INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION BY RACONTEUR.NET #0587 12/05/2019

AI FOR BUSINESS

Distributed in AI AND NATIONAL THE RISE OF SELF- FROM AUTOMATION 04 SECURITY COLLIDE 06 SERVICE ANALYTICS 10 TO AUGMENTATION Exploring the relationship between Pre-built algorithms and Human augmentation is set big tech and nation-state AI off-the-shelf tools to transform the world of work

Published in association with AI Business

OPPORTUNITY ®

Navigating AI hype in Contributors Adrian Bridgwater Specialist author on software engineering and application development, he is a regular search of success contributor to Forbes and Computer Weekly.

Endless buzzwords and misconceptions confuse leaders and Tim Cooper Financial journalist, he has dilute the true purpose of artifi cial intelligence (AI) as a means to written for publications including The Spectator, London achieve business objectives rather than the end objective itself Evening Standard, Guardian Weekly and Weekly Telegraph.

James Gordon Journalist and executive writer, Oliver Pickup he has written extensively on business, technology, logistics, manufacturing and sport. couple of years ago, there was a “In reality, AI is a collection of targeted Due to the common misconception of AI, A joke doing the rounds at technol- technologies, from machine-learning to “we will see some major missteps by house- OIiver Pickup ogy conferences that AI for busi- natural language processing and vision hold names failing to adapt fast enough”, Award-winning journalist, he specialises in technology, ness is like teenagers and sex: everyone identifi cation, from chatbots to analyt- predicts Shamus Rae, partner and head of business and sport, and talks about it, but few actually get it. ics and automation, each with its own digital disruption at KPMG UK. “MIT pro- contributes to a wide range of Is the ribald witticism outdated in 2019? strengths and applications. What they fessor Donald Sull has spoken about ‘active publications. Or has the increased hype enveloping AI inertia’, where executives don’t fully that it will magically solve most business understand the disruptive nature of AI. Daniel Thomas problems only further confused executives? “Some leadership teams and industries Writer and editor, he has contributed to the BBC, So much so they are not engaging with AI’s have grasped the opportunity and threat Newsweek, Fund Strategy and myriad technologies or are left clumsily posed by AI, but they are the exception rather EducationInvestor, among fumbling with algorithms that fail to per- than the rule. Many organisations don’t have other publications. form, while cannier rivals score big? the top-down drive to implement any change.” Davey Winder Moreover, has the crucial point that AI AI can signal all the Indeed, Microsoft’s recent study points Award-winning journalist for business is best utilised as a means of needles in all the out that while 67 per cent of the 1,000 exec- and author, he specialises in achieving very specifi c, narrow-focused utives surveyed are open to experiment- information security, contributing objectives, and is not an end point in itself, haystacks of data they ing with AI, almost all of them will require to Infosecurity magazine. been obscured by the sheer volume of mis- training and development. Once better edu- train on; humans must Emma Woollacott leading buzz? cated about data, Ms Barclay advises busi- Specialist technology writer, she AI technologies are now being deployed in decide which of the ness leaders should aim at small targets. “If covers legal and regulatory issues, a wide range of industries, from healthcare you start thinking of the really big things, and has contributed to Forbes and to warfare, enhancing life and death, yet the outputs apply to the you do nothing,” she says. “Ask yourself, the New Statesman. individual applications are limited in scope change the business is ‘What is the problem I am trying to fi x?’” to so-called “narrow AI”. However, with the Darren Norfolk, managing director in correct guidance it can drive cars, auto- trying to introduce must decide which of the outputs apply to of powerful weapons for technological trans- Europe, the Middle East and Africa for mate systems, understand speech, diagnose the change the business is trying to intro- formation, though is not the ultimate goal. cloud computing company Rackspace, life-threatening conditions, and predict duce,” says Jacqui Taylor, chief executive “AI is an arsenal: a vast array of tech- echos this warning. “AI has massive business outcomes in ways, and at a speed, and founder of trailblazing web-science niques and technologies and research potential for organisations, particularly beyond comprehension for us mere mortals. all share is the intelligence factor: a high company Flying Binary, and smart cities directions,” says Marko Balabanovic, chief in improving productivity and customer “A big stumbling block for AI adoption degree of accuracy and an incredibly fast, adviser to the government. technology offi cer of Digital Catapult. experiences,” he says. “There’s a temp- Publishing manager has always been the term ‘AI’ itself,” argues smart ability to learn from their mistakes.” Much like big data and analytics have “Members of the C-suite tend to underesti- tation to ‘keep up with the Joneses’, with Helen Glynn Antony Bourne, industries president of AI, then, is not the silver bullet, though joined forces to become a method for con- mate how much AI systems are in daily use some fi rms taking a magpie approach to global enterprise software company IFS. it can be forceful if the user’s aim is good. verting huge data volumes into next-level already. They also overestimate the speed AI-based technology purchasing. Managing editor Benjamin Chiou “It misleads many businesses, suggesting a “AI can signal all the needles in all the insights, organisations must pivot their with which it can be adapted and applied to “But enterprises risk doing so at the large, end-to-end system. haystacks of data they train on; humans approach to AI and realise it off ers a cluster solve their specifi c business problems.” expense of their authenticity and what Commissioning editor Dr Will Venters, assistant professor of makes them special. Business leaders must Michelle Ingham information systems and innovation at ensure they don’t get blinded by the bright Associate editor the London School of Economics’ Depart- lights. Creating a robust plan for where AI LEADING BENEFITS OF AI ADOPTION Peter Archer ment of Management, agrees. “Wars are technologies can authentically augment Percentage of US IT leaders and business executives who rated the following as a top-three benefi t never won by a single bullet, silver or oth- and improve existing market diff erentia- Head of production erwise,” he says. “AI can only ever be part of tors is key to driving return on investment.” Justyna O'Connell Enhance current products the complex digital ecosystem upon which Dr Taylor at Flying Binary stresses the % Digital content executive 44 businesses depend. Only if the whole digital urgency required for business leaders Fran Cassidy ecosystem is effi cient, well managed, stra- to engage with AI. “Within the next five tegic and agile can AI achieve its potential.” years, every single sector will begin to use Design Optimise internal operations 42% Microsoft’s Maximising the AI Opportu- machine-learning, AI and deep learning,” Joanna Bird nity report, published in October, reveals that she says. “Although many businesses will Grant Chapman early adopters of AI for business in the UK deploy these technologies, the organisa- Sara Gelfgren Kellie Jerrard Make better decisions have already seen a 5 per cent improvement tions which will benefit the most are those 35% Harry Lewis-Irlam in productivity, performance and enterprise that realise the tech is not the outcome, it Celina Lucey outcomes, compared with those that have not is the enabler.” Samuele Motta Optimise external operations explored its growing range of capabilities. 31% “As AI reshapes organisations and Head of design Tim Whitlock becomes an evermore important part of our lives, the opportunity for UK businesses is Free workers to be Although this publication is funded through advertising enormous,” says Clare Barclay, chief operat- and sponsorship, all editorial is without bias and sponsored more creative 31% features are clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule, ing offi cer of Microsoft UK. “Yet despite this partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 8616 opportunity, 51 per cent of business leaders 7400 or e-mail [email protected]. Raconteur is a leading publisher of special-interest content and research. Its pub- Create new products still say their organisation does not have an lications and articles cover a wide range of topics, including 27% AI strategy in place. business, fi nance, sustainability, healthcare, lifestyle and % technology. Raconteur special reports are published exclu- “Add to this the fact that 41 per cent sively in The Times and The Sunday Times as well as online at of51 business leaders in the raconteur.net. The information contained in this publication of leaders believe their current business UK say their organisation has been obtained from sources the Proprietors believe to Capture and apply be correct. However, no legal liability can be accepted for any model will cease to exist within fi ve years does not have an AI errors. No part of this publication may be reproduced with- scarce knowledge 27% and there’s a clear need for organisations to strategy in place out the prior consent of the Publisher. © Raconteur Media act today.” Reduce headcount Given that 450 billion business transac- through automation 24% tions will take place via the internet every /raconteur.net day by next year, according to International @raconteur Data Corporation projections, it is hard not Pursue new markets @raconteur_london 24% to conclude that the AI challenge must be Deloitte 2018 tackled, head on, before it is too late. Microsoft 2018 raconteur.net /ai-business-2019

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SEVEN MYTHS OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

What companies report and what consumers experience are at odds 88% of businesses are investing in or exploring AI

88% believe they provide excellent to very good service. Only 21 per cent of consumers rated their most recent interactions as “excellent” 11hours is the average time taken for a client's interaction with a brand, to be solved

Beyond customer service rather than something that will threaten 71% With contact centre deployments of chat- their jobs. There is no denying that AI will of businesses bots becoming more mature every day, likely impact our workforce in a similar believe chat with Enterprises use-cases are now expanding as enter- Creating a good way to other technology advancements, bots and agents will prises become more accepting of AI and but it will more likely evolve job roles, not be one of the most are increasingly inspired by the value it harmony between bots eliminate them. In fact, many of the jobs common channels brings to the business. Sales and mar- and humans will allow that our children will have don’t even within three years enter the next keting functions are leveraging the capa- exist yet. AI brings change and with it a lot bilities to transition chatbots from being companies to leverage of opportunities. a simple hub of knowledge for customers “From a cultural and organisational per- to using them to help proactively assist the full potential of spective, educating the workforce on phase of AI in the buying process by providing cus- their human workforce, these opportunities will be an impor- tomers content and suggestions as they tant first step. AI has the power to make are shopping. and will result in all our jobs easier by allowing us to step Within the same example of retail, com- away from monotonous tasks and focus on % As chatbots powered by artificial intelligence happier and more 49of customer enquiries panies are beginning to use chatbots not what we do best: being human. Creating a reach a level of maturity in contact centres, only to help customers make the right productive employees good harmony between bots and humans, are resolved during the purchasing decision, but also actively where humans can focus their days on first interaction businesses are looking to other parts of the encouraging them to do so. AI technology being strategic, empathetic and crea- can recognise when users are browsing an tive, will allow companies to leverage the organisation where this kind of automation item and offer help in finding what they full potential of their human workforce, want, while guiding them through to the ago, today the driving force behind these and will result in happier and more pro- can bring value transaction stage. By providing automated types of new technologies is coming from ductive employees.” assistance, retailers can reduce the costly positions like chief digital officer or chief And it’s this harmony where LogMeIn’s issue of returns. innovation officer.” Bold360 shines. As a customer experience Further use-cases are emerging to Hiring somebody into such a role helps platform that delivers both AI and agent assist human staff in customer ser- to lay down a strong foundation for busi- technologies, Bold360 is the foundation he journey to deploying chat- be returned, as well as for post-order vice or to enable all employees to find nesses that want to move to this next for the triangular collaboration between % bots hasn’t been an easy one for onboarding and troubleshooting. answers quicker for questions relat- phase of AI, positioning them as inter- agents, customers and AI. Customers can 65 T of businesses enterprises. Ten to fifteen years “The technolog y behind chatbots and the ing to core business functions such as nal champions for digital transformation. communicate both with AI-powered chat- said that AI would 1 ago, when companies first started exper- quality of conversation is so much better human resources and IT. Internal chat- According to analyst firm Forrester , com- bots as well as with live agents. Agents allow them to retrain imenting with them, consumers were than it used to be,” says Sandra Schroeter, bots enable companies to keep informa- panies that fail to differentiate their cus- can communicate directly with customers their agents, or shift exposed to several bad implementations international head of customer engage- tion consistent during onboarding and tomer experience will engage in price wars while receiving help from AI on the back- them to new types due to the immaturity and poor imple- ment technologies at LogMeIn, which pro- regular training, for example, or to help that may reap short-term gains, but will end. And the AI learns from both the cus- of work mentation of the technology. vides AI-powered customer engagement employees easily reset passwords if they lead to a destructive race to the bottom in tomers’ and agents’ interactions to ensure The natural language processing that solutions for companies of all sizes. “AI forget them. This reduces the volume the long term. it is always improving. powers conversational artificial intelli- won’t answer 100 per cent of questions, of inquiries coming into help desks and These hires can also lead the crucial “While AI is becoming a critical piece of gence (AI) experiences has developed but it does remove the simple repeatable keeps employees productive. task of overcoming the cultural barriers an overall customer experience strategy, considerably since then, and is now capa - queries from the live agents’ plate so they that may stand in the way of expanding the human component is equally crucial,” ble of powering seamless and authentic can spend more time with the customers Organisational culture shifts the influence of AI within organisations. says Ms Schroeter. “As companies start interactions that reflect human conversa- who need them most. As these new customer and employee Some people naturally feel threatened down their AI journey, it’s a good idea to tions. While there are still things AI cannot “With Bold360, LogMeIn’s first prod- engagement technologies continue to by the prospect of tasks and processes identify an area where AI can have the do, its ability to understand intent and uct to leverage conversational AI for cus- increase in momentum, more and more being automated, so it’s important to biggest immediate impact, test the tech- % match it to existing content has enabled tomer experience, if the chatbot doesn't organisations are creating executive-level educate them on how AI deployments will nology, educate and bring employees and 76 companies to transform how they engage know the answer or identifies a high-value roles to help navigate this new way of benefit them. customers along with you, learn, adjust of businesses with customers across the entire journey. transaction that requires a human touch, doing business. “Like any digital transformation pro- and expand from there. AI is having an believe AI is In retail, for example, AI chatbots are the technology can seamlessly transition “As Bold360 continues to evolve in both ject, bringing your people along the undeniable impact on business success, changing the being used to help customers easily find the customer to a human agent, including technology and use-cases, the deci- journey with you is crucial for adoption, if implemented the right way. Those that customer answers to frequently asked pre-order the full context of the interaction. Further, sion-makers within our customer organ- especially when it comes to AI,” says Ms are getting on board now are in a posi- experience questions, such as what types of delivery the bot stays as an active participant in isations have varied quite a bit,” says Ms Schroeter. “Employees need to estab- tion to differentiate themselves from for the better options are available, active order ques- the conversation, helping both the cus- Schroeter. “Where a deployment like ours lish trust in the technology and be given competitors; those that don’t are getting tions like where an item is or how it can tomer and agent along the way.” might have been an IT decision a few years the opportunity to see it as a colleague, left behind.” 2018 AI Customer Experience Report by LogMeIn

