Will AI Really Help me Grow my Business?

These senior technology leaders discussed AI and how this can help grow businesses in the industry.

AI and ML has many uses in businesses across the globe, helping organisations solve an abundance of tasks in their day-to-day operations. The core use of these technologies is to automate their business processes in order to save time, effort and money. In this debate, the speakers discussed measurable outcomes achieved with AI and ML, the hard lessons they have learned along the way and many other topics. 

With Chloe Tilley moderating, the speakers of this roundtable debate include:

• Andrew Burgess, Founder, Greenhouse Intelligence 
• Kshitij Kumar, CDO, OneFootball 
• Detlef Nauk, Head of AI & Data Science Research, BT 
• Adrian Samareanu, Senior Advisor, Ex-CDO, Volvo Financial Services 
• Danielle Haugedal, Head of Strategy, Governance and Performance (Digital Technology and Data), Co-op

Achieving measurable outcomes

Moderator Chloe Tilley began the debate by asking the speakers to talk about the AI and ML strategies they have used that have helped achieve measurable outcomes.  

Founder of Greenhouse Intelligence, Andrew Burgess, stated that as a strategist, he helps organisations develop their AI strategy. He stated that he has done this for a number of different organisations, adding that he has done some work in the not-for-profit sector. In an example, Andrew stated that he worked with Prostate Cancer UK and helped them use machine learning to “predict propensity to donate for their donors”. 

“I’ve been dealing with AI and ML over the last 25 years in differentiating forums”, said Adrian Samareanu, CDO & Group SVP at Volvo Financial Services. He argued that nowadays, technology is helping leaders progress the algorithm and “crack the data”. Adrian explained that he has worked across different industries such as automotive and financial services over the years. He argued that AI and ML are needed to achieve operational efficiency with the automation of processes. This also includes tailoring customer service, improving the risk analysis and helping to detect fraud more easily. Later on, Adrian added that technologists need to discuss more when it comes to the differences between AI and machine learning. 

AI, ML and customer experience

Offering his own thoughts on this idea, CDO of OneFootball, Kshitij Kumar, noted that despite being in different industries, the speakers all have similar roles. He began to discuss personalisation and how to make sure that customers browsing his organisation’s website can receive an experience that “makes them feel like they belong”. He added that it’s about helping the customer complete that journey whether or not they purchase something. 

In an example, KK argued that in one of the previous retail companies he worked for during the pandemic, it was difficult to predict when someone was going to get a product as they would ship them to multiple locations around the globe such as Italy, China or New York. He argued that the logistics behind this predictability was driven by machine learning. 

AI can make a difference in an organisation according to Head of AI & Data Science Research at BT, Detlef Nauk. He stated that his organisation has had a mature AI program for more than 25 years and has allowed them to pull out a number of solutions for the business, “most of it for internal operations”. 

Detflef explained that the company’s mobile workforce is composed of 30,000 engineers. Detlef added that their work schedule is managed by an AI system that was deployed over two decades ago. He agreed with the idea that AI can be used to improve customer experience as a whole. He commented: “There’s also a lot of game to be had on improving internal operations and automating decision-making and workflows”.

The AI journey

Picking up on the fact that Danielle’s organisation has just begun their AI journey, Chloe asked her whether she has found it simple so far.

Head of Strategy, Governance and Performance at Co-op, Danielle Haugedal-Wilson stated that she hadn’t found the start of this journey easy. Following up on some earlier comments made by the other speakers, Danielle stated that it’s about getting the data into a good place and “understanding the why”. She argued that technology leaders need to divulge what use cases are going to drive the business forward and not do it “just for the sake of it”. While she noted that the whole concept of AI sounds interesting, a lot of work needs to go into it before it can become powerful. “There’s also a question of privacy, the ethics of it and the decision-making that goes on in the background”, she argued. At Co-op, Danielle explained that they stick to their code of ethics. “We don’t even like to use the word exploit when we talk about data”.

This roundtable was recorded at The Studio and made in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.