Building an AI driven Organization through Digital Transformation Unleashes Many Possibilities

We are in an era where Data is considered an asset for an organization.  It gives you an opportunity to review the past, tune the present, and plan the future irrespective of the type of business. Information technology in its nature to evolve continuously gave birth to many techniques utilizing the excellence of various theoretical marvels. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of such areas in which a computerized system can analyze the available data assets and can provide its recommendations which, in turn, can be translated as executable actions.  This ability of the computerized systems added momentum to creative minds and allows realizing their dreams.

The long journey of decades while improving analytical abilities allowed building "Sophia" as a Social humanoid robot using Robotics & Artificial Neural Networks a branch of Artificial Intelligence, Conversational Chatbots using Conversational AI that includes Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML), Self-Driving cars using Computer Vision (CV) and Deep Learning, Intelligent Cyber Security, Forensic investigation and Crime Detection, Disease Mapping are some of many possibilities. As these systems are interactive and dynamic, they get smarter and smarter on their own like human being who learns through experiences.

The 21st century pandemic with its devastating impact on the human race created opportunities to research and develop new systems that can handle such situations. Many researchers in the recent past are proposing to make AI one of the most commonly used technologies through Engineering methods. Gartner's 2022 Top Strategic Technology trends predict 3 of the trends Decision Intelligence, AI Engineering, and Generative AI would be around artificial intelligence. Industries such as Telecommunications, Banking, and Finance, Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Energy, Transportation and Logistics, Engineering have numerous opportunities to make use of Artificial Intelligence and provide better services to their customers and in turn, get the benefits.

Digital Transformation is one of the important requirements of the world today. It is over an $18 Trillion opportunity in the segments mentioned above. About $4.5 Trillion is estimated to be from the manufacturing industry. Healthcare in the US is more than 18% of their GDP. Agricultural Forestry + Manufacturing is about 34% of Indian GDP. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are going to be key players in this journey to make it a reality. Organizations that are in the service industry of Data and Analytics should equip themselves and provide solutions and services in this area.

Building an AI-driven organization through Digital Transformation unleashes many possibilities.  It is a multi-stage process and requires expertise in Solutioning, Technology, and Tools. Organizations should a resolution to adopt the changes. The journey starts with Identifying the future goals of the organization. Identify Past, Present, and Future. Need to educate the stakeholders about change management because existing teams who are doing well with the existing processes resist change. Should have well-defined goals, focussed design, well-equipped team, monitored collaboration, and outcome-based suboptimal processes as well as proper tools. The ability to distinguish between Data Analytics and AI is the key to success. Because most of the AI/ML initiatives are not producing a return on investment. This helps identify the right stakeholders who can be a part of this transformation journey. Stakeholders could be internal or external. External stakeholders such as service providers should come with the mindset to solve customer problems instead of selling services or products.

Figure 1 offers a possible approach to building AI-Driven Organization. It is a proven fact that KPI-driven models are tangible and provide feedback that can be used to improve the system. To build an AI-driven organization, revisiting the existing business processes and tweaking them to support the AI implementation goals is necessary. A well-defined review system can be implemented through Insights.

Building a proper data catalog for data governance is one of the key areas of the success of an AI-driven organization. Figure 2 shows a 4 P model that can help a better data catalog.

With the increase in the number of data sources and the dynamic nature of the data coming in, it is better to have AI-Driven data discovery systems in place to ensure self-driven AI/ML implementation across the organization. AI-Driven sensitive data identification and masking become another important aspect to add high data security. We have seen classic examples of identifying fake accounts with a very minimal AI ML logic implementation.

AI ML capabilities are driven by the creative thinking of people. At OTSI, we continue to challenge ourselves. While interacting with our SVP and Global delivery head received a challenge "How can I capture the attendance of employees the moment they enter the office campus without any traditional mechanisms such as ID cards or Biometrics etc?" Requirements like these are interesting and solutions required a mature strategy to provide a solution. Artificial intelligence is the de-facto methodology to be employed. It will be achieved. As an Organization, we continue to study the trends in the market, build new skills and continue to offer our services to our customers through Proactive Proposals. We have a team of 350+ full-time professionals who provide solutions in areas such as Banking, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and many other areas.

For AI Professionals, the sky is the limit. We are in an era where every dream can be realized with the help of AI and ML. Cloud Platforms, AI ML tools availability, Open-Source tools, and Communities are contributing in a big way to getting solutions to every problem with these techniques. We will see a day when what you imagine can be real. But anything for the betterment of society is always good.

To quote Elon Musk: "Mark my words… AI (artificial intelligence) is far more dangerous than nukes." He said, "There needs to be a public body… to confirm that everyone is developing AI safely, this is extremely important." "I'm very close to the cutting edge in AI and it scares the hell out of me," he added.

References:

1. Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022
2. IDC Perspective "Making the Case for Machine Learning in Manufacturing", Reid Paquin, April 2020.

Author:

Chandra Talluri, Chief Executive Officer, Object Technology Solutions India (OTSI)