1 Predictions 2019: Customer Experience Customer Experience Comes Under Fire, November 5, 2018, Forrester Research, Inc.

perspective,” says Rob Wilmshurst, chief exec- set-up process, See Tickets was able to deploy utive at See Tickets. “We needed to move away the technology immediately to its customer Agents work from call centre activity and live chat software.” service team with minimal effort from the Though the nature of the challenge made technical parts of its business. automation a strong fit, See Tickets had never Since using the AI chatbot, See Tickets con- We are committed to the best in customer service. implemented artificial intelligence (AI) before tact centre volume decreased considerably. With Bold360 our customers get accurate and hand-in-hand and it didn’t seek a specific technology. “We’re Previously, every single inquiry required human committed to the best in client and customer interaction, but the new technology means 95 consistent information, that has been pre-qualified service and any tool, AI or not, that helps us per cent of inquiries are now handled without by our team. 95 per cent of the enquiries are now achieve that in a cost-effective manner would any human interaction at all. with AI be considered,” says Mr Wilmshurst. The software has also provided new insights dealt with without any human interaction Following a live demonstration of LogMeIn’s for See Tickets. It analyses customer intents Bold360, an AI-powered customer engage- across channels, displaying the voice of the See Tickets turned to lobal ticketing services firm See ment solution, See Tickets could instantly see customer in real time and enabling businesses G Tickets sells and distributes millions the software would be able to provide accu- immediately to resolve friction points in the any given time. Through those insights, they being received and rated by the custom- Bold360 when its call of tickets for music, theatre, festival, rate and fast information to its customers, customer journey. can alert management or clients and quickly ers,” says Mr Wilmshurst. “Where nec- sport, comedy and lifestyle events each year. as well as drive large cost savings. Bold360 Insights from AI-driven engagements con- find a resolution, acting as an early-warning essary, staff can adjust the answers or centre and live chat As a result, it must deal with a huge volume of empowers businesses to create better expe- stantly fuel customer experience strategies, system that steers the company away from create new or supplementary ones know- incoming customer inquiries every day. riences in their current and future engage- enabling businesses to leverage the voice potential problems. ing the platform will assimilate these into software could no In 2015, it sold all 150,000 tickets for that ments in a scalable way. of the customer to improve strategic deci- This means See Tickets human agents are its knowledge base and start to rely on longer cope with the year’s Glastonbury Festival in just 29 minutes, “Inside minutes, we set up a few frequently sion-making across the business. In addition, now able to focus on higher-value and more these immediately.” but the subsequent questions it had to field asked questions and challenged the platform Bold360 gives managers the flexibility to view complex conversations and tasks, including demand of answering from customers placed enormous pressure with a range of sometimes deliberately stupid an overview of trends and to dissect data by making sure the information on Bold360 is on staff. Working with more than 5,000 clients questions to see how it responded,” says Mr context, geo-location and customer profiles. as good as it can be. Customers get accurate For more information please visit questions from millions globally and with over 40,000 events on sale, Wilmshurst. “It responded accurately and we With a complete view of the customer, it ena- and consistent information that has been bold360.com the onus always was on the customer service were immediately impressed. The interface bles users to improve strategic decision-mak- pre-qualified by the customer services team of eventgoers team to answer queries on each one. is very simple to understand and gave us con- ing across the business. and tuned by the platform, while See Tickets “It was labour intensive, costly and almost fidence this was a tool the existing call centre The real-time statistics interface enables the gets more productive agents. impossible for staff to know every detail and customer service staff could work with.” See Tickets customer service team to see “Reviewing the statistics in real time about every event from a customer service Thanks to Bold360’s simple and intuitive what issues are impacting the business at allows staff to see how the answers are RACONTEUR.NET 3

AI INNOVATION IN EUROPE SOURCES OF AI INNOVATION

Top countries by number of European AI startups Top applicants by number of patent families

75 8,000 88% 75 49

0-50 7,000 51-100

101-200 6,000 201-500 103

5,000 479 88% 196 LEADERS 4,000

There has been a 270 per cent increase in 217 3,000 the number of enterprises implementing 66 AI over the past four years, according to research by Gartner, but which countries, 2,000 sectors and companies are leading the way in terms of deployment? This infographic 45 166 1,000 hours explores how AI is being adopted in 11 different industries, and where innovation

is stemming from IBM Microsoft Toshiba Samsung NEC Fujitsu Hitachi

MMC Ventures/Beauhurst/Crunchbase/Tracxn 2019 World Intellectual Property Organization 2019

TOP AI APPLICATIONS IN USE WHERE THE AI TALENT WORKS TOP SECTORS FOR AI STARTUPS

Percentage of companies that are focused on the following use cases of AI Distribution of data scientists by sector Distribution of AI startups by sector

2% 1% 1% 10% 44% 6% 5% 11% 21% Academia Gaming Government Other Technology Education Agriculture Other Health and % wellbeing 71 47% IT automation

49% 46% Quality control/ detecting defects 65% T

5% 6% 8% 9% 14% 8% 8% 11% 12% 18% 41% Retail Healthcare/ Consulting Advertising/ Financial Infrastructure Transport Retail Media and Finance Cybersecurity pharmaceuticals marketing services and utilities and travel entertainment Burtch Works 2018 MMC Ventures/Beauhurst/Crunchbase/Tracxn 2019

AI DEPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY AND FUNCTION % Percentage of companies that have deployed AI within the following business functions; survey of companies who have piloted and embedded AI only 76 Service Product and/ Marketing Supply chain Manufacturing Risk Human Strategy and operations or service and sales management resources corporate 38% development fi nance 75 45 38 26 22 23 17 15 Predictive analytics Telecoms

48 59 34 23 20 17 21 17 High tech

49 26 33 7 6 40 9 14 Financial services 37% Professional services 38 34 36 19 11 15 16 11 Customer service Electric power and 46 41 15 14 19 14 15 14 natural gas

Healthcare systems 46 28 17 21 9 19 18 13 and services

27 39 15 11 49 2 8 6 G Automotive and assembly

51 34 32 18 4 4 2 3 Travel, transport 34% and logistics Risk management 23 13 52 38 7 9 8 0 Retail

Pharmaceuticals and 31 31 27 13 28 3 6 4 medical products

Deloitte 2018 McKinsey 2018 4 AI FOR BUSINESS

fi nancial and logistical headache for the Pentagon in the short term, but the US, UK GLOBAL SECURITY and Nato countries should see it as an oppor- tunity to get rid of the COTS system, which is expensive, and develop their own AI soft- ware. Furthermore, operating systems that

Marco Restivo/Getty Images Restivo/Getty Marco work well in civvy street aren’t always trans- When AI ferable to the battlefi eld.”

and national Governments need to ensure they engage security collide openly about the purpose of any programmes that Their stranglehold on data has brought into question involve AI for national big tech’s role when it comes to national security and security purposes what the future holds for the development of nation- state artifi cial intelligence Take the Trident missile system installed on Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines, for instance. It runs on a bespoke version of James Gordon Windows XP, which Professor Curran says “makes it much more susceptible to malware than a military-built operating system”. or many it conjures up images of Elsewhere, Google bowed to pressure after It is a view shared by Professor Woodward, F machines replacing human beings more than 3,000 Google staff expressed who adds: “When private civilian contractors in the workplace, but artifi cial their dissatisfaction at the company’s deci- build software and hardware for the military, intelligence (AI) could have an even darker sion to work with the Pentagon on Project the systems have to be ‘hardened’ before they side. What if AI were to be misused on the Maven. Google employees feared Maven, can be used on the ground. This adds an extra battlefi eld? What if the armies of tomorrow which uses AI technology to improve images step to the process and, in a time when armies were to create robot armies that could decide on the battlefi eld, could one day be used to are being cut, this could save valuable funds through the narrow lens of AI who lives and improve the accuracy of drone strikes. Last that could be spent elsewhere.” dies in the theatre of war? What if the fi ghter June Google announced that it was not But is it really possible to think that the jets of the future no longer needed pilots and renewing the contract. armies of tomorrow can become self-reliant used AI-driven autonomous weapons sys- But there’s the rub. Many tech giants not state-sponsored technology companies have and build AI systems in-house? They may tems instead? only operate an ESG business model, but WHO BEARS PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ETHICAL AI DEVELOPMENT? no such qualms in doing so, a clear advan- be able to construct their own operating Of course, the picture this paints has more also appear to have a fi rm stranglehold on Percentage of US and UK IT leaders who agree with the following tage over Nato armies on the battlefi eld? systems and software, but with “data being chance of being played out in a Hollywood research and development. Ewan Lawson, Professor Alan Woodward, computer the new oil” and the tech unicorns having science-fi ction fi lm than in near-time real- senior research fellow at the Royal United security expert at the University of Sur- a monopoly on it, what if these leviathans ity, but nevertheless it does raise impor- Services Institute (RUSI) and an expert on rey, does not think so, at least not yet. He choose to limit licences for civilian use only? tant questions concerning how we should cyberwarfare capabilities, says: “It’s impos- explains: “There’s no doubt that this pre- Professor Woodward says: “I think they respond to AI in the future. sible to avoid the fact that the big tech com- sents a problem for armies in the West, espe- would be naive to do this. If they did, rogue Take the so-called tech titans, many panies have a critical role to play in consid- cially when you consider that many of them, states would simply fi nd a way of circum- of whom must answer to their sharehold- ering future national security challenges, including the US and UK militaries, rely on navigating the restrictions. And what’s ers, for example. All are deeply wedded including AI, given their role in develop- commercial contractors to supply them with more, the companies responsible for the to environmental, social and governance ing the sort of technologies which can Organisations technology and high-tech weaponry. curbs would probably never know and, even or ESG for short. Whether those in charge and will be exploited. developing “But Google not wanting to be in ‘the if they did fi nd out, there would be very little actually believe in ESG is not the point. “The companies and their employ- AI systems business of war’ does not put our national they could do. So I don’t see the data giants The point is that it makes them money ees may have ethical concerns and gov- 53% security at risk in the long term, providing imposing controls on who can and cannot and helps them attract the brightest staff. ernments need to ensure, therefore, that Western governments using the commer- access data.” After all, who wouldn’t want to be paid a they engage openly about the purpose cial off -the-shelf [COTS] system take urgent Instead, if the tech behemoths and the lucrative salary to work for an ethically of any programmes that involve AI for steps to rectify the situation in the next two military want to continue collaborating, minded company? national security purposes. That said, there years. If they do nothing, however, then it RUSI’s Mr Lawson says that “the onus is on But there may be a downside to ESG. are plenty of small tech startups that could could give China, a country that wants to be governments to make the tech giants part of Specifi c individuals Could it be, for example, that a set of stand- be encouraged in this space if the larger 17% the world leader in AI by 2030, and Russia the conversation”. ards, which openly encourages businesses companies, or their employees, decided it working on AI projects the upper hand.” “Traditionally, the UK and US have been to champion social good, is actually putting wasn’t a part of business they were inter- Kevin Curran, professor of cybersecu- very secretive regarding their cyber-capabil- global security at risk from rogue states? ested in being involved in.” Independent consortiums, rity at Ulster University, agrees that a short ities. That needs to change. No one’s asking Take Microsoft, for example. In February, But in an age of data, some believe that comprised of government, 16% interregnum period will not endanger global them to reveal what they do. Instead, they Microsoft employees urged its chief execu- the tech titans’ stranglehold on data makes academia and businesses security. On the contrary, he says, it could just need to enter into a more open dialogue tive not to honour a $479-million contract to them indispensable. Could their reluctance, actually make us all safer. with large private sector data companies and Governments in countries where make 100,000 augmented reality headsets therefore, to develop AI systems for the mil- 11% Professor Curran explains: “Google pull- involve them regarding what future safe- AI systems are developed for the US military. itary in the future give rogue states, whose SnapLogic/Vanson Bourne 2019 ing out of a military contract may cause a guards we need to put in place and why.”

