Five things every company should consider when adopting AI

It’s 2023 and most companies are at the cusp of AI (Artificial Intelligence) usage.

Understanding the parameters of using AI is imperative in the competitive business environment most companies find themselves in.

While AI presents incredible possibilities, business leaders should harness those possibilities and really consider how to use AI more effectively in their operations going forward according to Dawood Patel, Helm Africa CEO who shared some insightful input on incorporating AI into day-to-day operations.

Helm Africa has been in the AI game for some time and prides itself on providing AI solutions for their customers.

“When asking yourself if your business could incorporate AI, it’s important to do an analysis of your existing systems and processes to determine where implementing AI is technically feasible. Some businesses are far ahead of others in terms of digitalization, and if you’re still playing in the analog space, chances are that implementing AI is going to cause more problems than it’ll solve,” added Patel.

He added: “Next, ask yourself if your business should incorporate AI. You don’t want to be making major changes to your business just because everybody else is doing it.”

Five key things to consider are:

Timing, a supportive ecosystem, a culture of tolerance and failure, understanding your customers and planning to fail, while also planning to recover are some of the initial key factors to consider when looking at AI in the business.

Marcus Moloko later adds on to Patel’s views on some of the necessary factors to consider when it comes to AI in the business and what to look out for.

Timing

Timing and the right timing vary.  AI remains largely unregulated, making it suitable for certain industries like fashion labels looking to boost marketing efficiency.  Some industries like the banking sector must practice caution when introducing AI.

Supportive ecosystem

Building and implementing AI is important for teams willing to take risks while pushing boundaries.

Culture of tolerance and failure

Mistakes are part of the learning process and companies venturing into AI should acknowledge that it’s an emerging next technological shift and hiccups will occur. It remains imperative for any organization to accept and sustain innovation.

Understand customers

AI should serve as a tool to assist and enhance the human experience.  Successful integration of AI is necessary.

Failure

No business plans to fail. With that said there must be a contingency plan at all times.

The five things we add to Patel’s list of key points are: curating data to avoid bias algorithm data, ethical and legal compliance, transparency and explainability, security and human interaction as Patel mentioned.

When it comes to working with AI and different algorithms, it is important to fine-check biased data that can lead to biased AI outcomes, which could result in discriminatory decisions.

Explainable AI

AI must be easily accessible and explainable in order to be easily accessible.

Ethics and compliance

Each country has its laws and regulations, it is imperative for organizations to review ethical consequences of AI decisions, especially in sensitive areas such as healthcare, finance and the criminal justice system.

Security 

It’s important for orgnaisations to test overall performance under different conditions including adversarial attacks to ensure any AI system is resilient against potential threats.

The human element.

With changing times, it is important for organizations to factor in human input to AI and the collaboration between AI experts stakeholders and users to ensure that AI systems are designed and used in ways that benefit society.

Understanding the risks of AI in organizations is essential for any business growth.  Mitigating risks while maximizing the benefits of AI in companies remains a viable necessary step forward.

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Featured image: Mikhail Nilov from Pexels