Unlocking the Benefits of AI and Data Analytics: Opportunities, Risks, and Responsible Use
AI and data analytics are becoming increasingly important in today’s business landscape. The global AI market is projected to reach $190 billion by 2025, and the data analytics industry is expected to become a $77 billion industry by 2023. Businesses must adopt and employ data mining, machine learning, predictive analytics, and natural language processing to explore how they can solve problems and improve operations, and user experience, and stay competitive in manufacturing, healthcare, finance, logistics, and retail industries.
While there are many valuable facets of AI, such as RPA, computer vision, natural language processing, recommendation systems, video analytics, forecasting, predictions, insights, and robotics, businesses must also navigate the risks and challenges of improper use of these technologies.
AI systems that are biased or programmed incorrectly can discriminate against individuals or groups, and the use of AI in safety-critical systems can result in accidents and injuries. To mitigate these risks, businesses must adhere to the core ethics of AI, such as fairness and bias, trust and transparency, accountability, social benefit, and privacy and security.
Openness to modification, model drift, governance, scalability, and transparency are some of the major challenges with AI. However, trends like machine learning, increased automation, conversational AI, and AI for social good will advance the field in the future. Industry leaders, such as Mr. Deepak Goel, Customer Success Leader at Prolifics stress the importance of properly evaluating and understanding how to best use AI.
He suggests that companies must infuse AI into customer interactions, offices, and the workforce to effectively operationalize it, leveraging the benefits of cutting-edge technology while minimizing risk factors.
Microsoft’s incident with its AI chatbot named Tay in 2016 serves as a cautionary tale about the potential dangers of AI and the need for better safeguards against inappropriate use. Microsoft recommended enhanced filtering, more human oversight, openness, accountability, and education to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. They acknowledged the need for educating users about AI systems, as well as the necessity for increased human intervention and better moderation to prevent dangerous conduct. Their response demonstrated a dedication to risk mitigation, ethical use, and responsible AI development.
Even for that matter, Amazon’s AI recruiting tool turned out to be a blunder when it discriminately shortlisted only male resumes over female. After this embarrassing incident, Amazon immediately stopped using it and found out that the tool was biased due to the data used to train it, which favored male candidates over female candidates. To address this, Amazon updated its training data, audited other AI systems, provided additional employee training, and developed new tools and processes to evaluate job candidates. They emphasized the importance of ongoing monitoring and testing to prevent bias and discrimination in their AI systems.
It is essential for end-users to understand how AI and data analytics work, so they can make informed decisions while minimizing the associated risks and challenges. They must also be aware of the potential biases that can be present in AI systems and how these biases can impact decision-making.
In conclusion, AI and data analytics have tremendous potential, but businesses must approach these technologies with caution and awareness of the risks involved. As Deepak Goel puts it, “Companies must carefully evaluate AI’s impact and how best to use it, so they can leverage its benefits while minimizing the risks.”
Authored by:- Mr. Deepak Goel, Customer Success Leader at Prolifics
(The views expressed in this article are by – Mr. Deepak Goel, Customer Success Leader at Prolifics. Technuter.com doesn’t own any responsibility for it.)
