Evaluating AI’s Role in Business Operations

AI now permeates most industrial sectors, supplementing operations and fostering informed business decisions for companies big and small. As this technology becomes more sophisticated, it is imperative for C-suite executives to understand and manage the possible risks associated with it, warns the World Economic Forum (WEF).

“Responsible AI innovation and adoption is not yet a given. C-suite executives must play a critical role in achieving this and need to understand multiple aspects and ask very diverse questions,” said WEF.

Despite having been in development for over half a century, the commercial applications of AI have only begun to revolutionize businesses and society. Thus, it remains superficially understood—at best. This technology, however, is advancing frighteningly fast as demonstrated by its capacity to replicate the human brain's ability to identify invisible data, according to an initiative by Fujitsu Limited and MIT. Nevertheless, the greatest source of risk lies in automation and its ability to make decisions, an already widely accepted operational standard. This can conceivably lead “to a number of new risks, from privacy infringement to potential discrimination... to new safety and security risks.”

Consequently, as outlined by WEF, it is essential that executives make an effort to understand not only how AI should be incorporated into their business structures but, above all, how to do so responsibly. This requires executives and their teams to answer questions including: “What are the new risks AI creates for my business? How can we manage these risks? What is the role of AI governance and how can we best think about it?” These are part of a bigger map of questions meant to guide organizations through their responsible AI journey. While it may be tempting to sidestep these considerations, failure to redress this risk could prove to be costly and possibly even more expensive than its original adoption.

Companies should not expect to immediately identify or understand AI’s unique risks, underlined WEF. Instead, organizations should expect more questions than answers. That being said, executives and companies that begin this process now stand to garner intelligence that will allow themselves to preemptively restructure themselves ahead of their competitors. Mexico, which is set to become a leader in automation in technologies, should have a vested interest in exploring the considerations outlined by WEF