Act now to benefit from artificial intelligence – before it’s too late

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly and inexorably reshaping all aspects of our world. Businesses that fail to switch on to the possibilities of seismic market disruption and advancement or utilise the technology now available face being banished to history – and soon.

This was the prevailing warning emanating from Tata Communications’ fourth CEO summit, which gathered 50 forward-thinking delegates last week at Coworth Park in Ascot, Berkshire, to address what those present agreed is the most important topic for the future of humanity.

But given the welter of content on offer about the subject, many business leaders are suffering from “AI fatigue”, unable to decide how seriously to take this nascent age of machine intelligence and uncertain how to unlock its potential.

Gerd Leonhard, a session leader at the summit, thinks businesses of all sizes need to transform their approach and culture from the top down.

“AI is growing on an exponential scale and will revolutionise what humans think of as work,” says the chief executive of The Futures Agency, a think-tank that offers “hard futures” to help firms anticipate what might soon happen.

“In seven years, probably earlier, we will have the first computer with the brainpower of a human being in terms of technical capabilities, but not emotional intelligence,” he says.

“Only five years after that there is likely to be a computer with the brainpower of a million people; and in 2050 a supercomputer will have the brainpower of all humans.

“With computers starting to think, a paradigm shift is taking place. If companies don’t realise this early enough they could be left behind.”

There is a “time pressure to act”, especially for those lumbered with clunky legacy systems, says Carl Robertson, vice-president of global enterprise marketing at Tata Communications and orchestrator of the summit.

“AI is advancing at a quicker rate than we can imagine, so we are observing a massive CEO scramble to grab hold of this technology, which will touch everyone and everything,” he says.

“Leaders have realised that their companies can grow much quicker by hiring not humans but smart machines. In order to facilitate transformation, a new position has emerged: the chief digital officer.

“The CEO may be the ultimate sponsor, but CDOs are the ones tasked with revamping legacy systems and putting in place a future-proof platform. They need to be given the freedom and budget to let loose and look at the new technologies.”

Just as Uber – the hugely successful taxi service that allows users to hail a ride on a smartphone – developed because of burgeoning global positioning system (GPS) technology, we can expect AI to spur innovative business models and life-changing products.

Mr Leonhard, offering advice to laggard business leaders, says: “It starts with a progressive attitude. Companies should look at the rolling AI improvements that can be realised now. Creating efficiencies through AI – such as a smart meeting system that saves time and money – is good, but you need to not be shortsighted. 

“AI is not a gimmick like social media or big data. Think of it as an ecosystem. To make that work, people have to understand this must be a holistic environment considering efficiency, profit, growth and also humanity.

“If you empty out most of the human elements of your company it will eventually backfire. This is not about efficiency, it’s about long-term value.” 

Timothy Chou, a Stanford University lecturer who has spent “30 years in the AI trenches”, suggests companies looking for fast growth must seek out able allies – in particular a reliable network provider able to securely scale up resources on demand. “With AI we can start to change the world,” he says. “If you are willing to learn from data, this is a huge greenfield opportunity where the planet’s fundamental infrastructure can be networks of precise machines.

“Transformation and innovation need to be driven from within, though. But to allow that culture to flourish the fundamental cloud infrastructure required to harness AI’s potential must be in place.”

Tata Communications powers almost a quarter of the world’s internet across its network, and
Mr Robertson says: “In this new era of machine intelligence it is essential to future-proof your business, build ecosystems, foster talent and cultivate partnerships. Business leaders cannot tackle AI on their own.” 

Powering the future

60%

Fortune 500 companies that have network and IT services provided by Tata Communications.

39

Countries in which the Tata group has offices, employing 8,000 people worldwide.

$50bn

Scope of potential market (up from $30bn) that the company is aiming to achieve by 2020.

IZO

Cloud ecosystem that includes the world’s largest cloud platforms: Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

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