CommercialCommercial feature feature

Technologies collide to accelerate the value of data

Artificial intelligence, the internet of things and 5G technology are converging to present a huge opportunity for companies to gain great value from data. But they will not be able to do so unless they can store, manage and automate data at serious scale

coincidence of transformational rapidly. As creation rates of information spi- process for a self-driving car needs to be as A innovation is emerging in the rals through 5G, and IoT brings data storage close to ideal as possible to ensure it is opti- coming years. Artificial intelli- closer to the users, companies will need to mally prepared for the road. gence (AI), the internet of things (IoT) and take more advantage of streaming analytics “There is a big area of oversight, audit and 5G are disruptive technologies in their own and AI to manage data and deliver ever-richer governance around the AI training and pro- right, but they happen to be rising together and faster services to their consumers. duction cycle, and we work closely with a and when deployed in conjunction they “The application of AI and the challenges company called Dotscience, which is build- become something even more powerful to of extracting more value from data will move ing this kind of software,” says Dr Coomer. businesses wanting to leverage the full force on to steroids in the IoT and 5G era,” says “Within DDN, the focus is also on maximis- of data. James Coomer, senior vice president for ing the movement of that data at extreme products at DataDirect Networks (DDN), scales. We have for 20 years worked at the a leading supplier of high-performance upper echelons of data challenges of scale, data management solutions for custom- movement, ingest and manipulation, all with ers at scale. “But when you need to apply predictable, low latencies. That storage advanced analytics just to cope with your engine is crucial for what’s coming. data volumes and optimise your network “It's tough working out which data has the streams, how do you build an environ- most value, where it is, where it’s replicated, The application of AI ment scalable and sophisticated enough to how you can move it and how best to apply and the challenges of ensure your business is managing its data?” analytics. To do that on an organisational As data volumes continue to grow, compa- scale with the sizes of data that AI is going to extracting more value nies face the challenge of extracting value at bring about requires new levels of automa- from data will move on organisational scale. Managing data is now tion in the storage environment. not just about operations and life cycles, it’s “DDN delivers simple visibility into your to steroids in the IoT about ensuring data with value isn’t hidden, storage and our technology allows us to and 5G era lost or underutilised. move towards full automation of data man- DDN has been well focused on these chal- agement, which is a necessary step to over- lenges. Last year it acquired Tintri, which come the challenges of competing in the implements advanced analytics that can world of IoT and AI.” drive efficiencies that would be extremely Enterprises already have a huge amount difficult and time consuming for adminis- of data at their disposal and have begun trators. The technology detects anomalies, to manage that data more strategically in inefficiencies and poor policies, and deliv- recent years. In industries including auton- ers actionable, high-level advice on how to For more information please visit ddn.com omous driving, life sciences, retail and create a more efficient data environment. finance, where the most valuable data sets So DDN doesn't just store data; it is also are particularly large, companies are imple- building the mechanisms, tools and soft- menting their first AI production systems to ware to enable companies to optimise their bring new experiences and services to their end-to-end AI process. In the autonomous consumers, and to realise the potential driving use-case, for example, neural net- locked in that data. work models are trained using supervised With wider availability and capabilities learning techniques and virtual training for IoT and 5G technology on the horizon, environments designed to prepare a model however, AI use-cases are set to multiply for production. Evidently, the development RACONTEUR.NET 5 CommercialCommercial feature feature

SOCIAL GOOD Four ways AI is being used for social good Beyond effi ciency savings in the business world, organisations are using artifi cial intelligence to tackle some of the world’s most pressing social issues

Tim Cooper

he explosion of artifi cial intelli- T gence (AI) is not just a boon for business. It is also helping solve some of the world’s biggest social prob-

lems, from reducing crime to eradicating Images GOMES/AFP/Getty APU disease and tackling climate change. The amount of available data and tech- nology that can process it intelligently has snowballed as the internet has increas- ingly integrated with our lives through tablets, phones and wearables. The advent of the internet of things – the extension of internet connectivity into everyday objects – has taken this even further. These advances have enabled a wide 1 range of bodies, including companies, Zika crisis governments and non-governmental organisations, to start working together IBM Research’s Science for Social Good “Society doesn’t have enough of the right to use AI for social goals and has already initiative has, among many other things, mechanisms to invest in such develop- produced some groundbreaking results produced a project that helps stop the ment,” she says. “We typically invest in rev- in vital areas. And some of the most pow- spread of the deadly Zika virus. The initi- enue-generating applications of AI rather erful organisations in the world, such as ative, run in collaboration with the Cary than these less comfortable social issues. the US government, Google, Microsoft Institute, uses machine-learning tech- “Any such initiative needs three things: and Facebook, have all deployed AI for niques to identify surveillance priorities to understand the problem, to fi nd fund- positive social initiatives. in the battle against the virus. ing and to fi nd the skills to develop it. Com- By analysing data on viruses and the panies are often best placed to co-ordinate primates that carry them, then compar- this because they can have control of all ing these traits to 364 primate species three. However, with humanitarian work, around the world, the model identifi es the knowledge of the problem is with peo- How AI is powering the known carriers with 82 per cent accu- ple working on the frontline. We don’t yet racy and assigns risk scores to other have good mechanisms to join these two likely Zika carriers. It then produces an together or with funding institutions such I hope that using AI to interactive map showing where people as governments or big foundations. next generation of work are most at risk. “Another mistake is to think the tech- address areas like hunger, Despite the huge advances in technol- nology will perform miracles. Every disease and poverty will ogy, Saska Mojsilovic, head of AI foun- technology is just one piece of a bigger Companies know they must respond to tech-fuelled disruption, and dations at IBM Research, says initiatives equation. So it’s important to study the make us better humans like these come with big challenges. solutions in the context of end-users.” artificial intelligence can enable them to transform and evolve their people and processes

ustomer preferences are “AI is at the top of the agenda for C changing rapidly as consum- many of the large enterprise compa- ers demand more engaging, nies we work with,” says Alex Lyashok, intuitive and accessible digital expe- chief executive at automation soft- Intelligent automation Markus Spiske/Unsplash riences and services from companies. ware firm WorkFusion. “For decades,

mrjn Photography/Unsplash mrjn At the intersection of these dramatic large organisations have deployed can be used to release changes is artificial intelligence (AI), deep, complex technology in buck- powering the biggest transformations ets and siloes. With AI, they can break 60 to 70 per cent of in operational and workforce pro- down the complexities and introduce a company’s manual cesses since the internet. self-service automation51 that allows% In this increasingly challenging busi- operational teams with Ihilvery magnihil little tech iminveri- labour, allowing the ness landscape, digitally native compa- nological knowledge tood veryquissite quickly nonsec nies such as Netflix and Amazon have deploy software robotsatiorunt. which Parc learn business to focus on ripped up rule books and disrupted and repeat what peoplemo do, mo at scale.blabo customer experience industries with their agility and innova- “In addition to traditional,nem large-scale est dol IT 2 tion. Traditional firms are left struggling projects, we see a whole trend emerging and digital growth Countering crime Source to keep up. with intelligent automation, where oper- AI is also being used to protect the pub- tion in Southeast Asia, and to help rang- Board directors at these incumbent ational teams get a degree of agility and lic against crime, including terrorist ers protect wildlife and reduce poaching players now accept that transforming self-service they didn't have before. AI attacks. For example, Carnegie Mellon in Uganda. The result in those was more their enterprise environments to digital enables this because they no longer have offered fewer opportunities for University has been working with the US snares being found.” is a must. But executing that is easier to code these systems; they simply need AI-powered outcomes, but this is coastguard to use AI in protecting the Dr Fang says one of the biggest limita- said than done when layers and layers to train the AI by feeding it76 with data.” % changing. The manufacturing sector, Staten Island Ferry, which carries more tions of any AI project is that humans must of legacy systems exist. Creating digital AI is predominantly deployed in two for example, is traditionally an asset than 60,000 passengers a day, against ultimately use and interpret the data. touchpoints to attract more custom- ways to support and empower people capital-intensive business, but is being potential attacks. “AI can’t replace human work in many ers requires a complete revamp of core who have traditionally worked in transformedSource by the internet of things, Fei Fang, assistant professor at the cases,” she says. “We suggested patrol systems to connect them with newly non-digital or physical labour roles to which generates data by attaching sen- university’s Institute for Software routes for the rangers, but the rangers do 4 digitised processes. do their job better, and to work side by sors to physical objects. Until that sector Research, says: “We have proposed a the job and still have to use their exper- Access to services Meanwhile, jobs in the knowledge side with humans who can contextual- catches up, service industries like bank- branch of AI called game theory that tise to identify the snares. worker environment are transforming ise business outcomes and offer addi- ing and retail continue to lead the way. helps solve security problems. This “It can be hard for academics and gov- Palladium is an Australian group too, as single-domain roles become tional training or maintenance when However, even within the most suita- helps the coastguard by suggesting ernment or NGOs to understand each that helps clients in 90 countries link increasingly amenable to automation required. Although AI will84 often replace% ble environments for deploying AI, chal- randomly changing patrol routes to other’s language, what is important in commercial goals with social impact, that might address more than 50 per roles done by humans, in turn, it also lenges exist. Particularly in large com-

improve overall protection. We used a their fi eld and what AI is capable of. It including through technology such cent, or sometimes nearly 100 per cent, creates additional work around itself panies,Source it can be difficult to scale AI and similar paradigm for tiger conserva- needs education both ways.” as AI, data networks and modelling. of their tasks. Workers who become that enhances performance. systems powered by machine-learn- Cassian Drew, managing partner for dislocated from their job functions Particularly in skilled organisations, ing. It might be easy to run several the group’s Asia-Pacifi c unit, says AI need to be upskilled and refocused there are opportunities for companies experiments, but when deployed at will become increasingly mainstream, towards higher-value assignments that to introduce agility into their opera- scale these systems experience pit- enabling ordinary people around the enhance the customer experience. tions by automating mundane, repeata- falls related to the smart management world to use it for social good, includ- ble tasks with AI. Robotic process auto- of data and infrastructure that AI and ing in developing nations. mation, for instance, is the agent for machine-learning systems rely on. “There has already been a major many pragmatic applications of AI. On “While we see some companies shift in how AI is used,” he says. “For the consumer side, this is visible with trying to do it successfully them- example, people are now more will- the development of self-driving cars. selves, we also see many companies ing to participate in studies involving More subtly, in the enterprise, automa- struggling,” says Mr Lyashok. “Part of Cristina Gottardi/Unsplash Cristina wearable technology, in developed and tion offers simple answers to the mas- WorkFusion's promise is a single, uni- developing countries, providing accu- sive complexity of processing numerous fied platform that helps customers rate insights and real-time data into unstructured data. start quickly with a small footprint. But how we lead our lives. trn+ “In many cases, intelligent automa- we also help them manage the solution “For instance, we already see more $1 tion deployments allow organisations at scale when they have hundreds or international development teams in potential to achieve 30 to 40 per cent cost-sav- thousands of software robots running using AI to design water distribution ings while improving outcomes by two in their organisation across multiple networks. A good example is the non- to three times,” says Mr Lyashok. “There divisions and touchpoints. profi t organisation Global Water Chal- business value are many scenarios where automation “We're in the very early days of auto- 3 lenge, which uses AI and predictive offers companies the chance to grow mation-driven transformation, but we Emergency information analytics to solve problems associ- their business, whether it be better are starting to see the promise of dra- ated with developing water services in managing revenue cycles, real-time matic business results. The mundane Google’s AI for Social Good initiative public alerts. The first alert went out in rural communities.” adjustments of retail promotions, or repeatable work that has had to be aims to support and fund ideas on how India in September 2018. Google is also The challenge in many developing responding to insurance claims or open- done by people, due to the slowness AI can help address the world’s biggest building similar initiatives for predict- countries is that there is less useful 25 m FTE ing bank accounts faster. and difficulty of using coded software, societal problems. ing earthquakes and wildfires. data and it is not necessarily digitised in support functions “If a bank account can be opened in is starting to become addressable with One development with a high impact A Google spokesperson says these ini- or centralised, says Mr Drew. 15 minutes versus 22 days by automating AI. In most cases, intelligent automa- has been Google’s Public Alerts and SOS tiatives create wide-ranging challenges “But there are hundreds of potential manual steps and checking things like tion can be used to release 60 to 70 Alerts, which use AI to make emergency and risks. To help mitigate them, it has applications,” he adds. “AI for social proof of income or residence in near per cent of a company’s manual labour, information more accessible. Since its set guidelines that AI should be socially good is still in its infancy.” real time, this technology clearly offers allowing the business to focus on cus- launch in 2017, the scheme has activated beneficial, avoid creating or reinforcing Ms Mojsilovic at IBM Research companies the opportunity to grow their tomer experience and digital growth. more than 200 SOS alerts and tens of unfair bias, built and tested for safety, agrees: “Many NGOs and government business at an unprecedented rate.” That redirection of labour is the key to thousands of public alerts, which have accountable to people, incorporate pri- agencies are not yet using the power $2.5 trn Indeed, applications of AI are most growing this trend.” been viewed more than 1.5 billion times. vacy design, uphold standards of scien- of AI in the same way as commercial effective in data-intensive and ser- in associated costs Google also has a major project to tific excellence, and made available for companies. In the next ten years there vice-focused companies, and banks help predict flooding. Every year, the right uses. will be more eff ort devoted to AI for often provide ideal use-cases. As an Please visit workfusion.com for more floods affect an estimated 250 million “Also, our AI applications will not social good,” she says. industry that is mostly service driven, information, or to learn more about these people around the world and cost bil- pursue weapons, technologies that “I hope that using AI to address yet also highly powered by data, appli- real life, real impact case studies. lions of pounds in damages. Google is cause overall harm, technologies that areas such as hunger, disease and cations in financial services offer both using AI with a wide range of data to use surveillance violating internation- poverty will make us better humans. trn low-hanging fruit and areas where tre- create better models that predict when ally accepted norms, or those that con- It comes down to what we choose to $1 mendous outcomes can be achieved. and where floods will occur, then travene international law and human design and invest in; the technology value Industries that rely less on data and incorporating that information into rights,” Google says. will exist, but the choice is ours.” McKinsey more on assets have until recently 6 AI FOR BUSINESS

