Balancing the power of AI requires a holistic view
Image source: Lenovo

Balancing the power of AI requires a holistic view

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here” is a massive understatement. The arrival of ChatGPT, a highly intelligent and one of the most sophisticated chatbots in existence, has completely upended the way we think about AI and dominated conversations in my social circles.  

Out of curiosity, and like many of my peers, I began holding conversations with the bot, endeavoring to pose a question that it cannot answer in the hopes of gaining that sense of triumph (albeit a meaningless one) of beating it. Alas, my best attempts were always met with faultless responses.    

 

Except this response which had a glaring omission.  

What is Lenovo?

Lenovo is a global technology company that designs, develops, manufactures, and sells personal computers, tablet computers, smartphones, workstations, servers, electronic storage devices, IT management software, and smart televisions. Lenovo is the largest personal computer vendor in the world, with a market share of more than 25%. It is headquartered in Beijing, China.

There’s no mention of Lenovo being a full-spectrum provider of technology solutions and services. Nonetheless this is understandable, given the data that the bot is working with is limited to 2021 and before, and Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group (SSG) was only created about 2 years ago.  

Despite doomsayers warning us against the dangers to professions, societies, and humanity, of creating such sentient technology, I don’t see any value in getting into these existential debates. Rather, we should focus on enhancing and improving the current generation of AI solutions that are powering practical applications and yielding measurable outcomes and benefits for businesses and workforces.  

AI applications are allowing businesses to collect customer and operational data more efficiently and at lower cost, produce operational improvements, manage resources more effectively, and produce more accurate predictive modelling.  

A great example of using AI to transform business operations stems from Lenovo’s own case study. Each one of the 690,000 customer IT orders we take each year, launches a series of staggeringly complex tasks across multiple production lines and employee schedules.  

The planning process for each order used to take six hours, so we had a strong case for optimizing this. Utilizing emerging AI technologies, such as sequential planning algorithms based on deep reinforcement learning, we developed an optimization decision-making engine with autonomous learning ability—the more it operates, the smarter it becomes.  

The result? We cut planning processes from six hours to just 90 seconds. Over the course of a year, that’s a saving of 4,122,750 hours! Imagine how many people and how much computing power that frees up to do more value-added activities for our customers. 

Across industries, AI is powering exponential improvements in innovation, organizational operations, customer experience, and meaningful business insights. Any organization that does not implement AI will lose their competitive advantage as traditional programming and simple automation will not scale as enterprises grow.   

A recent report found that 25% of C-suite executives reported widespread adoption of fully enabled AI processes. Investment in AI companies increased 11% worldwide in 2020 to 2021, the largest year-on-year growth for two decades.


Managing the risks 

While we need not worry about AI cyborgs taking over the world, that doesn’t mean it is completely risk-free. AI learns from historical data and uses algorithms that are developed by people, both of which can perpetuate built-in cultural and unconscious biases.  

There are opportunities to protect consumers when it comes to algorithms and the use of sensitive data such as in healthcare. Guardrails should be put in place: balancing the drive for innovation and need for security.  

AI will also inevitably lead to big changes in work, and it may make some roles obsolete. Forbes estimates that AI and big data can eventually automate nearly 80% of all physical work, 70% of data processing work, and 64% of data collection tasks.

As with any technology, it must be designed thoughtfully, ethically – and regulated properly to ensure it is used responsibly. Governments are very much alive to the danger of unregulated AI, and policy is being developed by individual jurisdictions, as well as supranational organizations such as the UN and OECD. A new international body, the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence has been set up by 25 member countries, including G7 countries, to provide guidance and support on the responsible use of AI.  

 

Holistic Approach to AI 

For businesses, AI can be truly transformative for decision-making and strategy. But leaders must have firm objectives and truly understand what AI can do – the upsides, the pitfalls, and the limitations.  

CIOs have a vital role to play here, sharing a holistic view that balances all the elements – strategy, business, knowledge, processes, integration, and impact. They must be able to demystify AI, to allay the fears of key stakeholders around the ethics of it and impact of automation on jobs.  

Importantly, CIOs must also strike a balance between retaining control of their AI systems and leaning on providers where they need to, for example for more computing power. As a critical component of their blueprint, they must also retain the flexibility to scale AI across their organization and pay-as-you-go services like Lenovo’s TruScale can help scale IT hardware, software and support capabilities as their rapidly changing infrastructure needs evolve. 


Getting AI right 

Adoption requires high-performance, secure, and reliable computing systems and this must be coupled with robust data management and analytics capabilities. Lenovo is the largest global provider of supercomputers, providing 117 (almost 25%) of the Top 500 most powerful supercomputers used in the world today.

With our extensive expertise in AI solutions, we are proactively engaging with other industry leaders and partners to design, build and shape the development of ethical AI, leveraging the technology to solve some of humanity’s most urgent problems. 

Given that the long-term implications of AI on society are still up in the air, the best approach is for us (IT leaders, companies, regulators, and investors) to approach AI with equal parts aplomb and equal parts caution. We should continue developing and innovating to mine this technology for all its worth, to improve lives and reap commercial benefits, and at the same time, be purposeful about setting up and implementing robust policies and guidelines.  

Amir Ansari

Chief Technology Advisor | Building Advanced Services & Solutions (AI, Data, Security, Cloud, Sustainability) | TruScale IT Strategy Expert | Delivering End-to-End Solutions Aligned to Customer Needs

6mo

My 2 cents Security must and will always be the top priority due to AI's deep integration with critical systems and sensitive data. Additionally, AI will generate vast amounts of unstructured data, necessitating robust data management and analytics frameworks to effectively utilize this data while ensuring compliance and mitigating risks. Balancing these technological advancements with stringent security measures and efficient data strategies is essential to unlocking the full potential of AI and driving meaningful business success.

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Udit Agarwal

Practice Lead (Technology and Business) @ Lenovo PCCW Solutions | Cloud Native Technology, Application Modernisation | Large Language Models, Data Engineering

1y

Well articulated Ken Wong!

Wladmir Ramos Silva

Global Executive Leader | Tech Innovator | Startup Advisor | Executive Coach | Professional Negotiator

1y

Thank you for sharing this insightful post, Ken. It is essential to have a holistic approach when it comes to balancing the power of AI. Your thoughts on the importance of ethics and accountability in AI development and implementation resonate with me. It is encouraging to see more discussions around the responsible use of AI, and I hope to see more action taken in this regard.

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