Insight

AI has enjoyed its turn in the spotlight recently. Positioned as the proverbial silver bullet for everything from product design to pharmaceutical drug development to operational efficiency, AI implementation increased by 270 percent in the past four years. But is this techology hype or reality?

Rashed Haq, global head of AI, robotics and data at Publicis Sapient, recently discussed this topic with Amy Turner of AI Business TV at the AI Summit in San Francisco. According to Haq, the line between hype and reality for AI is not clear cut—as is usually the case in advanced science and math.

On one hand, Haq notes that the AI industry’s capabilities have improved 300,000 fold over the past seven years. That’s progress that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. At the same time, he admits that many aspects of the technology are nascent. Specifically, the industry is quite far from developing applications that can mimic human reasoning or causal inference. Thus many of the attention-grabbing headlines about an “AI takeover”, technological singularity or massive employment disruption are very much a matter of hype.

That said, Haq insists that AI is a critical investment for virtually any large, established organization. In this video, he discusses some of the most important considerations for businesses as they begin or continue their transformation journey, including: the advantages of adopting an AI platform that consolidates data and algorithms across the business; the ability to create models that reduce bias and improve interpretability; and how organizations can blend internal skills with outside expertise to create an AI solution that delivers value to the business and a strong return on investment.