OPINION DEMOCRATISATION ‘It is vital for the C-suite Self-service analytics on the rise to educate themselves, Pre-built algorithms off er realistic adoption and off -the-shelf tools are increasing access goals and provide to artifi cial intelligence Cavan Images/Getty Images Images/Getty Cavan solutions, but experts suffi cient training' warn democratising

AI in this way can be a ith $15 billion invested over competition, it has become important dangerous game W the past three years, artifi cial to provide the best possible customer intelligence (AI) is rising up journey at every touchpoint. the boardroom agenda at many global Sainsbury’s has introduced AI to enterprises. Chief experience offi cers improve its supply chain availability Oliver Pickup across a wide range of industries are of products for customers, while Nat- well aware of the transformational West’s decision to implement AI by impact this technology is bringing, off ering its chatbot Cora has resulted y 2020, with ten billion connected and are assessing how to invest eff ec- in an enhanced customer service B devices, estimated data volumes tively in new products and solutions. experience. The bank has also intro- will be fifty times greater than With this, business leaders have a duced a system that uses robotic pro- they were just three years ago, according growing responsibility to understand cess automation, which enables it to to Microsoft’s projections. The lamenta- the many opportunities and chal- respond more quickly and eff ectively ble paucity of skilled technology talent lenges that can arise when imple- to customers’ simple email requests. has been well publicised, but with a gar- menting AI in the workforce. The implementation of these tech- gantuan, and growing, amount of data The noise surrounding AI can at nologies will undoubtedly continue from which to draw business insights, times be deafening, and there is a to improve the customer experience the gulf between supply and demand constant stream of new AI off erings and, as a result, retain customers and for data scientists and analysts already which are said to revolutionise the increase revenues. seems unbridgeable. way businesses can run. For business NatWest’s introduction of chatbots Capgemini research last year found 64 leaders, however, keeping up with the is a great example of business leaders per cent of organisations view a lack of constant stream of change and inno- understanding the need to transform people with the skills to take advantage This democratisation of AI solutions is Warwick Business School, heralds this new- vation can be incredibly challenging. into a 21st-century business by using of artifi cial intelligence (AI) as a big bar- popular, unsurprisingly when early adopters found accessibility for AI solutions. “Nvidia As businesses continue to ramp up the latest technologies. Moreover, the rier to adoption. More recently, the Harvey of AI in the UK have already seen a 5 per cent Jetson hardware products and AI on a AI investment, it is vital leaders are change was managed seamlessly and Nash/KPMG CIO Survey for 2019 goes fur- improvement in productivity, performance chip, which come with a sub-£1,500 cost, given the means to decipher which shows the bank’s executives ensured ther by revealing data analytics is where and enterprise outcomes, according to Micro- bring AI automation to the ‘edge’ of net- Organisations are forced technologies are the right ones to its workforce was trained and properly the greatest dearth of tech skills currently soft’s Maximising the AI Opportunity report, works for most software developers to start to rely on the black box invest in. A recent Genpact report educated on the impact these updates lies for global organisations. Indeed, almost published in October. building their robotics and deep-learning found that a quarter of senior execu- would have throughout the organisa- half (46 per cent) of the chief information The trend is so pronounced that Gartner models from image, text, voice and data without understanding the tives say they plan fundamentally to tion, as well as how they would aff ect offi cers quizzed reported that they are predicts in 2019 workers using self-service analysis,” he says. logic behind its decision- reimagine their business with AI by customers’ experience with the bank. experiencing a shortage in this area; a fi g- analytics will generate more value from data Professor Skilton lauds the “astonishing” the end of 2021. This is therefore a crit- As with any new technology, there ure that has risen for the last four years. analysis than professional data scientists. amount of often free online machine-learn- making and they could risk ical time for chief experience offi cers is a huge appetite among business To help bridge this gap and counter the “Rapid advancements in AI, internet of things ing and AI training on off er from Coursera, reputational damage when to educate themselves and have a full leaders to invest and roll out new AI talent challenge, there has been an explo- and software-as-a-service analytics are mak- Udemy, as well as Stanford and Harvard uni- understanding of the technologies technologies. We saw 2018 as a break- sion in the availability of off -the-shelf AI ing it easier, and more cost eff ective than ever versities, and many others. “These courses things go wrong they are adopting to reap the rewards through year for investments in AI, tools that promise to be simple to inte- before, for non-specialists to perform eff ec- have further democratised that knowledge, for their workforce and customers. and there are no signs of activity and grate and straightforward to use. The intro- tive analysis and better inform their deci- bringing AI into the mainstream,” he adds. The rollout of this technology is investment slowing down in 2019. duction of pre-built algorithms and open sion-making,” says Gartner research director Similarly, Liz Sebag-Montefi ore, director incredibly vital too. A recent study However, there is a growing need source machine-learning libraries is help- Carlie J. Idoine. and co-founder of 10Eighty, a London-head- by PwC found that only 4 per cent of for executives to understand where ing non-experts grapple with organisa- Mark Skilton, professor of practice in quartered career management and employee executives have successfully imple- to invest and seek the partners best tions’ data and deliver insights through AI. information systems and management at engagement organisation, welcomes the Brainpool.ai, which boasts a network of mented AI in their business. Histor- suited to deliver the solutions required. drive to democratise AI and lower the barrier more than 300 AI experts for consultancy ically, a chief executive relied on the We can expect to see increased for entry. “AI is critical to our success given and strategy, says: “Off -the-shelf AI solu- chief information and chief technol- pressure to keep up with the rapid the current talent challenges we face, so an tions very rarely work well without custo- ogy offi cers to make the correct deci- pace of change. It is vital for C-suite MOST POPULAR PATHS TO AI open and collaborative approach to harness- misation. A lot of clients fall into the trap of sions when investing in and imple- executives to educate themselves, Percentage of companies who have used the following methods of acquiring and/or developing AI ing such powerful technologies will produce getting things done quickly and at a lower menting technological changes. off er realistic adoption goals and a thriving ecosystem for agile and adaptive upfront cost and then spend years fi xing the However, chief executives themselves provide suffi cient training for their A B C D enterprises,” she says. solutions that didn’t end up bringing the now have a central role to play in deci- workforce. Business leaders who Crowdsourced Data science Automated Open-source However, there are risks to democratising desired results.” sion-making and rollout. fully understand and acknowledge development modelling tools machine-learning development tools AI; for one, it won’t address the talent short- Additionally, for businesses that fail to The buck doesn’t stop there. As AI the challenges faced when imple- age and the services of the best data scientists either understand or display the workings out has become a board-wide responsibil- menting AI will be best equipped to will be more coveted. “Anyone can pick up a of AI programmes, it could have dire ethical ity, many businesses also lean on the adapt to these changes. Others will E F G hammer, but it requires a skilled tradesper- and fi nancial consequences, especially since operating, digital and administrative be left behind and, far worse, those Cloud-based AI Co-development Enterprise software son to use it to build high-quality products,” the introduction, in May 2018, of the Euro- heads, and now the chief AI offi cer, to stood on the sideline will become with partners with AI says Jonathan Clarke, statistical modelling pean Union’s General Data Protection Regu- drive AI projects and initiatives. The increasingly irrelevant in the new manager for LexisNexis Risk Solutions. lation (GDPR). traditional organigram is continually AI-powered enterprise landscape. D John Abel, Oracle’s vice principal of cloud “While pre-built algorithms and open evolving and, as new roles emerge, and innovation, UK and Ireland, agrees. source machine-learning libraries can be boardrooms are taking a new shape, 49% E “Businesses should not expect the democ- used to create automated, ‘hands-free’ AI evermore focused on the importance C 49% ratisation of AI technologies to turn employ- solutions, and produce short-term results, of technology. ees into eff ective ‘citizen data scientists’ democratising AI in this way can be a dan- Some sectors have been more open 46% magically. They need to be coupled with gerous game,” warns Iain Brown, head and adaptable to the changes that AI 53% F solid training on how to interpret and ana- of data science at SAS, UK and Ireland. brings. Industries that have invested B lyse data properly, as well as robust data gov- “Organisations are forced to rely on most heavily are fi nancial services, ernance to make sure the data being the black box without understanding the retail and automotive, with fi nancial used is reliable,” he says. logic behind its decision-making and they services forecast to become a billion- 44% “This requires trained data sci- could risk reputational damage when dollar AI industry before the end of entists to play a critical oversight things go wrong. the year.

59% role in the short term to ensure the “GDPR requirements state that organi- Chief experience offi cers are G proliferation of AI provides busi- sations must be able to demonstrate how a increasingly shining a spotlight on George Kipouros and A nesses with reliable insights in decision about a particular customer has their company’s customer experience Daniel Pitchford the longer term.” been reached, so there must be clear data strategy. With growing choice and Founders of AI Business 39% Kasia Borowska, manag- lineage and explainability to meet compli- Deloitte 2018 ing director and co-founder of ance requirements.”

