Fear of any kind arises when the brain interprets something as a potential threat to survival.
Step 1: Calm your nervous system. Pause, breathe, and think. Remind yourself that you are not obligated to adopt AI for your business just for the sake of it or because your competitors are doing so.
Step 2: Identify specific problems. What particular issues within the company could AI address?
Step 3: Appoint an in-house innovation team or an Innovation Director tasked with researching and prioritising certain AI tools specifically for your company. These tools should be filtered, scored, tried, and tested. Decide whether the positives of AI outweigh the negatives.
Step 4: Start small and invest in high-quality programs.
Step 5: Measure real returns before scaling up.
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If you are still unsure of exactly what AI is and isn’t … read on.
AI is all around us in the form of ANI, AGI, and ASI. All right, that last one is not yet here—artificial super intelligence—but the other two are: artificial narrow intelligence and artificial general intelligence.
Basically, AI refers to machine learning: computers improving by experience without being explicitly programmed. The more data they receive, the smarter the system becomes in multiple tasks that normally require human intelligence.
This definition rules out computer software used for office tasks: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Excel, etc. It also excludes devices that follow programmed rules (rather than learning and adapting with human-like comprehension), such as your smart coffee machine, smart vacuum cleaner, and all Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Examples include security systems that you can control via phone, smartwatches, fitness trackers, systems that manage traffic lights, machines and robots in factories, cruise control, and even algorithms, as they are essentially sets of instructions, like a recipe. These devices require humans to operate them and to make decisions and control their functionalities. They are rule-based, not data-driven.
In contrast, AI focuses on processing information, analysing data, recognising images and patterns, and making intelligent decisions. However, AI is not true creativity and cannot make moral judgments. AI simulates understanding (very convincingly) but does not possess true cognition or self-awareness and unless connected to a robot, it cannot move around.
Examples of areas in your business where AI could be useful, include:
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This article is part of a series called “5 Minutes into the Future," aimed at deconstructing AI for small businesses and factory owners. It focuses on AI; your small business; and you—both in specific and broader terms. We provide a synopsis of what is out there so you do not have to search, wade through the information the algorithm will throw at you, and then read or listen to videos for hours on end. I will strive to keep the blogs short, to the point, and in language that is easy to understand, saving you time while getting you up to speed on all practical and philosophical issues.
Watch out for the next blog which will cover something about the probable future we are heading into with this new technology and what that could mean for your business.
Until then.
Annalien.
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