Professor Alexiei Dingli has been working in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the past two decades. In this first part of this two-part interview, Ms Rachel Falzon, a People Performance Consultant, asks him what those disrupted by technology may have always wanted to ask, but probably never had the courage or opportunity to do so. In the second part of this article, the roles are reversed. He interviews her about the impact of disruptive technologies on people and work culture while zooming into how work practices are being affected.
- Could you define AI in the simplest terms possible?
AI is a multidisciplinary area of studies which seeks to create intelligent machines. The term AI is made up of two words, Artificial and Intelligence. Artificial simply means that it is something created by humans. Intelligence is a little more tricky to define since there isn’t a universal agreement on what it is. However, when we see intelligent behaviour, we tend to recognise it immediately. Because of this, we tend to define intelligence in terms of association. In fact, we consider a machine to be intelligent if it performs a function which only an intelligent organism (such as a human) or group of organisms (such as bees) can perform. So to summarise, AI is that field of study which create machines which exhibit intelligent behaviour.
2. What are the benefits/capabilities of AI?
The benefits of AI are various and its capabilities far reaching. It can be as simple as coordinating the climate control in a car, up to automatically managing a nuclear power plant. Because of this, AI is considered as a horizontal field of study which can easily transform practically any other area of study. The benefits of AI include the automation of various functions, the optimisation of different processes and the prediction of future events with an accuracy, which in most cases, is much better than any human can achieve.
3. What value can it bring to organisations? Are there any disadvantages?
AI can bring a lot of value added to any organisation. If the organisation is sitting on a pile of data, AI can easily process that data, analyse it, extract patterns and identify problems. In the case of manual processes, AI can help automate repetitive tasks which might be too tedious and in some cases, a health hazard for humans. An AI system is exact in its work, it does not get bored, suffers no fatigue, can foresee future trends and is capable of handling much more data than a person can ever manage. The disadvantage of such a system is first of all financial, because any AI requires an initial capital investment however, once it is up and running, it would need little to no maintenance. Second, the deployment of an AI system will most probably affect the people working in the organisations. Some of the them might lose their jobs. Others need to be re-skilled in order to learn how to perform different tasks with the assistance of an AI system.
4. There’s been a lot of hype around AI recently, but we know it’s been around for some seven decades already. Can you give some examples of some practical applications that we use in our every day lives?
As you correctly pointed out, AI is a very mature technology. Today, we can find it in almost any device we use. The only problem with AI is that a system which uses AI does not normally acknowledge this fact and as such, people are not aware of all the different AI systems they use in their day-to-day lives. Let me give you some examples. When one searches on Google, it is the AI that is actually sifting through millions of documents in order to locate the information you require. If someone goes on Facebook, it is the AI that is deciding the posts which are visible to the user. The climate control inside a car is managed by an AI system. The ovens which automatically adjust the cooking temperature according to what is being cooked are all managed by an AI system. Spam filters in your email client are powered by AI. The list can go on forever of course. What’s important to keep in mind is that AI is all around us and it is here to stay.
5. To what extent do you predict that AI will be replacing jobs? Has it started happening already?
To be precise, AI will not necessary replace entire jobs but it will definitely take over specific tasks. AI has already started replacing these tasks and this will keep on accelerating in the coming years. In fact, according the the World Economic Forum, in 5 years time, automation will account for more than 50% of the tasks in existence. Personally I believe there are 4 scenarios which we should consider;
- Some jobs like the caring jobs (nurses, etc.), creative jobs (artists, etc) will not be effected much by AI because AI is still not very good at these tasks.
- Some jobs will become obsolete. These includes drivers (because of the rise of self-driving cars), factory workers (because of automation) and many others.
- Some new jobs will be created. These jobs are jobs which we haven’t even invented. It could include jobs like Organ Creator whereby people will be tasked to create new organs (such as a new heart, kidney or liver) which would replace defective ones.