TUC/Britain Thinks 2018 RACONTEUR.NET 7 CommercialCommercial feature feature Dorian Hurst/Unsplash Dorian

MONITORING EMPLOYEES The problem with workplace surveillance Making a success of AI projects

Understanding what artifi cial intelligence can do for your There are also, she says, several Technology to monitor employees in the workplace instances where these devices have raised organisation requires collaboration with an experienced can be put to good effect, but not if it is used to issues regarding discrimination. partner in delivering successful transformation "If an app can give an employer infor- control and micromanage workers mation about whether an employee is going to be pregnant, could that be used to fire them or somehow not promote a woman because she's pregnant?" she asks. "I think there have been instances where here’s no question that artifi - to check they are in the correct posi- data, businesses can fail to solve the right Emma Woollacott this could be bordering on breaking some T cial intelligence (AI) has already tion and priced correctly or to create a problem within the company and result other laws, so in addition to new regulation moved from being a technol- digital twin that can accurately forecast in no clear positive result. there has to be a better way of looking to see ogy rooted in science fi ction to one of revenues,” says Ms Markiewicz. Spending time before starting an AI S supermarket chain Walmart has In a survey last year, Gartner found that whether the data is being used as a proxy the most powerful tools businesses can Objectivity know fi rst hand the bene- venture to consider if it is the right U patented surveillance technology 22 per cent of organisations around the and these other laws are being broken." use to transform how they operate. From fi ts of bespoke AI solutions as they have approach for your business can help that would enable it to eavesdrop on world are collecting data on their employ- Such techniques could in theory be just driving down costs through the automa- been using this approach to improve reduce the risk of wasting resources on employees' conversations with customers. ees' movements. Some 17 per cent are mon- the tip of the iceberg. In China, for exam- tion of repetitive tasks to the creation of understanding of their future revenues. an inappropriate project that does little The aim, according to the patent applica- itoring computer usage and 16 per cent are ple, businesses are reportedly even mon- new services and products that enable By using AI to predict their resource to improve the bottom line. tion, was to establish whether “employees monitoring staff calendars. Most notably, itoring employees' brain waves to detect companies to reach new customers, few needs effectively, Objectivity have been At this initial stage in the overall pro- are performing their jobs efficiently and cor- though, nearly six in ten said they planned their emotions using a combination of innovations have such a wide range of able to ensure their IT recruitment plans cess, Objectivity can work with clients rectly”, and improve both cost-savings and to be using such technologies in future. EEG sensors and AI in the workplace. potential applications. are in line with accurate forecasts and to consider if there is another project or customer satisfaction. Worker satisfaction The advantages for organisations Unsurprisingly, workplace surveillance “Businesses can no longer avoid not rely solely on guesswork and less approach that would be more relevant wasn't mentioned. are, at least on the surface, clear. They can lead to a lack of trust among employ- AI; it’s here to stay. Today, not incor- accurate estimates. for the specifi c challenge the business is This is just one example of the ways in can track the productivity of individual ees and it's this that's fatal to any hoped- porating the benefi ts of AI into your “It's not some side feature; it’s dealing with and ensuring the risk-to-re- which artificial intelligence (AI) is increas- workers, compare the efficiency of dif- for productivity benefits, according to the operations is like not having a website,” become a key feature that has revolu- ward ratio is as attractive as possible. ingly being used to monitor workers in the ferent projects, and maintain traceabil- Accenture report. says Marta Markiewicz, head of data tionised part of our business and made The Augmented CRISP approach cre- workplace. While the Walmart technology ity, accountability and compliance. In "Seventy per cent of employees say that in science at Objectivity, digital transfor- it easier for us to plan. We’ve seen a ated by Objectivity helps to simplify AI isn't yet in use, and may never be, other com- recent research, consultancy Accenture return for their permission to collect data, mation specialists. great improvement in margins because projects and makes certain the right panies are enthusiastically surveilling every found that seven in ten business lead- employers need to give them control over For example, retailers that don’t now we have very few people who are problem is chosen to solve, gathers the aspect of their staff's activity at work. ers expected workplace data analysis to how it is used," says Accenture’s Ms Gavin. integrate advanced recommendation not working on customer projects as right team to make the collaboration a improve productivity. engines into their online platforms we haven't recruited too early, so it's success and establishes the criteria that "Workplace data can be used to spot will be at a disadvantage when com- an enormous improvement in fi nancial address the risks the project may face. LEAST PREFERRED TYPES OF and improve work patterns to speed time peting with rivals driving forward with performance,” says Ms Markiewicz. “Starting the AI project with full immer- WORKPLACE SURVEILLANCE to market or improve speed of adoption AI-backed solutions. Great recommen- There is an element of risk in creat- sion in our clients business is a very of change programmes with customised dations engines signifi cantly improve ing bespoke AI solutions as, although important part of our process. It allows Net percentage of workers who believe the incentives for individuals," says Eva-Sage the experience of a website visitor and patterns of AI usage are well known and us to understand not just the business following are unacceptable Gavin, who leads Accenture’s talent and Monitoring toilet breaks, drive up sales. understood, applying these models in and the hypotheses, but also the culture organisation practice globally. But the relatively recent advent of the specifi c context of your business of the organisation, the strengths of "Overall, 77 per cent of business lead- tracking and snooping business-friendly AI tools and a general has yet to be done. But the rewards can their teams, what they will bring to the ers say new sources of workforce data will lack of understanding of how to utilise be signifi cant and, as Objectivity has party. And, of course, the data they hold. help them grow their business, 76 per cent on staff outside working AI products is hindering this technology shown, have the power to change how These elements are vital to improve the say it will help them transform the busi- hours creates fear from becoming a truly revolutionary solu- you do business. chances of the project being a success. ness for agility and efficiency, and 74 per tion. To effectively execute an AI project, Without a proper understanding of all cent say it will help unlock the full poten- and distrust corporate leaders need to have a specifi c these factors, some organisations can 76% tial of their people." goal or improvement in mind, rather than be tempted to start data-crunching However, staff monitoring only simply embracing AI because it is seen as without a real comprehension of what improves performance under certain cir- a “must” for progressive companies. they want to achieve and what is possi- cumstances, according to research by "Give employees the ability to see, manage “We’ve found it useful to divide the ble,” says Ms Markiewicz. Bartels and Nordstrom in 2012. It was and even delete their own data when appro- different types of AI projects into three Possessing high-quality data that is reli- only when monitoring was combined with priate; ask for consent when possible and main categories. The fi rst class of pro- able and available in suffi cient quantity is Facial recognition software Starting the AI project and mood monitoring a clear performance management frame- when it makes business sense." jects involves the use of off-the-shelf AI clearly of central importance for any AI work, and linked with employee compen- Australia’s largest telecommunications products, moving on to bespoke AI solu- with full immersion in project as it will be extremely diffi cult to sation and benefits, that real improve- company Telstra, for example, maintains tions further down the spectrum, and our clients business is a defi ne what exactly success looks like if ments were seen. an internal site called MyCareer that fi nally high-risk, high-reward projects the data used is not classifi ed. When employees were monitored without allows workers to keep and update their that require a great deal of resources and very important part of “Only when you are sure you under- any explanation or when there were no corre- own career data, and even challenge any a long-term commitment to achieve,” stand the data and when you are sure sponding performance measures or rewards, incorrect or incomplete entries. says Ms Markiewicz. our process the terms of reference are clear for performance stayed much the same. Organisations should also build a gov- A company may consider the use of AI both Objectivity and yourself can we 69% Employees, meanwhile, are suspicious. ernance system to make sure workplace as a service component in a traditional then move to proof of concept (PoC). In a recent survey by the TUC, British data and technologies are used respon- type of business project, as this would PoCs must be chosen carefully and are workers revealed that most believe they sibly, with a clearly accountable C-level demonstrate the power of this burgeon- Leaders who want to transform their designed to remove risk by tackling the are being monitored by their employ- executive supported by an executive coa- ing technology in a relatively low-risk business fundamentally can embark on hardest parts fi rst, in isolation. It can be ers, and two-thirds said they feared this lition. They should use AI in the work- approach. Yet it’s unlikely that such a an AI project that starts from scratch very tempting for clients to build the low was fuelling distrust and discrimination. place to identify hidden skills and offer limited use of AI would have a profound and attempt to create new algorithms risk parts fi rst, because it feels like pro- Monitoring social media They were concerned that the use of AI staff targeted training, says Ms Gavin. impact on how a fi rm operates, with with the potential to advance what is gress. But it’s not progress. PoCs help outside work hours in the workplace meant that surveillance Similarly, the TUC is calling on employ- examples of this method being the use of possible to achieve with AI. This high- everyone to iterate faster, save money data was being used to set unfair targets, ers to only use surveillance for legiti- handwriting or voice recognition in typi- risk approach requires completely new and increase the chances of success,” over-scrutinise their work, and take away mate reasons that protect the interests cal projects. models to be developed and is usually she says. autonomy and control. of workers, such as ensuring people can The next step along the AI spectrum reserved for only the largest companies It's critically important to collaborate "Employers must not use tech to control work safely. sees businesses using bespoke solu- and universities that have a large pool of with a partner that has practical experi- and micromanage their staff," says TUC "We'd like to see the law strengthened tions to make an improvement that resources to tap. ences of delivering AI solutions for both general secretary Frances O’Grady. "Moni- with a legal requirement for employers to would be impossible without the use No matter what category of project you themselves and their clients. toring toilet breaks, tracking and snooping consult workers before introducing sur- of AI. “This could include, for example, choose, there will be challenges and pit- “Successful projects need a diverse 67% on staff outside working hours creates fear veillance technologies," says Ms O'Grady. creating an AI-based solution to recog- falls that have the capability to derail your team of specialists. For the last six years, and distrust. And it undermines morale." "Data protection law places limits on nise products on a supermarket shelf AI solution. By using the wrong model or we’ve been developing our people, meth- In America, in particular, the use of when and how employers should use new ods and processes to maximise the value staff surveillance combined with AI in technology to monitor staff, but employ- we create in AI projects for ourselves and the workplace is booming and extend- ers are not always aware of how the our clients. There’s a reason why we work Recording of location on ing into areas that would once have been law applies in the workplace. So the closely with Microsoft, and we’re a valued wearable/handheld devices inconceivable. government and employer organisa- data and AI partner. I think it’s because Aiha Nguyen, labour engagement lead tions should consider how they can help we’re good at this stuff and we’re pas- for the Data & Society Research Institute, improve awareness." sionate at creating value for our clients,” cites the use of fitness trackers, now sup- In the European Union, the General Data Ms Markiewicz concludes. plied to staff at one in five large US firms Protection Regulation means workers do at offering health benefits. She says: ”The type least have the right to know what data is being of data being collected is well beyond what collected on them and how it's being used. many would argue as elements of your job. However, Ms Gavin says two thirds of workers 57% What does your food consumption have to are still concerned their data could be mis- do with how well you do your job? used. Reassuring them is key to success. For more information please visit "It's the question of whether the purpose "If businesses gather data in a way that www.objectivity.ai of this type of tool is to really improve pro- diminishes trust, they risk losing more ductivity. And, really, it is tied to efforts than 6 per cent of future revenue growth," by companies to cut the cost of employ- she says. "But if they adopt responsible Monitoring keyboard activity ees, so theoretically the fitness apps and strategies, the trust dividend could be devices are meant to cut the cost of pro- worth more than a 6 per cent increase in TUC/Britain Thinks 2018 viding health insurance for employees." future revenue growth." Source 8 AI FOR BUSINESS

COMPARISON OF NATIONAL SPENDING ON COMPUTER VISION SOFTWARE Nicholas Barbaros on Unsplash on Barbaros Nicholas

$3.9bn China

$120m North America

InData Labs 2018

any type of hardware to detect for signs of wear and tear. We have even seen the use of satellite images to identify areas of crop disease before they spread. “Computer vision is already present everywhere in our lives, from driving your car, to using your favourite search engine, or looking to buy something from a retailer online,” says Mr Crnkovic-Friis. “Generally speaking, the typical appli- cation of this technology is tasked with similarity matching (if you’ve indicated that you like a particular sock, a computer COMPUTER VISION “A human infant, for example, might technologies. Luka Crnkovic-Friis, chief vision system will find similar socks and only need to see four or five dogs to be able executive of operational artificial intelli- display them), classification tasks (when to recognise in the future that a newly gence (AI) platform provider Peltarion, says you search your photo library for ‘dog’, it sighted animal is also a dog. Training a humans are good generalists when it comes finds all images with dogs) and semantic computer to recognise a dog in an image, to vision, but aren’t great when it comes to segmentation (an image taken from the and eradicate false positives, is likely to specialised visual tasks. camera of a car needs to separate out the Teaching computers require large data sets of hundreds of “For example, it takes many years of road, other cars and so on).” thousands of images,” says Mr Talaga. training for a radiologist to be able to iden- Jabe Wilson, consulting director of text There’s only so much we can do to bring tify a tumour in an MRI scan accurately. and data analytics at scientific and med- down this reliance on data if we want to Currently, many hospitals are sitting on ical information company Elsevier, says maintain high levels of accuracy in com- image backlogs. In these understaffed facil- computer vision has been used for many to see the world like us puter vision systems and keep errors to an ities, scans may not be analysed for weeks. years in lots of diverse use-cases. Dr Wil- absolute minimum. Deeper still, we have Tumours can actually move in this time, son says computers have been reading to ensure data sets have the highest pos- rendering treatment ineffective and causing handwritten UK postcode characters for sible levels of integrity to ensure they hav- unnecessary exposure to radiation. Deep some years now. As Fei-Fei Li, computer scientist en’t been compromised or fail to adhere to neural networks, on the other hand, can be In addition, he points to the use of sys- Machines that can obtain Adrian Bridgwater and director of Stanford Vision Lab, appropriate data governance processes. trained on a specialised data set and can tems to identify people in CCTV records, information from images remarks on the complicated nature of “One advantage of the deep-learn- exceed human accuracy while being orders OCR systems that read number plates to uilding computers with enough human vision and its intersection point ing through exhaustive data ingestion of magnitude faster,” says Mr Crnkovic-Friis. help locate where you parked in a car park, and multi-dimensional B intelligence to perform tasks that with computer vision: “Just like to hear is method is that if we expect that a human He points out that computer vision can as well as technologies for scanning a are as complex as those carried not the same as to listen, to take pictures child will make mistakes – for example, be applied to machinery, water pipes or house key and cutting a new one in a hard- data have been around out by the human body is difficult; obvi- is not the same as to see.” Getting com- it may mistake a fox for a dog – then we ware store vending machine. Deep-learn- for years, but what ously it is. As we now strive to bring the puters to really "see” what they’re seeing wouldn’t expect a highly trained com- ing computer vision techniques can also advantages of computer vision to modern is a lot more complex than capturing an puter vision system to make such a basic be used to represent non-visual data in does the future hold for IT systems, we are faced with some tough image, in any scenario. error. In fact, there are plenty of appli- image form, for example, when tagging challenges as we attempt to teach comput- To appreciate how computer vision will cations where such an error would prove music on a streaming service or building computer vision? ers to actually “see” the world around us. now develop, we first need to know how actively dangerous. Consider an autono- a map to predict the weather. Over and above near-perfect levels of speech computers process visual information and mous vehicle which misclassifies a cyclist In the immediate future, we can look for- recognition and so-called natural language understand how this differs from the core as a motorcyclist and makes incorrect Computer vision is already ward to new smart product offerings as AI understanding, we have also fine-tuned optical functions of the human eye and human assumptions about how that road user present everywhere in our works in union with computer vision to help character recognition (OCR) tools and text-to- brain. David Talaga, senior product manager will behave as a result,” says Mr Talaga. automate the mundane tasks in our lives. speech technologies. But despite massive pro- at data integration company Talend, points As we now seek to engineer vision technol- lives, from driving your Computers will never really see like we do, but gress in image processing and object recogni- out that computer vision systems don’t learn ogy and computer vision algorithms into our car, to using your favourite their ability to classify the world around us tion, computer vision remains a comparatively in the same way as humans. He says the pro- lives, we need to understand our own limita- into definable shapes and textures is becom- wild frontier in terms of tech intelligence. cess is much more data intensive. tions to decide where we should apply these search engine ing more advanced every day. RACONTEUR.NET 9 CommercialCommercial feature feature

