COVID-19 Conversations: Artificial Intelligence

The business landscape, as we know it has changed significantly over the past few months due to COVID-19. With the virus continuing to worry several businesses, many organisations will be using the final months of the year to look back and see how they have adapted to the changing business landscape and if their strategies need a change.

I caught up with Joanne Peplow, our expert for Artificial Intelligence (AI), to understand how data-driven strategies have changed over the past few months, how businesses have adapted and what lies ahead. Here is what I learnt:

 How has COVID-19 pushed your portfolio’s agenda and which sector has made the most progress in this regard?

The development around AI and analytics has been exciting because almost across all sectors it has become one of the most important technologies adopted as organisations are no longer using the traditional ways of doing things, as they did in the pre-COVID days. Therefore, the willingness to adopt new AI technologies/solutions and further the investment in existing AI technologies/solutions has been the most significant outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many organisations across multiple industries are increasingly implementing AI technologies to uncover new efficiencies and, in some cases, to enable the mere survival of some businesses.

There are various examples across different sectors that have increased their use of AI. For example, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the retail sector as the multiple periods of lock-down have forced many shops to shut or introduce new ways to operate.  Many retailers have adapted to the changing situation and moved to an online-only model while some businesses have had to switch to an omnichannel presence. In parallel, people’s buying choices and preferences have changed with the developing situation, for which retailers are having to plan around their merchandise strategies or even what the supply chain should look like. For scenarios like these, AI and analytics have been on the forefront. AI has been beneficial to communicate with customers and make more personalised suggestions. Another use case seen is that of retailers that were depending on YOY trends for demand forecasting have now made the switch to AI-driven systems so they cannot just predict the demand but also plan for deliveries in advance.  Given this includes customer data, this has opened the question on the ethics of AI. Organisations have been ensuring that data is captured in the right way and for the right purposes.

The public sector, too, has shown an increased appetite for AI and analytics tools in various ways. Digitisation of citizen service delivery and government operations have seen an acceleration driven by the pandemic. Some examples include launching the track and trace app, student grading systems to forecast academic results and providing an interface for the furlough scheme to name a few.

Life sciences is another example where AI and Analytics are being used to develop and deliver a vaccine quickly after going to multiple iterations and help set things up more in a virtual environment has been made possible due to AI and analytics.

What trend/practice/process has ended forever?

It is safe to say that the focus now has shifted. AI and analytics will now always be a part of a business going forward. Working on solutions in an innovative proof of concept approach is no longer good enough, it needs to be something that can move into production and industrialisation at its early stages, so innovation officers can get it into the business and can provide value from its early stages. While this change was underway even pre-COVID, one may say that it has been accelerated by COVID 19.

What skills are coming to the fore in your portfolio area as a result of COVID-19?

There are many lessons to learn from the events of COVID-19. Perhaps, one of the most critical lessons is the importance of being able to use data to prepare for potential uses to enable informed decision making. To remain relevant, most businesses are critically looking for tech talent and skills that can help them adapt to the new normal. For that, AI and machine learning have turned out to be the critical skills. Data management has become paramount, and therefore the requirement for people with skills in data collection and data governance is now increasing more than ever. These professionals are involved with understanding data sets and data sources and keep the quality of data in a way that it is ready for use.

Have there been any significant developments in your portfolio area that weren’t COVID -19 related this year? What were they?

We have already spoken about the increasing use of AI across industries and sectors. One of the most significant development has been around the ethics of AI. While this is not COVID related, the pandemic has bought the question to the forefront.

A key concern with deploying data-driven models is the question of data sources and quality. Ensuring the transparency and ethical practices of AI-driven systems is more critical than ever. In short, coronavirus has supercharged the already fast-moving debate on ethical frameworks for AI.

Will we see the mismanagement of data occur?

It’s too big a risk to mismanage data and not to understand it, and that’s where the whole life cycle of data comes to play. We should not just look at the model itself, which is where the focus was initially, we should go back to where the data was created. understand it and then derive at the solution, otherwise there will be unexplainable black spots. If one can fully understand where the data comes from, businesses need not worry about mismanagement at any point.

Has the changing business landscape also changed your approach to how you interact with the industry?

In the lockdown, our relationship with clients has evolved into becoming more like a partnership, based on the understanding of the client’s challenge and how we can help them succeed. This change in relationship has also led to how we have sales led conversations.

Meet the expert

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Joanne Peplow

Expert in Artificial Intelligence