- Most of the jobs will change. They will be augmented with AI technologies. The effect of this will be massive. It might be as small as helping stackers in a supermarket identify expired products using augmented reality, up to assisting a surgeon during an operation.
6. Typically, what is the process to be followed when implementing AI in an organisation?
The AI Transformation Process follows a number of well defined steps. First of all, it is important to start educating people about what is AI. The education campaign has to start from the very top, down to all the levels of the organisational hierarchy. Second, an AI readiness audit is performed in order to ascertain the state of the organisation with regards to adopting AI. Once this is done, a consultation process is carried out with all the stakeholders in order to identify potential AI case studies which can be implemented. These case studies are then ordered together with management based upon feasibility, investment and potential returns. Once the projects are sorted, then management decides which projects to implement. Whether they are implemented in-house or outsourced, really depends on the complexity and the expertise available in the organisation. AI experts will be there to manage and oversee the running of the project. When a project is completed, another more ambitious project is selected and executed. The cycle continues like that until the organisation manages to augment its processes with AI.
7. How long would the implementation process take, more or less?
The length really depends on the project. You have to keep in mind that there are many variables in such projects such as; what data is available, the quality of the data, the volume of data available, which algorithm to use, identifying the best approach to deploy such systems, what training is required, etc. An initial project will probably take between six months and three years. Then the cycle is repeated.
8. Do you need in-house talent to implement it and what skillset would be required?
This really depends on the size of the organisation. Small businesses won’t have in-house talent and most probably, it wouldn’t even be worth to engage some. Larger organisations might have some people but they would require guidance. The best skillset would be an AI graduate. However if that is not available, an AI expert overseeing software developers should do. The main benefit of engaging an AI expert is not only because of his expertise, but since AI is a fast moving field, he will be able to guide you using the most cutting edge techniques. It is very important that whoever is engaged understands AI and has experience in AI systems since these programs are different than normal software. The major element is the learning part which goes beyond the data which is available but it tries to generalise to cover unseen examples. However, many people do not understand this part and consider AI as just another program. This would be a big mistake and a recipe for disaster.
9. How do you think AI will impact the future of work?
Work will probably be very different in the future. Most of what we do will be augmented with AI. It will be there in the background helping us to solve problems effectively. Most probably, computers will become more ubiquitous. The large desktops will disappear and processors will be integrated in everyday devices. Whereas information is now restricted to a screen, in the future, it will roam through surfaces such as a table or a wall. Tasks will migrate between services seamlessly thus making work pervasive as well. The manipulation of data will become a piece of cake and everything will be connected together through Internet of Things (IOT) devices. The future is an interconnected one, powered by AI but with people at the centre.
10. What recommendations would you give CEOs who haven’t started looking into AI yet?
Malcolm X once said that "the future belong to those who prepare for it today". Some people are already dreaming and engineering the solutions of tomorrow. The technology is ripe, we have the processing power and there is finally the political will to embrace the AI revolution. It is only a matter of time before it takes over. So what are you waiting for? Take the first step and learn about AI. If you’re in doubt, have a chat with an AI expert and you’ll probably be surprised at the huge savings which AI can bring to your organisation.
Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta. He has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. His work has been rated World Class by international experts and he won several local and international awards (such as those by the European Space Agency, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the United Nations to name a few). He has published several peer-reviewed publications and forms part of the Malta.AI task-force which was setup by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world.
Ms Rachel Falzon holds an MBA from Henley Business School, University of Reading with a specialisation in HR. She has held positions as Director of Studies, Business Development and Communications Manager, Strategic HR Consultant and until recently, Advisory Manager with one of the Big Four. She recently branched out alone as People Performance Consultant. Her purpose is to empower individuals and futureproof organisations in the face of modern day challenges and ongoing digital disruption by nurturing learning organisations and offering core skills and Leadership training, strategic HR/Business Partnering, change management, design thinking workshop facilitation to foster innovation and creative ways of looking at HR issues and coaching.