ADVICE Eight AI tips for Don’t be left behind business leaders An organisation's fi rst foray into the world of artifi cial in the AI revolution intelligence can be a daunting task, so data scientists Artifi cial intelligence is the game-changer of Machines can help make decisions and tech experts share some vital advice to help faster, with dynamic responses and our time. Its impact will revolutionise work, life behaviour-tracking that can put prod- those on their journey to full AI deployment ucts right under the customer’s nose. and play; it will affect everything from medical But it’s about more than speed; it’s about practices to buying onions. Conventional a seamless journey that connects and Oliver Pickup engages whenever and wherever the wisdom is under attack and business leaders customer wants. It’s about the ability to create an impactful interaction at each Don’t ignore AI – need to understand this new world fast if and every touchpoint, whether via the whatever you do their organisations are to survive, says Filippo screen in our pocket, the machine-led phone call that is intercepted at just the The most important thing for executives Rizzante, chief technology offi cer at Reply right moment by a person or the human is to just start engaging with AI today on the shop fl oor who can tap into our – tomorrow is not good enough,” warns personal likes and dislikes in record time. Shamus Rae, partner and head of digital Customers have unprecedented choice disruption at KPMG UK. “Business lead- in today’s global marketplace and AI can ers need to understand the capabilities help create a much deeper, emotional of these new technologies and put in engagement that distinguishes one busi- place an AI strategy that includes some o matter what the sector, arti- With a combination of sensors, ness from another. clear self-challenge. This ensures that N fi cial intelligence (AI) will chal- internet of things platforms and The third area of impact for AI is auto- they don’t get stuck in ‘play’ mode and lenge your business; in many AI-controlled analysis tools, companies mation. Again, the fi eld is not new, but fail to make any tangible change to their industries, it already is. There are three will be able to utilise equipment more the power and capability of present-day operations or business model.” Mr Rae key and often linked ways in which AI effi ciently, predicting downtime and automation is driving new solutions. predicts that, due to the common mis- will impact business: perception, pre- moving fast to minimise disruption. Instead of disjointed and sometimes conception of AI, “we will see some diction and automation. This is not just about the technology, siloed systems, AI automation is driving major missteps by household names We have been interacting with but is a mindshift in our dealings with offi ce work as never before, simplifying failing to adapt fast enough”. machine-learning for quite some time. machines. Virtual reality opens further functions such as straight-through pro- Most of us will have experienced the possibilities for us to experience prod- cessing for invoices, but also opening frustration of a less than perfect chat- ucts, but no business can survive unless up the possibility of more complicated bot, a conversational interface that is we actually buy those products. Here, automation including as driverless cars. anything but conversational. it is AI’s predictive capabilities that are Such technology may seem many years Work out what specifi c challenge However, as the technology improves, having the greatest impact. Big data is away, but don’t underestimate the speed so does the interface; last year Google offering business an unprecedented at which tech is moving; the high levels you're trying to solve Duplex showcased a voice-controlled means of optimising product manufac- of investment – Toyota put $500 million interface to book appointments that can turing and stocking, while personalising into Uber’s self-driving cars in 2018 – are “Think hard about what problem in your science and AI.” Antony Bourne, indus- understand the nuanced conversation of the customer journey as never before, a clear indication of the possibilities. business you want to solve, not with arti- tries president of global enterprise soft- the human on the other end of the phone and all in real time. Automation can be applied anywhere fi cial intelligence but with data,” advises ware company IFS, agrees. “Before you and respond accordingly, even adding there is a repetitive task, saving time and Kim Nilsson, founder and chief executive initiate any project, you must fi gure “um” and “er” for added authenticity. money, and freeing up staff for high- of data science hub Pivigo. “The solution out your ‘why’,” he says. “What exactly Such a program drew on all Google’s er-value work. Such a process requires always needs to come from that intersec- do you want to improve and enhance? knowledge of deep-learning, natu- businesses to upskill employees, which is tion of where your business challenges The more targeted your objectives, the ral language processing and texture a process that, as with any major innova- overlap with available data sets. Only more competitive and transformative speech to handle context and conver- tion, can lead to tensions. there will signifi cant value lie in data your results.” sation gracefully. But the technology But it is up to all of us, whether as organ- goes further, with emotionally intelli- We are living at a time isations and as individuals, to engage with gent and empathetic robots reaching this dynamic, rather than shy away from into our lives and our homes via gadgets in which AI is rapidly it; there is no doubt that automation can Understanding and smartphones. do the boring, simple tasks quicker, faster Target low- Far from being perceived as a fright- fi nding its way into data is critical to and, therefore, cheaper than humans. hanging fruit ening sci-fi movie brought to life, con- everyday life and the From its earliest beginnings more than business success sumers are welcoming such interac- half a century ago, AI has been pushing Clare Barclay, chief operating offi cer of tions; 59 per cent of customers are workplace; some the boundaries of human and machine Microsoft UK, advises business leaders to David Gonzalez, head of big data for Voda- open to companies using AI to improve advances happen so capabilities. The processing power aim at small targets, or minor improve- fone Business, believes employees at every their experiences and 87 per cent now available puts a range of analytics ments – the so-called “low-hanging fruit” level should analyse data to maximise the believe AI will transform their expec- fast that today we can within the grasp of all sizes and types of – when it comes to AI. “If you start think- potential of AI technologies. “A chief data tations of companies within the next hardly imagine the business, and what used to take weeks ing of the really big things, you do noth- offi cer and trained data scientists are very fi ve years, according to the State of the can now be completed within a matter ing,” she says. “Ask yourself: ‘What is the important to organisations looking to Connected Customer report from cus- things which will be of hours. problem I am trying to fi x?’” Dr Will Ven- implement AI solutions,” he starts. “The tomer relationship management plat- possible tomorrow Such technology does come at a cost, ters, assistant professor of information integral role that data plays in powering form Salesforce. but without it your business is unlikely systems and innovation at the London businesses to succeed in today’s economy Of course, this needs to be bal- to thrive or even survive; other organ- School of Economics’ Department of Man- means that understanding data even at a anced against a wariness and concern isations will be deploying this technol- agement, adds: “Starting with process basic level really has to be everyone’s job. as Salesforce’s survey also found that ogy to gain that competitive advan- improvement – perhaps through robotic The entire C-suite has to provide support, 62 per cent of customers were more Customer expectations are extraor- tage. The key is to fi nd those areas process automation or simpler and proven ensuring that their area is primed to har- afraid of their data being compromised dinarily high in today’s interconnected that maximise your investment in AI, AI algorithms – is more likely to be more vest robust data and that stakeholders than two years ago. The key is to defi ne world. Driven by disruptors such as either through data insights specifi c to profi table and successful than trying to understand the value of using it in con- the areas in your business where an Uber and Amazon, they expect instant your customers or by clever use of the push the envelope.” junction with analytics and AI.” AI-enabled conversational interface results and will quickly dismiss com- human-machine interface. will make the customer experience panies that fail to provide the high But one thing’s for sure: this fourth quicker, easier and more simple. levels of service shown elsewhere. industrial revolution will bring excep- Many of these opportunities will Organisations no longer have the tional change. It is up to us to use it wisely. be app-related; an AI-enabled loss luxury of analysing feedback and cus- Decide whether to build adjuster, for example, which will be able tomer surveys over weeks and months; or buy AI solutions to assess an insurance quote straight the insights have to be actioned imme- after receiving a photo of your dented diately to connect and engage with rear bumper. the consumer. For more information please visit John Abel, Oracle’s vice principle of maintenance easier. You won't have to But not all are about the customer Analytics companies know how huge www.ai.reply.com cloud and innovation in the UK and employ data scientists or pay for devel- journey. Combine robotics, which has this area is likely to be. According Ireland, says: “The next logical ques- opment platforms and architectural been quietly transforming the produc- to market researcher Zion Market tion is: ‘How do I implement?’” He con- components to learn, buy, maintain tive process for decades, with AI and Research, the predictive analytics tinues: “This essentially boils down to and integrate. Buying a ready-to-go AI you get collaborative robots that can market is expected to be worth $11 bil- either buying a pre-built AI application, application provides the lowest barrier learn valuable skills, such as quality lion by 2022; in 2016, only three years or building your own. If you choose to entry, near-immediate benefi ts and control for factory production. ago, it was a mere $3.5 billion. the former, your implementation time they are often bundled with third-party will likely be shorter, costs lower and data sources.”

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TRENDS

Don’t forget about ethics Established trends Booming trends Established trends offer merely low busi- Booming trend fi elds are exploited with “A major issue with AI is trust,” posits UK urges executives to “establish a clear ness potentials for new players as the market opportunities for old and new players alike, Mr Abel. “The machine provides an out- set of ethics, commitments and values is already saturated and consumer interest is serving the rising consumer interest. put, but how can the user trust it made around the use of AI. Not only will this steady or going down. the right decision, or is recommending ensure ethically grounded innovation, the correct action? To establish trust, but it can support your bottom line, too. Intelligent automation a machine-learning algorithm needs Microsoft research shows companies that Autonomous ground vehicles to show its working and what data was consider what AI ‘should’ do have been AI driven analytics Chatbots Digital assistance important for the machine to make a par- shown to outperform those that don’t by Core technologies ticular output.” Ms Barclay of Microsoft 9 per cent.” Hyper-personalisation AI infused interfaces AI process automation Enterprise AI Computer vision Predictive analytics Natural language processing Search and discovery Autonomous aerial vehicles AI chips Open source AI Volume Voice interfaces Generative adversial networks Automated machine learning Take advantage of AI Consumer robots democratisation Simulation and digital twin Industrial robots AI on edge In a bid to help overcome the bar- Autonomous sea values rier to AI adoption because of a huge Deep reinforcement learning skill shortage, the introduction of Lean and augmented pre-built algorithms and open-source data learning Explainable AI machine-learning libraries is helping Ethical AI Emotion AI Preach to the converted to accelerate non-experts grapple with organisa- Neuromorphic tions’ data, and deliver insights through computing Capsule networks workplace AI adoption AI. Mark Skilton, professor of practice in information systems and management According to Maximising the AI Oppor- cess in your organisation it is critical at Warwick Business School, heralds a Niche trends Upcoming trends tunity, Microsoft’s study published in to seek out those workers who are most newfound accessibility for AI solutions These trends offer a great potential for Capitalising on an upcoming trend early October, some 67 per cent of the 1,000 excited by its potential and nurture that – the so-called democratisation of AI. differentiation and could only be on the verge allows companies to establish as a leader executives and 59 per cent of employ- interest. “By involving employees, you’re He lauds the “astonishing” amount of, to becoming an upcoming or booming trend. before others have the chance to.

