Could your next colleague be an AI?

26 Apr 2018

Image: Blusky Studio/Shutterstock

The majority of C-suite business leaders believe that in the next two years, AIs will work alongside humans in their organisations.

Artificially intelligent agents (AIs) will soon work alongside human workers, according to the latest annual tech report from Accenture.

The Technology Vision 2018 report, which surveyed business and IT executives around the world, also said firms will need to raise their AIs to be responsible, productive members of society.

‘Just as cities developed around ports and then railroads, or people rebuilt their lives around electricity, the world today is reimagining itself around digital innovation’
^{– DAVID KIRWAN}

In analysing the next key tech trends likely to disrupt businesses in the coming years, 81pc of 100 Irish business and tech leaders who contributed to the survey agree that in the next two years, AIs will work alongside humans as co-workers, collaborators and trusted advisers.

A new kind of trust is needed

According to the report, 78pc of Irish businesses said that their organisations seek to gain customer trust and confidence by being transparent in their AI-based decisions and actions.

In many ways, the spread of AI into wider society has already begun and many companies are either catching up or embracing the trend.

For example, Amazon – through its online presence, Echo device and AI assistant Alexa – has integrated itself into people’s everyday lives to such an extent that developers are building dedicated Amazon lockers into new apartment complexes, and people are granting the company physical access to their homes via its smart lock system to let couriers make deliveries when no one is around.

Data remains an issue for Irish businesses. By transforming themselves to run on data, businesses now face a new kind of vulnerability: inaccurate, manipulated and biased data that leads to corrupted business insights and skewed decisions.

When it comes to data, 85pc of Irish businesses agree that organisations are heavily reliant on it, yet many have not invested in capabilities to ensure its accuracy.

In line with wider trends, data continues to multiply as Irish businesses collaborate more frequently. Almost half (45pc) of Irish companies indicate that they are working with at least twice as many partners than they were two years ago.

“Technology is now firmly embedded throughout our everyday lives and is reshaping large parts of society,” said David Kirwan, head of technology at Accenture Ireland.

“Just as cities developed around ports and then railroads, or people rebuilt their lives around electricity, the world today is reimagining itself around digital innovation – and, by extension, the companies that provide those services.

“This requires a new type of relationship, built on trust and the sharing of large amounts of personal information,” Kirwan said.