Brainpool is back with yet another Top Takeaways post from Inspired Minds’ AI Summit 2020! This week’s episode was all about ‘Leveraging AI across your organisation’ and our top takeaways focus on two key areas within this theme. We’ve spotlighted sessions about ‘How AI Will Reinvent Digital Transformation’ by Aleksandra Sztemberg (Co-Founder - Stormly) and how ‘Collaboration(s) between man and machine’ take the form of ‘The Artificial Assistant’ by Marco de Jong (CEO - Experience Data).

How AI Will Reinvent Digital Transformation:

Aleksadra Sztemberg delivered an eye-opening session on ‘How AI will reinvent Digital Transformation’. She described the issues that many organisations face in the process of digital transformation and how artificial intelligence can act as a solution.

Sztemberg opened by highlighting the complexities of achieving digital transformation, stating that 50% of organisations fail in the process. She explained that the reasons for this failure will vary depending on the size of a business. For example, small businesses may fail due to their lack of specialised data teams and facilities, whereas larger companies may fail due to data fragmentation, having weak data infrastructure and the high cost involved in improving the quality of data.

She then outlined how artificial intelligence may make this process far easier for organisations, while also greatly decreasing associated costs. Stormly, Sztemberg’s organisation, found that using Artificial Intelligence from third-parties for the process of digital transformation can reduce costs by 70%. She highlighted how the use of Artificial Intelligence allows organisations to become data driven in a more holistic way - meaning, they will ensure that relevant data is integrated, and therefore accessible, across functions. Consequently, the effective integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools allow organisations to operate far more efficiently and effectively. Whilst it may sound simple in principle, identifying, consolidating and cleaning data to provide a solid foundation for further innovation can be challenging. The complexity and talent required presents a very real barrier to both digital transformation and the use of emerging technologies that are deployed to innovate, reduce costs and compete in a challenging and changing landscape.

As organisations become increasingly data-driven, those that do not recognise the role of AI in their digital transformation journey will fail to realise its benefits and will be overtaken by competitors.

The Artificial Assistant:

Marco de Jong’s session on the rise of the artificial assistant provided incredible insight into the changing relationship between humans and AI. Experience Data aims to construct what is known as ‘humanised AI solutions’ - in doing so, the company bridges the gap between man and machine. De Jong highlighted the fact that whilst humans possess experience and knowledge that machines lack, the latter have unparalleled capabilities in the likes of pattern recognition. As such, the strengths of both need to be leveraged so as to reap the benefits of each party. This collaboration takes the form of ‘The Artificial Assistant’.

The artificial assistant produces outputs that are subsequently used to construct advice for employees; these employees are then prompted to provide feedback on the machine’s suggestions. In doing so, teams responsible for the machine can improve the model and continue to do so on the back of employee feedback - thus, creating a ‘continuous learning loop’, as de Jong described it. Of particular interest was a unique case-study involving one of Experience Data’s own artificial assistants: ‘AVOS’. AVOS came into existence due to the teams understanding of the levels of avocado waste in the associated quality cont