ExplAIned - A guide
for executives

Today, everyone’s talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it’s going to change the way we conduct business, and live our lives, forever.

In fact, it’s shaping up to be the single biggest technology revolution the world has ever seen. It’s a completely new factor of production, capable of driving business growth by augmenting natural human expertise, taking automation to new places, and diffusing innovation throughout society.

In its wake, it’s creating a fast-paced, ever-shifting, competitive investment and research landscape. Private investment is booming, as companies continue to scale and industrialize their AI applications. A new cohort of AI-first businesses is flowing into the market, shifting the competitive landscape for incumbents. And as many as three-quarters of executives say that some kind of AI will be actively implemented in their organization within three years.

It’s happening because AI technologies are finally hitting the mainstream. Thanks to the combinatorial effect of today’s unprecedented levels of technology innovation in so many different fields, today’s AI applications can make use of virtually unlimited cloud processing, exponentially faster custom-designed chips, and ever greater levels of computational efficiency.

The rapid pace of change puts a new onus on business executives. Do you understand what AI is, what it can do, and the ethical questions it raises? Have you truly grasped the game-changing implications for your business, your industry – and for the society you live in?

This guide is here to help answer all those questions and more.

A constellation of technologies

AI as we know it isn’t really a technology in its own right at all.

In reality, it’s a collection of different technologies, each evolving rapidly along its own S-curve. When they come together, they enable a machine to sense, comprehend, act, and learn with what seems like human levels of intelligence.

Using AI responsibly

The benefits of AI don’t come risk free. What kind of innovation does?

So it pays to begin an AI journey with a clear-sighted view of what the risks might be for a business. There are four to consider up front:

• Trust. How do we demonstrate that AI is responsible, ethical, and safe to use? How do we avoid unconscious biases being written in from the outset?
• Liability. What happens when AI makes an error – or even breaks the law? Who is legally responsible?
• Security. How do we prevent unauthorized or malicious manipulation of AI?
• Control. What happens when a machine takes over a process? How does a human take it back if they need to?

Trust and transparency are key to mitigating these risks. Nearly three-quarters of executives told us their organizations seek to gain customer trust and confidence by being transparent in their AI-based decisions and actions.