ees surveyed are open to experimenting culturally engaging with them around often free, online machine-learning Growth with AI – however, almost all of them the things that are going to change, and and AI training on off er from Coursera, will require training and development. you’re equipping them with new skills,” Udemy, as well as Stanford and Harvard For comprehensibility, values and growth are standarised an normalised. (values from 0- 100) For AI to stand the best chance of suc- suggests Ms Barclay. universities, and many others. 10 AI FOR BUSINESS

AUGMENTATION

Five jobs for tomorrow’s “augmented worker”

Automation Eddie Kopp on Unsplash AI OVERSIGHT MANAGER AI systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and can analyse large amounts of data much faster than humans can. But they can also get is not the things wrong. Systems have been shown to be vulnerable to bias, and specialists will be needed to interpret their decisions and make future, human sure they are fair and transparent. DATA ETHICIST If an autonomous car causes a crash, who is to blame, if all of the decisions made by its algorithms augmentation is have first been programmed by humans? AI-powered platforms are likely to throw up a host of ethical We’ve long heard that artificial intelligence will dilemmas and firms will require hordes of data ethicists to help free up humans to carry out more interesting and address them. valuable roles, but what exactly will these jobs look SOCIAL PHYSICIST Advanced AI tools will enable NGOs, like, and what benefits will they bring? researchers and governments to parse through hordes of structured and unstructured data and find insights that help solve real-world problems. Be it tackling health Daniel Thomas epidemics, famines or crime, big data will be key. hen Tesla boss and tech billionaire tor tells Raconteur. “Algorithms can’t tell COBOTICS TRAINER Elon Musk proclaimed that in the you how you can create value in your busi- W In an AI-powered future, humans future, robots would “be able to ness, asking those sorts of questions is an are likely to collaborate with robots do everything better than us... I mean all of innately human capability. Algorithms rely on many tasks, and knowing how to us”, he wasn’t going out on a limb. For years, on humans having done that work first.” control these machines will be vital. academics and experts had been warning A 2018 study by the accountancy giant Training will help us learn us how to that rapid developments in artificial intelli- PwC forecasted that machines would cre- interact with, manipulate and repair gence (AI) and machine-learning were set to ate as many new jobs in the UK as they our autonomous colleagues so that destroy hundreds of millions of jobs around destroyed over the next 20 years – although are fallible. Take the internal recruitment He says human oversight of AI apps being physically augmented with AI systems. we get best use from them. the world, leaving many of us out of work. it said there would be “winners and losers” engine that Amazon was reportedly devel- will be needed in any regulated indus- Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg, for example, But more recently experts have coalesced by industry sector, and many roles were oping to enhance its search for top software try, including banking, healthcare, diag- has invested in a company that, among other TECHNOLOGY CONVERGENCE around a more nuanced point of view: that likely to change. engineers and other technical posts. nostics and insurance, because firms things, is researching ways to implant com- TECHNICIANS AI could help us to work faster and smarter, Rob McCargow, director of AI at PwC Last year, Reuters reported that the will need to ensure decisions have been puter chips in the human brain, albeit to cure We are not going to be using AI in boosting productivity and creating as many in the UK, says he is cautiously optimis- ecommerce giant had scrapped the sys- reached transparently and fairly, and reg- neurological diseases. And Tesla’s Mr Musk splendid isolation, but alongside – if not more – jobs than it displaces in the tic about the job-creating potential of AI, tem after realising that it was not select- ulators will want to know how decisions has reportedly backed a brain-computer a host of other disruptive coming decades. and says that “augmentation” will play ing candidates in a gender-neutral way. have been made. interface venture called Neuralink. technologies, from virtual reality and One proponent of this idea is Mind Foundry, a big part in the future workforce – be it It turned out Amazon’s computer models AI should also augment the way we work, “Over time I think we will probably see a 3D printing to the internet of things. an AI startup spun out of University of Oxford’s by enhancing the skills we already have were trained to vet applicants by observing allowing us to be more productive. Most closer merger of biological intelligence and Computer scientists who can help Machine Learning Research Group in 2015. The or freeing us up to do more interesting or patterns in resumes submitted to the firm experts agree that roles involving more digital intelligence,” he told a conference in firms integrate these technologies, firm says its state-of-the-art machine-learning important things. over a ten-year period – and most came repetitive tasks are at a higher risk of auto- Dubai in 2017. or combine them to create new algorithms are already helping clients make He accepts that most industries will del- from men. mation – think transportation or manu- While that sort of augmentation may sound offerings, will be in high demand. better use of their data to gain “deeper insights” egate tasks and roles to machines as time “However smart these systems become facturing. However, offloading them onto like science fiction, experts do expect to see about their business. But chief executive Paul goes, and that will displace jobs. But he says there is an increasing need to check the robots could free us up and allow us to a tangible economic boost from AI in the Reader readily admits there are certain things humans will still be needed to oversee these findings and interpret results,” Mr McGa- focus on other things, says James O’Brien, near term. The Organisation for Economic that algorithms will never be able to do without systems to make sure they work properly. row says. “Most of us are happy to let AI a research director at IDC. Co-operation and Development argues a human there to guide them. Machine-learning systems can already make decisions for us about trivial things, “Anywhere there are stretched resources, that data-driven innovation will be a “core “You then find yourself in a conversation “Automation is not the future, human discern patterns from huge swathes of data like movie recommendations, but we are and/or too much information or data to asset” of 21st-century global growth, driv- about the purpose of work – do we always augmentation is,” the former Oracle direc- much faster that humans can, but they less so when there’s any risk involved.” manage, is a great place to start with an ing productivity and efficiency, fostering need to work, or should the purpose of AI AI-led strategy,” he says. new industries and products, and creating and machine-learning be to free us up for He gives the example of the Babylon “significant competitive advantages”. other things? If there are fewer jobs, will Health app, a subscription-based service in PwC estimates it could boost global there be a social safety net or universal WHO WILL GAIN THE MOST FROM HUMAN-MACHINE COLLABORATION? BUILDING AN AI-READY WORKFORCE the UK that allows you to book video con- growth by up to $15.7 trillion in 2030 – more basic income?” Estimated revenue and employment increase over the next five years for companies investing in AI Percentage of technology executives who plan sultations with UK GPs. It features AI-pow- than the current output of China and India He adds that while some countries, such and investing in human-machine collaboration at the same rate as top-performing businesses to do the following ered chatbots and a symptom checker. “It combined. However, Mr McGarow warns of as the United States and China, will benefit frees up GPs and augments their stretched big obstacles to realising this potential. from the AI revolution, developing regions Change in revenues Change in employment resources,” he says. Firstly, he says the global labour force like Africa could miss out. That is because

9% Mr O’Brien expects that as roles requir- will need to be retrained for the jobs of the intellectual property rights of any new 47% 56% 44% 60% ing less innately human skills are auto- tomorrow, and that will take time and cost innovations will remain in the country that mated, others that do, such creative roles or money. Moreover, if people aren’t upskilled, develops them, along with most of the eco- 51% 49% 46% 41% those in social care, will expand. We could the threat of job displacement will rise. nomic benefits that accrue from it. see totally new sorts of jobs, enabled by AI, Mr Reader is more optimistic, though, emerging too. and believes humans have always adapted 21% One area could be in so-called “social to disruptive new innovations and will con- 15% 10% 9% physics”, he says, where humans use tinue to do so. When it comes to retraining machine-learning to crunch masses of the workforce, he says, it will be an “incre- Consumer goods Health Telecommunications Retail structured and unstructured data to gain mental” rather than massive step change. better insights into social problems or As for certain regions and professions public health issues. Firms are already Throughout history missing out, he accepts there are likely hiring “data ethicists” too, to look beyond innovations have come to be winners and losers. But he points 34% 32% 32% 28% immediate risks posed by AI programs out data scientists are now being hired in and monitor unintended consequences of along like electricity almost every function of big companies – the technology. and steam, and they do from the finance department to the mail 11% 9% 6% “We may also need to create roles to help room. Other wrinkles will likely iron them- 2% with the increasing convergence of new displace jobs. But it is selves out in time, too. technologies, as AI is used in combination “Throughout history innovations have Professional Financial services Chemical Automotive about how we shape those services Have not yet developed a plan with 3D printing, the internet of things come along like electricity and steam, and and augmented and virtual reality,” says innovations. Any tech can they do displace jobs. But it is about how we Mr McGarow. shape those innovations. Any tech can be Implement continual Implement continual that initiatives learning AI include development and performance Change frameworks to include AI skills Expand AI talent pipeline with internships, college and university partnerships be used for good or Much further into the future, some have used for good or for evil, and we want to use

Accenture 2018 PwC 2019 suggested we could even see human workers for evil, and we want to it for good.” Develop a workforce plan that identifies new skills and roles needed as a result of AI

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MACHINE-LEARNING

BIG DATA SET EXISTS DATA WAS LABELLED What if machines could 32% 25% 29% Yes teach themselves? No Yes 71% No DATA HAS PREDICTIVE POWER One of the big conundrums with AI 25% is the paradox that it Some predictive power will help solve the skills Franck V on Unsplash shortage across many 29% sectors but will require Strong predictive power skilled operators to 'teach' the machines how to think 43% 46% To some extent No predictive power

