Impact Artificial Intelligence is making in today’s corporate world

I remember watching the Hollywood movie ‘The Terminator’ and its subsequent sequels in the early 90’s, thinking that such a scenario is never possible in the real world. After all, who would have thought that robots could think intelligently and even kill humans back then! How wrong I was! While we certainly haven’t gotten to the stage shown in those blockbusters, artificial intelligence, or AI, is poised to change the way the world functions in the near future. In the past few years, huge strides have been made in this space, and gradually, AI has slipped into mainstream conversations. Nowhere are these changes more apparent than in the workplace. On one hand, there is this persistent fear that AI and automation will lead to massive job losses and may even trigger social upheavals; while on the other hand companies are increasingly using AI tools to become more responsive and efficient in this cutthroat business environment. This article focuses on some of the areas in which AI is already making a significant impact on organisations. These include:

1. Recruitment: In the recruitment technology landscape, AI has been strengthening its position for a number of years now, especially in the areas of pre-employment assessment, conversational chatbots, facial expression analysis, etc. Companies such as Hilton uses AI apps to navigate through the huge number of applications they receive in a day as well as in conducting follow-up interviews. Similarly, Unilever uses AI to analyse video interviews and claims that it saves hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in doing so.
2. Healthcare: The healthcare sector has not been spared from the impact of AI. From managing the more mundane tasks such as record keeping to driving highly complex tasks like treatment design and drug creation, this technology has quickly become a boon for healthcare professionals and companies. As an example, during the recent Ebola scare, a programme powered by AI was used to scan existing medications that could potentially be redesigned to fight the infection; and it did so in just one day, shortening the time duration of such a process by a few months! Similarly, a number of wearable health trackers like those from Fitbit and Apple gather health data from users and then AI systems use this information for additional data points on the needs and habits of users.
3. Marketing: AI in marketing is geared towards understanding the customer better by sifting through vast amounts of data, in designing targeted promotional campaigns, and, in fact, helping brands enhance every step of the customer journey. So, companies like BMW use big data and predictive analytics to design campaigns. Nike uses a system that lets customers design their own shoes in store. Apart from being a great marketing ploy, it also collects a huge amount of data that machine learning algorithms use to design future products. Similarly, Amplify.ai is a conversational marketing platform that uses AI chatbots to provide better customer experiences.
4. Banking: AI has transformed every aspect of the banking process by making processes faster and more secure. Banks use AI platforms to fend off money launderers, help prevent fraudulent transactions as well as interacting with customers using chatbots. AI solutions are also helping banks and credit lenders in their underwriting decisions by utilising a larger number of factors to assess underserved borrowers, like millennials, helping them gain access to credit facilities. So, banks like HDFC use a chatbot named EVA which use AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand the user query and fetch relevant information from thousands of possible sources. In addition, HDFC Bank has also made several AI deployments in risk management, credit scoring, employee engagement and onboarding, and portfolio management. The same is the case with ICICI Bank which uses this technology in multiple applications and has implemented what is known as the ‘Software Robotics’ platform for the same.
5. Manufacturing: Andrew Ng, the co-founder of Google Brain and Coursera famously said “AI will perform manufacturing, quality control, shorten design time, and reduce materials waste, improve production reuse, perform predictive maintenance, and more.” And he is banging on with his assessment. AI is already transforming manufacturing in a number of ways. So, companies are using AI applications to detect flaws in products that may otherwise not be detected. It is used in predictive maintenance wherein technologies such as sensors and advanced analytics embedded in manufacturing equipment enable predictive maintenance by responding to alerts and resolving machine issues. It is used in product design using a process called generative design which involves generating a number of outputs to meet specified criteria. Conventional robots are now powered with AI that can, to a certain extent, handle unpredictable situations. And there is so much more! For any budding jobseeker, the key takeaway should be that they need to be prepared for massive disruptions in this age of Artificial Intelligence. It is here to stay. This is not the time to be apprehensive, but the time to equip oneself with key skills like AI that will be in demand for the foreseeable future.

About the author

Tauseef Irfan is an Assistant Professor and Area Chair of Operations Management at IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Lucknow.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha