On a rainy Monday morning of July 17th, amidst the elegant surroundings of the Dusit Thani Manila hotel, a distinguished gathering of top executives convened to gain invaluable insights from Dr. Mohanbir Sawhney on the topic of AI for Business Leaders: Driving Growth, Efficiency, and Innovation. This extraordinary workshop, meticulously organized by John Clements Consultants, Inc in collaboration with GMA Network and the Northwestern University/Kellogg School of Management Alumni Association of the Philippines, enlightened us about the immense potential of AI to revolutionize our work processes, rendering them more efficient and reliable than ever before.
The workshop emphasized the potential of AI to revolutionize work processes. The workshop covered several topics, including an introduction to AI and generative AI, creating an AI strategy, AI in marketing, sales, customer service, AI in operations, and the future of AI.
Introduction to AI and Generative AI
Dr. Mohan began his lecture with an overview of AI, including its foundational concepts and the role of generative AI in creating updated content using machine learning algorithms. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science focused on creating intelligent machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. It encompasses a wide range of technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and robotics. AI systems can analyze data, recognize patterns, make decisions, and even learn from experience, enabling them to perform tasks with varying degrees of autonomy.
Generative AI is a specialized subset of AI that focuses on creating models capable of generating new content, data, or experiences. Unlike traditional AI, which often operates on existing data to make predictions or classifications, Generative AI aims to produce new information. This is achieved through advanced algorithms such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Variational Autoencoders (VAEs). GANs, for instance, use a two-network approach, with one network generating data and another network providing feedback and criticism to improve the generated output.
Generative AI has a wide array of applications, ranging from generating art, music, and realistic images to creating natural language, video synthesis, and more. It has immense potential in creative industries, data augmentation, and generating realistic simulations for training AI systems.
Likewise, Dr. Sawhney highlighted the key components of AI systems, such as data collection, preprocessing, machine learning algorithms, model creation, testing and evaluation, deployment, and continuous learning.
Creating Your AI Strategy
Creating an AI strategy was emphasized as a crucial task for the C-Suite, addressing the challenges of the “black box” nature of AI, risks to business continuity, implications for job displacement, and the importance of ethical considerations. Transparency, interpretability techniques, risk assessments, reskilling programs, and ethical guidelines were discussed as essential elements of AI strategy development.
In essence, to create an AI strategy you need to define and know:
- Clear business objectives and challenges to address.
- Fundamental AI concepts and potential applications.
- Data readiness and quality for AI projects.
- AI team and talent requirements.
- Appropriate AI tools and infrastructure.
- Ethical considerations and responsible AI practices.
- Risk assessment and mitigation strategies.
- Budget and resource allocation.
- A detailed implementation roadmap with KPIs.
- Addressing organizational changes and cultural challenges.
- Continuous learning to stay updated in the dynamic AI field.
- Metrics for measuring impact and ROI.
AI in Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service
The workshop also explored the impact of AI on marketing, sales, and customer service. Participants learned about the use of AI in customer segmentation, predictive analytics, content creation and optimization, chatbots and virtual assistants, recommendation engines, dynamic pricing, social media monitoring, sentiment analysis, marketing automation, and sales forecasting.
In this segment, I’ve learned that for Marketing, AI can do the following:
- Personalized Content: AI analyzes customer data for highly personalized marketing content, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
- Automated Campaigns: AI automates marketing campaigns, optimizing timing and targeting for the right audience with minimal manual effort.
- Predictive Analytics: AI forecasts customer behavior, empowering data-driven decisions and identifying high-value prospects.
Further, by incorporating AI into sales and customer service, businesses can automate repetitive tasks, gain deeper customer insights, enhance customer experiences, and optimize their overall marketing, sales, and customer service processes, leading to increased productivity and improved customer satisfaction.
AI in Operations
In operations, integrating AI into digital transformation requires a comprehensive strategy, including assessing data readiness, identifying suitable AI use cases, implementing infrastructure, acquiring, or developing AI capabilities, and prioritizing ethical considerations and data privacy. The applications of AI in operations included process automation, predictive analytics, real-time insights and decision-making, demand forecasting and planning, quality control and defect detection, supply chain optimization, customer experience personalization, and workforce optimization.
The Future of AI
Dr. Sawhney discussed the future of AI, highlighting concepts like personalized AI, collaborative AI, self-supervised learning, multimodal AI, artificial superintelligence, and personal digital twins. These concepts represent advancements in AI with unique implications and potential applications. The importance of considering ethical, privacy, and societal implications was emphasized for the responsible and beneficial use of AI.
At the end of the session, participants including myself, were awed beyond words by what AI, if properly implemented and utilized, could do.
My key takeaways from the learning session:
- AI can be likened to a student, with humans playing the role of teachers. By imparting knowledge and feeding AI with relevant algorithms and data, it has the remarkable ability to not only deliver the desired outcomes but often surpass expectations.
- Embracing AI in business operations can yield considerable time and cost savings. However, it is important to acknowledge that human intervention and guidance are still essential to ensure the desired output and results are achieved.
- Rather than replacing humans, AI is intended to augment and enhance our capabilities. To leverage its potential, we must be proactive in adapting to the changing landscape of work. This entails continuous learning, acquiring new skills, and cultivating greater adaptability to remain valuable and be readily redeployed in the workplace of the future.
In a nutshell, if the concept of AI has evoked any concerns or fears, rest assured that such worries are unwarranted. By nurturing a mindset of continuous learning and actively striving to enhance our skills, we can confidently navigate the evolving professional landscape and thrive in the face of technological advancements.
We will be sharing more comprehensive insights from this transformative workshop in the days to come! Don’t miss out! Subscribe to Lookingglass today by sending your email details to info@johnclements.com!
