Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a lively discussion on “Technology at the core of the sector. The legacy that made us thrive” during the ABSL Summit 2024 in Poland. Leaders from business, political and academic areas from Poland and across Europe meet at the annual summit to network, attend knowledge sessions and thought-provoking debates. Agnieszka Belowska-Gosławska, ABSL, moderated and I shared the stage with Andrzej Mikołajczak, Euroclear, Anna Nowosielska, PwC, and Ewelina Wachulec of Dell.

Our conversation put the spotlight on generative AI and its opportunities and impact on people and jobs, including our customers and leadership. I want to share my perspectives on a few topics we covered.

Generative AI opportunities and the enterprise

Generative AI is more than a buzzword. It's fascinating that whenever new technologies emerge, you can count on tech professionals to be up to date with them, and gen AI is so big now that people from non-technical backgrounds are also keeping up with it! They see how user friendly it is and how it makes their life easier. It's as monumental as the Industrial Revolution, but instead of using our mechanical muscle we will use the digital brain moving forward. This is how I see humans and AI’s coming together.

We know it’s going to be big part of the business enterprise, so now the challenge is -- how do you quantify the value of AI?  When we have the answer to this question, this is where AI technology will become more mature, more robust, and have wider acceptance, and you'll see all kinds of jobs come up. Who would have thought that we now have job descriptions for an “AI writer,” “AI artist” or “prompt engineer?” The future is moving in that direction, and we need to embrace it and move forward.

Generative AI and ROI

I believe generative AI creates a Return on Investment (ROI) and we can view it from different perspectives. There is the textbook definition that says it will increase productivity, reduce time, generate cost savings, and eventually increase revenues, so that's the hard ROI that we need to measure. However, there is a softer ROI that we need to keep track of. Consider that as more of your employees learn about gen AI, they will become more agile. For example, optimizing processes will lead to better and more effective ways of doing things. We hear that AI and generative AI is big on the customer support or customer experience side, so think about how AI can drive personalization. Right now, we don't measure it, but that will happen. Once ROI is more quantifiable, it will lead to savings and the business case will be established.

Role of people in AI and leadership

I do agree that people are the center to adopting new technology. People need to be actively involved since they design and test the systems, and to take it to production. While the technology that is built for various use cases and enterprises does its task, you still need someone to measure, quantify, and put some critical thinking behind it. The role of people will continue to grow and become bigger and better.

I read in a report from Goldman Sachs¹ that implied that 85% of the employment opportunities created over the last 80 years can be attributed to technological advancement that led to new jobs.  AI can do a lot of your research and diagnosis, but not all. For example, you may need a health workup, but you still need your doctor to show compassion, and work with you on treatment options. I think AI is the is a new frontier that will continue to march forward and bring things together.

Best way to leverage technology to support customers

We should support our customers to be more human-centric, not to be afraid to bridge the gap between the legacy and the AI. We can guide them on the adoption of new analytic technologies and platforms like “low code no code” app development. They will gain faster business insights, leading to decision making that will drive value and ROI. Infogain Krakow is well positioned to drive some of these offerings for our customers.

Don’t be afraid to welcome new technologies. Sometimes these things can scare you and there’s a lot of to consider, so be willing to learn and to experiment. People who build a bridge from legacy to next gen technologies faster will continue to differentiate their enterprise.

Click here to watch the discussion.

References

• https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/generative-ai-could-raise-global-gdp-by-7-percent.html