banks creates a world thousands of years in the future in which human-created Artificial Intelligence leads a society of aliens, humans, and sovereign AI. Since the logistics and responsibilities of traditional society is run by AI, humans are free to do what they wish, have what they want, and create their own purpose in life. Life still has challenges and those challenges are what make the stories of the Culture Series so interesting.
Another thought-provoking question that commonly arises from sci-fi discussions is what is the definition of a consciousness and can it be created with software? If we can create it, how will that affect our society? While I’d love to see these questions and more answered in my lifetime, I’ll have to settle with my Google Home and Amazon Prime’s logistics for now.
Several things come to mind when you hear “Artificial Intelligence” and other terms in the space like “Machine Learning”, “Watson”, and for my less optimistic friends and family, “Big Brother” or “Skynet”.
For me, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the umbrella term of intelligent machine learning technology, with many branches that all lead back to building abiotic intelligence. To be honest, although I have been excited about the positive ramifications surrounding AI and the eventual automation following suit, I have also been concerned about its rapid fire development from a career perspective. How will AI impact/disrupt my industry of commercial insurance, one that has been traditionally slow to change but is ripe for AI and automation? Will future job interviews be with software engineers and their AI solution instead of human employees? What duties will we retain? And will the AI put another pot of coffee on if it drinks the last cup?
This fear of change was one of the reasons I signed up for ISDI Digital University, to get a better grasp of what is coming and learn how to stay relevant in the workplace. With the rapidly changing business ecosystem that is lead by the Silicon Valley, how can I be comfortable with the inevitable disruption and be a part of it myself? What do I need to do to incorporate the right talent, set realistic expectations, and provide a great experience for my customers?
Built to Enhance, not Replace
The discussion on AI at ISDI was led by the Global Leader of Retail for IBM’s Watson (IBM’s AI solution) and he regarded AI in its current form as the absolute best way to enhance and expand human capacity. An AI solution like Watson works to aggregate huge amounts of data like the thousands of medical journals published daily and then presents the most relevant information to the medical professional for the situation at hand.
Step Aside Dr. House, Dr. Watson is Here.
A specific example of this was when IBM Watson was assisting a medical professional who was about to prescribe a risky diagnostic procedure for a rare medical condition. Before starting treatment, the doctor consulted Watson who brought to his/her attention a medical journal that had just been published the day before in India. This journal detailed the story of a patient who had similar symptoms to the rare condition, talked about the ongoing treatment for this patient which happened to be the same exact treatment this American based doctor was planning to prescribe, but stated the treatment had been unsuccessful and would not recommend it for future patients.
Although this is an extremely impressive feat, this is just one example of AI enhancing and assisting one person’s job in one industry. Imagine leveraging a tool like this to work through something like contract reviews, court histories, or aggregating high volumes of actuarial data! With the time saved on the necessary but menial and monotonous tasks, experts can practice higher-priority items and increase their capacity for more effective work. Time is our most valuable asset and AI is the new tool to free up our time on the rote and routine.
Using AI as the Cornerstone or Tool in your Business
One company in my industry that has impressed me is Lemonade, an Insurtech startup that has been making waves in the personal insurance market using AI. They started out in New York with the idea of automating as much as possible and using machine learning to process claims and identify fraudulent claims. Their AI is named “Maya” and can engage you on desktop or mobile and handles the workload of a team.
Another interesting real-world example of AI can be seen here with Boeing and Upskill. In this video, Boeing employees are using low-level AI with Google Glass to speed up efficiencies and decrease the chances for error.
For those of you who cannot watch the video right now it shows a brief summary of the system and how employees love it. The employees talk about how easy it is to finish their work quickly without needing to take frequent break to check the manual. They don’t have to try and interpret a manual either, the system shows them a brief video and highlights which section of the diagram are relevant to their current task. Lastly, they’re even able to record and livestream their work to share or have it reviewed by senior technicians, a truly revolutionary solution for maximizing the efficiency and productivity of workers.
AI and Customer Touch Points
Another area we’re seeing AI continue to grow is with chatbots and early customer service touch points. This is where we see the cost of incorporating AI into your customer support services diminishing to the point that many small businesses can cover the cost with the resources freed up. Many companies have found great ways to incorporate bots into Facebook and virtual employee services are popping up with the aim of letting you handle the complex work and leave the day-to-day on your AI assistant’s desk.
Let’s say you run a B2B SaaS (software as a service) company with an offsite call center to resolve basic customer service issues and an in-house service team for large clients. You decide to incorporate AI tools to your business and start with a chatbot for customer service. In the beginning the system will gather basic data on your calls (time of call, issue topic, resolution, and when to escalate) with the ultimate goal of solving 30% of your customer support issues before they need to be escalated to a call center (driving up your overhead).
Final Thoughts
Like the common adage goes “you either grow or die.” So for you and your business incorporating AI could mean more time forging key relationships, opening up new product lines, subsidiaries, or even wrapping up your workday in 8 hours and truly enjoying the free time (personal growth is still growth)! Automation through AI may look scary but change is always scary until you take the leap. Just like replacing your file cabinets with hard drives, once you start utilizing AI for your business you’ll wonder how you managed without it. What can your business achieve if you resolve issues possibly infinitely faster, find relevant data more quickly, and enable your employees to do less of the monotonous and more income-producing activity? The horizon looks bright as AI continues to grow and I, for one, cannot wait to see what it will do next.
