In the age of artificial intelligence .. How to compete ?

Every day, we open the newspaper, listen or read some exciting news from the TV or the internet, more frequently than not, we find it has got some thing to do with the paradigm shift that is bound to happen to the world in the coming decades. Yes, we are talking of the massive changes we can expect to hit the world when artificial intelligence (AI) takes over human control in a great percentage of activities which we now are doing.

I happened to go through an enlightening article on how to manage or compete in the age of AI, by Professors Lansiti and Lakhani in HBR Jan 2020 issue.  (click here)

Most of the time non tech geeks try to avoid any discussion on AI as the world is yet to fully understand AI in it's finest form. What to say, I happened to attend a conference by IIM Bangalore on the topic of AI and the future. I was surprised to understand from the IBM engineer who gave us a peek into the world of AI work in IBM, when he mentioned to us that the AI that is presently in use in Indian industries is the chatbot that interacts with any visitor to the company website and helps the visitor to navigate the site and get the required information not listed at the web site.

The article on AI mentions about 2 AI classifications, the weak AI and strong AI. Weak AI refers to the use of AI in tasks carried out by people, including managing Information systems, build, deliver and operate physical IT products, connected by software, that makes up the core of the firm. Humans who were formerly doing this function re conveniently pushed t the edges.

Strong AI, on the other hand is undeveloped yet and still in labs and research refers to simulating human behavior and reasoning skills.  

Weak AI applications in the coming days will be impacting the following areas - operations, strategy and competition. Strong data analytical skills will lead to better management of the AI infrastructure and applications. 

The essential components of any AI factory will be the following

1. a pipeline, 2. algorithms, 3. experimentation platforms and 4. the hardware and software infrastructure.

George..