Davey Winder TIME TO ESTIMATE THE VALUE TASK HAS BEEN COMPOSED an you imagine a world with- OF THE MODEL TO BUSINESS APPROPRIATELY BY BUSINESS C out the kind of voice assistant technology provided by Ama- zon Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri on the Average 6 months iPhone or Cortana for Windows? Probably 54% 46% not, as we tend to take such technological 4 months leaps forward pretty much for granted. Median Yes No But behind the scenes there's a whole new world of machine-learning that drives their collective ability to seemingly answer any question put to them. It’s not so much knowing the answer that's the technological miracle – because, well, the internet – but rather that these vir- Embracing the tual assistants are able to understand the question in the first place. Machine-learning is, in the broadest possible terms, what you might expect in transformative power that computer algorithms can be trained to understand how to correctly respond to an input by way of a human telling it what that response should be. Over time of artificial intelligence the collective inputs and outputs enable the computer to learn, albeit within a rel- tries, at both the skilled and unskilled atively narrow and defined speciality, all ends of the spectrum. "By supporting The ability of artificial intelligence and machine-learning thanks to the skilled operators that han- the performance of routine tasks, AI solutions to reshape entire companies and business dle this education. tackles 'thought labour' for high-value Which is where one of the biggest roles, freeing up experts to do the criti- models is now widely acknowledged conundrums surrounding AI pops up: the % cal thinking machines simply can’t do,” paradox that it will solve the skills short- 96 he says. age across multiple industry sectors yet of IT decision-makers But that doesn't mean that unsuper- requires skilled operators (who are in believe AI and vised machine-learning is automati- hanks in part to growing compu- In some cases, the lack of certain data very short supply themselves) in order to machine-learning cally a win-win. "We need to be thought- T tational power, firms are able to may make it impossible or extremely dif- achieve it. But what if the machines could will have a slight to ful about how AI technology can be used carry out trials with innovative ficult to make an accurate prediction. It’s teach themselves? signifi cant impact to enable responsible innovation," Mr tools backed by artificial intelligence (AI) vital that as much relevant data as pos- When talking about the machines on society over the Bhalla says. “This will inevitably require and uncover exciting use-cases that were sible is collected before implementing teaching themselves, this is what's known next two years greater collaboration and transparency not achievable in the recent past. an AI solution, as the end-results of any as unsupervised machine-learning. The as solutions advance, as well as atten- “It’s clear that AI will fundamen- data-driven tool will rely heavily on the simple definition of which is that the tion to how data is handled and how we tally change how human beings live. At data input. machine, or rather the algorithm running address issues such as unintended bias." the moment we are in an experimen- As the rapid growth of challenger firms it, can be trained without the classifica- see this impact And while nobody is suggesting a tal period, when a lot of companies such as Uber illustrates, disruption can tion or labelling of data. In other words, as somewhat or Skynet scenario here – the fictional AI and leaders are testing AI to see its true come to any industry and firms that don’t the algorithm takes the input and deter- % mostly positive network that features as the main antago- value,” says Alexey Tsyvunchyk, chief implement AI solutions will be threat- mines the correct response itself, without 69 nist in the Terminator film franchise, for technology officer of InData Labs, a lead- ened by up-start competitors. The grow- 451 Research 2018 the need for the output confirmation part those who are not familiar – issues sur- ing data science services provider. “Some ing use of powerful AI tools in all manner of the learning equation. rounding misuse of data and the poten- of these projects will not survive, but of consumer applications, most notably But have we really reached that far in tial for bias that could have negative con- the ones that do will have a substantial by Netflix, Uber and Amazon, is increas- Alexey Tsyvunchyk the development of thinking machines? sequences for customers and companies impact on virtually all industries.” ing customer expectations and making Labhesh Patel, chief scientist of Jumio, alike, cannot be ignored. According to research from Gartner, it vital for all companies, no matter what Chief technology officer answers with a qualified yes. Mr Patel, "The release of the EU’s ethical guide- 85 per cent of the interactions custom- industry they operate in, to embrace AI. InData Labs of tech executives whose company uses machine-learn- lines for trustworthy AI is a step in ers have with businesses will be handled “Financial organisations, primary believe that *the* ing to deliver identity verification and the right direction," concludes Peter without any human element by 2020. This banks and debt collection organisa- regulation of AI is authentication solutions, says that the van der Putten, assistant professor of radical shift will reduce costs for compa- tions, will be able to predict their cus- This example of the ability of AI-based 54% critical and should best machine-learning models start with machine-learning and creative research nies and enable employees to undertake tomers' behaviour more precisely and solutions to transform conventional be done by supervised training and once the AI sys- at Leiden University and global direc- more complicated tasks that require apply a more personalised approach to business processes and operations a public body tem is regularly outputting correct results tor of AI with customer relationship human intelligence. each customer. For example, contact- saw important ticket details, includ- then unsupervised models become a via- Edelman 2019 software outfit Pegasystems. “But it “Adopting AI and machine-learning ing them with advice and checking the ing the customer’s name, destination ble proposition. will be up to the individual providers to (ML) will provide you with the tools to creditworthiness of customers,” says and ticket number, extracted from the "Think about sites like Amazon or Net- comply and iron out any ethical issues optimise costs by learning from previous Mr Tsyvunchyk. image and input into an internal system flix that offer recommendations," Mr labelled' data or a requirement to min- with the AI they are using before it is business experience in an automated to reimburse automatically without Patel explains, "once the machine-learn- imise the bias that 'expert knowledge' fully implemented." way. It’s possible to create new models human involvement. ing models have been created, they will inevitably brings with it. "Without tar- inside your company that learn from his- “AI and ML, in conjunction with big get information to train on, the learn- torical data and make accurate predic- data processing technologies, uncover ing algorithm must learn from general WHO SHOULD REGULATE AI tions on the future of the business,” says the possibility to personalise services patterns inherent within the data," says DEVELOPMENT? Mr Tsyvunchyk. for each individual user. Businesses will Chahmn An, principal software engineer There are literally hundreds upon hun- be able to deliver the right message at Percentage of US and UK IT leaders who agree for machine-learning at next-generation dreds of potential applications of AI the right time through the right chan- with the following Artificial intelligence threat intelligence provider Webroot, who tools that have the ability to upend tra- and machine-learning, nel by understanding customer needs We need to be continues: "such as the shape of edges ditional processes and business models. and offering them the most appropri- within images or syntax patterns within For example, InData Labs developed a in conjunction with ate products or services based on cus- thoughtful about natural language." natural language processing (NLP) solu- tomer behaviour and historical data,” big data processing how AI technology Not everyone agrees, however, and tion for an international games devel- says Mr Tsyvunchyk. some insist that it's a myth to suggest oper that helped them quickly and technologies, uncover But there remains a lack of understand- can be used to enable an AI can teach itself anything outside accurately analyse customer feedback ing among many firms around how to of the context of its learning environ- from YouTube and online forms, which the possibility to incorporate AI tools into their operations responsible innovation ment, which means it is only as good was a major improvement on the previ- personalise services for and ensure they get the most value from as the combined forces of the human ous manual processes. these burgeoning technologies. teacher and the data it is fed. And The first step before a business moves each individual user Embarking on an AI project can signal there is certainly an argument to be forward with any type of AI initiative the start of an exciting new stage of made that, currently at least, human should be to define what the exact development for companies. But for learn based on user behaviour. If a rec- oversight is required to ensure that 32% business problem is that AI is attempt- these often complex and elaborate ven- ommendation keeps getting clicks, those machine-learning-driven decisions are Combination ing to resolve. tures to be successful, partnering with a clicks will feed the intelligence of the transparent and trustworthy. of government “AI is not a magic solution that will fix Most aspects of customer service will skilled AI expert can be vitally important. algorithms and that recommendation "An insurance AI let loose on unstruc- and industry all of your problems; it has to be tar- be impacted by AI and related technol- InData Labs has substantial experience will become more prominent." tured driver data might decide blonde geted at specific challenges. It’s best ogies with the management of customer as a data science services supplier and Another example is language mod- people are a higher risk of having acci- suited to the automation of routine interactions being improved through works with firms that want to implement elling, according to Dr Tom Ash, a dents because they happened to be activities or obtaining insights from a automation. Chatbots and virtual assis- practical AI solutions in their business. By machine-learning engineer with speech over-represented in the sample of risky large volume of historical data, which is tants, backed by NLP, can provide exploring the exact business areas where recognition company Speechmatics. drivers," argues Ben Taylor, chief exec- sometimes difficult for human beings around-the-clock support to consumers AI and ML services can have the most Language modelling involves "learning utive at Rainbird, which helps deploy AI 25% to understand and process,” says with relevant advice as well as tailored positive impact, InData Labs can estab- Independent about grammar and sentence structure across multinational corporates. Mr Tay- Mr Tsyvunchyk. product recommendations. lish a reasonable explanation on why industry from large bodies of text without any lor points out that the insurance industry The conversation around AI and ML has Even traditional industries, such as the the company is either suitable or not for consortium labelling of those words into different is not alone in having poor data hygiene, already developed from its initial hype- railway sector, can make use of sophisti- these innovative tools. classes," he says. In other words, algo- which could lead to unsupervised AIs based discussion into a search for how cated AI solutions. A train operating com- “From performing an exploratory data rithms can be applied to identify pat- making critical errors. to uncover practical solutions. Yet not all pany approached InData Labs looking for analysis to building machine-learning terns in random data without the need But what of that skills shortage para- businesses will be ideal candidates for help to improve the process customers models and integrating them into the for human input. dox mentioned earlier; will unsupervised advanced AI solutions as the data they have to go through to receive a refund company pipeline, and setting up an inter- "This perspective is hugely interest- machine-learning help to break out of hold may not be appropriate for these after their train is cancelled. nal data science team, we help companies ing as human beings live in a world full this seemingly unending contrary loop? 20% tools to be effective. “When there are multiple trains that at every step of the AI and ML journey,” Mr of patterns," says Antonio Espingardeiro, Mastercard has been pioneering the use Government “We had a case where we were had been cancelled, a lot of travellers Tsyvunchyk concludes. Institute of Electrical and Electron- of AI that tests the algorithms used to approached by a mobile fitness com- would try to get the cost of their ticket ics Engineers member and an expert in detect fraud and anomalies in payments, pany to assist them in creating a per- reimbursed by sending a photo of the the field of robotics and automation. and has had some success using AI that sonal assistant that would provide per- ticket to the train operator. Instead of For more information please "Humans tend to observe and general- monitors other AI models through unsu- sonalised recommendations to the user wasting the time of staff by manually visit indatalabs.com ise," Mr Espingardeiro says. "These algo- pervised learning techniques. to help them lose weight. They did have checking the ticket information, we rec- rithms apply formulas and present possi- Ajay Bhalla, president for cyber and 12% a dataset, but they had not collected a ommended the client create a system Not sure ble results without generalisation." intelligence solutions at Mastercard, is user’s height, making it impossible to that used computer vision, NLP, AI and Such an ability comes to the fore in certain that machine-learning will plug compute BMI, which is the key indicator robotic process automation to automate areas where there is either a lack of 'pre- the skills gaps across a range of indus- SnapLogic/Vanson Bourne 2019 in this solution,” says Mr Tsyvunchyk. this process,” says Mr Tsyvunchyk. 12 AI FOR BUSINESS

JOURNALIST CREATIVE INDUSTRIES The Washington Post has a broad remit and a well-staff ed newsroom, but nat- urally lacked the resources to cover every single high school football game in the area. That is, until it put its AI When AI reporter Heliograf on the case. Based on data supplied by high school football coaches, the system identifi es what's important, matches it to a template, and then publishes short gets creative reports across several platforms. Similarly, the Associated Press has used robots to automate some of its earnings coverage, and says that AI has Artifi cial intelligence is shaking up the world Symrise freed up 20 per cent of reporters' time, of work, automating out routine tasks and while at the same time cutting the error rate. Bloomberg does the same, FRAGRANCE DEVELOPER tify patterns and new combinations freeing workers to concentrate on the more with around a third of its coverage of ingredients. having been produced with the help of Developing new fragrances is about "Philyra’s understanding of con- creative elements of their job. But it can often automation. more than creating the next Chanel sumer preferences and knowledge be surprisingly good at mimicking human And the Los Angeles Times uses sim- No 5; they're used in everything from of formulas and ingredients led to ilar technology to publish earthquake deodorant to washing powder and air new fragrance combinations, which creativity, and with varying levels of human alerts, sometimes within minutes of fresheners. And while the high retail allowed our perfumers to accelerate the shaking starting. price of a designer perfume makes the creative design process and focus involvement is now making inroads into So far, AI isn't producing longer-form expensive ingredients cost-effective, on perfecting the final products," says articles on its own, but it is already this isn't the case when it comes to Alexandre Bouza, marketing direc- new areas of work helping journalists to do so. Forbes, for fabric conditioner. tor of Brazilian cosmetics manufac- example, has a content management As a result, fragrance producer turer O Boticario, one of Symrise's Emma Woollacott system called Bertie that suggests real- Symrise teamed up with IBM to cre- customers. time trending topics to cover, appro- ate Philyra, a machine-learning sys- The resulting two fragrances, priate imagery and even compelling tem that sifts through hundreds of including one designed specifically headlines. Jackson/Shutterstock A Brian thousands of formulas and thousands for Brazilian millennials, are set to of raw materials. It can access fra- come to the market this year. Symrise Lexus grance formulas, data about fragrance is also planning to introduce Philyra families – fruity, oriental or flowery into its Perfumery School to help train – and historical data, helping iden- the next generation of perfumers.

software platform from Autodesk. Supplied with initial design goals, HQuality/Shutterstock along with parameters such as materi- als, manufacturing methods and cost constraints, the software explores all the possible permutations of a solu- tion to generate design alternatives. It tests and learns from each iteration what works and what doesn’t. "As the relationship between the two matured, the system became a FILMMAKER tions on mood, genre and tempo. much stronger collaborative partner, Watson was fed data on 15 years' MUSICIAN Writing longer pieces of music is a and began to anticipate Starck’s pref- Last year, an ad for the luxury car worth of successful car ads, as well taller order for an AI, thanks to the erences and the way he likes to work," brand Lexus boosted sales in Europe as those for other luxury brands, Musicians have always experimented sheer level of complexity involved. says Mark Davis, senior director of by 35 per cent more than expected. along with data on human emotional with technology, and composition is Multiple motifs and phrases, repe- design futures at Autodesk. The ad showed a craftsman finish- intelligence and intuition. It opted no exception; several companies have tition and rhythm based on relative The final result, a sleek and stream- ing his work on the ES sedan before for limited dialogue and certain vis- created AI-based systems that can distances and recurring intervals, lined dining chair with a comfortable watching it go out into the world. ually appealing scenes: for example, write short pieces of music. rather than absolute timing, all pres- seat, has itself been named 'AI'.

The car's just about to crash dramat- a winding road with trees on one side OpenAI's MuseNet, for exam- ent problems. Kartell In the later stages of the design ically when the automatic emergency and water on the other. ple, can generate four-minute musi- Google's Music Transformer, part process, there was significant braking system cuts in, saving it "I thought I’d be writing an ad with cal compositions with ten different of its Project Magenta, is aimed at human involvement – not least from destruction. the assistance of AI. Instead it took instruments, and can combine dif- overcoming these problems through FURNITURE DESIGNER because the Autodesk software The ad was directed by Kevin Mac- over and wrote the whole script," says ferent musical styles from country to the use of 'relative attention', focus- had difficulty making the chairs donald, director of The Last King of Dave Bedwood, creative partner at Mozart to the Beatles. ing on relational features. When This summer, furniture company stackable. Nor were all its designs Scotland and Whitney, but was written The&Partnership. Meanwhile, IBM's Watson Beat has given Chopin’s ‘Black Key Etude’ as a Kartell will start selling a new plastic particularly beautiful. by an AI developed by creative agency He does, though, describe the story been given the basic principles of starting point, it was able to produce chair designed by Philippe Starck – However, says Mr Starck, "AI is The&Partnership London and market- as “charmingly simplistic” – it seems musical theory, and can create short a song including many of the original with some help. the first chair designed outside ing technology firm Visual Voice, and there's room for human beings in the pieces of music when provided with piece's motifs that was consistent in The system used – not, perhaps, of our brain, outside of our habits based on IBM Watson. process still. a few seconds of melody and instruc- style throughout. strictly an AI – was a generative design of thought."

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