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How is AI being applied to business?

Artificial Intelligence is still an unfolding technology, and its complete influence and advantages remain untapped. AI breakthroughs are among various elements causing disruption in current markets and facilitating fresh digital business projects. Moreover, AI finds applications in diverse sectors, companies and roles in many ways.

Here are a few examples of AI application in business operations:

1. AI in Human-like Communications

Machine learning is paving the way for AI applications such as chatbots, autonomous vehicles, and smart robots that replicate human communications.

2. AI in Biometrics

Through deep learning techniques, AI provides solutions like facial recognition and voice recognition. Neural networks are used to hyper-personalize content through data mining and pattern recognition.

3. AI in IT Operations/Service Desk

AI facilitates IT support with Virtual Support Agents, ticket routing, information extraction from knowledge management sources, and providing answers to common questions.

4. AI in Supply Chain Management

AI assists with predictive maintenance, risk management, procurement, order fulfilment, supply chain planning, promotion management, and decision-making automation.

5. AI in Sales Enablement

AI can help identify new leads, nurture prospects through intelligent tracking and messaging, as well as improve sales execution and revenue through guided selling.

6. AI in Marketing

AI enables real-time personalization, content and media optimization, campaign orchestration, and uncovers new customer insights for effective marketing deployment.

7. AI in Customer Service

AI predicts customer needs and proactively deflects inquiries. Virtual customer assistants equipped with speech recognition, sentiment analysis, and automated quality assurance provide round-the-clock customer service.

8. AI in Human Resources

AI facilitates recruitment processes, skills matching, and leverages recommendation engines for learning content, mentors, career paths and adaptive learning.

9. AI in Finance

AI helps in dynamic processes requiring judgment and handling unstructured, volatile, high-velocity data. Examples include new accounting standards compliance, expense reports review, and vendor invoice processing.

10. AI in Sourcing, Procurement, and Vendor Management (SPVM)

AI assists in spend classification, contract analytics, risk management, candidate matching, sourcing automation, virtual purchasing assistance, and voice recognition.

11. AI in Legal

AI finds use in contract assembly, negotiation, due diligence, risk scoring, life cycle management, e-discovery, invoice classification, and more.

As enterprises adopt AI more widely, it’s inevitable that accompanying threats will arise, potentially posing significant risks to the organization. It’s crucial that these threats are assessed proactively to bolster stakeholder confidence in AI.

By 2025, it’s anticipated that regulations will demand greater emphasis on AI ethics, transparency and privacy. Far from inhibiting AI, these requirements will likely foster trust, stimulate growth and enhance the global performance of AI.

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Embracing AI in Education: Harvard’s New Approach

As we continue to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of digital technology, Artificial Intelligence has been making significant strides in various fields, including education. We are seeing significant shifts in higher education and we are witnessing the dawn of this new era.

AI: The New Catalyst in Education

Harvard University has recently announced its plans to leverage AI in its popular coding class. The intention is to enhance the educational experience, making it more immersive, intuitive, and interactive.

The university has introduced the “CS50 bot,” an AI tool bearing similarities to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This sophisticated tool is designed to provide support to both professors and students, capable of answering common questions and offering feedback on code design and errors.

Striving for a 1:1 Teacher-Student Ratio

The ultimate objective behind this AI-powered initiative is intriguing. As Professor David J. Malan explains, Harvard University’s ambition is to use AI to approximate a 1:1 teacher-student ratio. This goal represents a radical shift from the conventional classroom model and leans heavily into a more personalized learning experience.

By providing round-the-clock software-based tools, students can receive academic support in a manner and at a pace that best suits their individual learning styles. This personalized approach to learning is expected to greatly enhance student understanding and engagement.

AI’s Role: Guide, Not Solve

While the CS50 bot will guide students towards answers, its function is not to simply provide solutions. The AI tool is designed to prioritize the cultivation of problem-solving skills and critical thinking capabilities, crucial competencies in today’s digital age.

The Future Jobs Report April 2023 by the World Economic Forum underscores this. The report indicates that as workplace tasks are increasingly automated, creative thinking and analytical thinking have become more important than ever before.

Conclusion: Is this Progress?

This move by Harvard University certainly represents a shift towards a more tech-forward and individualized approach to education. The introduction of AI in the classroom not only paves the way for personalized education but also nurtures essential skills in students, preparing them for the rapidly digitalizing workplace.

However, the question remains – is this progress? While we can appreciate the potential benefits, it’s crucial to consider the implications on traditional teaching methods and the possible challenges that may arise.

The intersection of AI and education is a dynamic and evolving frontier. As we continue to explore its possibilities, the focus should remain on utilizing these tools to foster a holistic and conducive learning environment.

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Government 2 Media

E105 Neil Brady, Co-Founder/CEO and Paul Watson, CTO at CaliberAI

 

Welcome to episode E105 of the AI Ireland podcast, the show that explores the applications and research of Data Science, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence on the island of Ireland.

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News

Demystifying ChatGPT: Ten Key Questions Answered

OpenAI launched the chatbot and AI language tool, ChatGPT, in November 2022, and it has been a hot topic ever since. Despite the buzz surrounding ChatGPT and conversational AI, there are still several unanswered questions about what this generative AI can do for individuals and businesses. In this article, AI Ireland’s founder, Mark Kelly, provides invaluable insights into ChatGPT’s potential value and its safety for use and he also addresses the most common queries from AI Ireland’s clientele and members.

 

1. What is ChatGPT’s Role in the Enterprise?

ChatGPT, along with other foundational models, plays an integral part in hyperautomation and AI innovations. It automates, augments human or machine tasks, and autonomously executes business and IT processes. As such, it will likely redefine, recalibrate, and replace some tasks within various jobs.

2. What are the different Use Cases of ChatGPT?

From improving prose and code development to summarizing and classifying text, ChatGPT has numerous applications. It can also translate and convert language (including programming languages). Deployment methods include: using it as-is, prompt engineering without APIs, using APIs for prompt engineering, or custom building your version of foundational models.

3. What will be the impact of ChatGPT on the Workforce?

The workforce’s response to the introduction of tools like ChatGPT, hyperautomation, and other AI innovations will vary widely based on industry, location, enterprise size, and offerings. The use of these tools will primarily target repetitive and high-volume tasks, focusing on improving quality control and productivity. They will also be integrated into business applications to facilitate adoption and provide contextual information within applications.

4. What are ChatGPT’s Current Limitations?

ChatGPT’s training data only goes up until September 2021, meaning its knowledge of events since then is limited. Other limitations include its inability to cite sources, accept or generate image input, and train on personal knowledge bases. It cannot perform complex tasks; rather, it makes predictions. Its data privacy assurances have not undergone rigorous audits yet, and it cannot be relied on for math despite recent improvements.

5. What is the Security of Using ChatGPT?

While both OpenAI and Microsoft assure confidentiality and privacy of shared information, they have not yet fully clarified their data usage policies. Therefore, users should treat shared information as if it were public. To avoid shadow usage, companies should formulate a policy around ChatGPT, encourage innovation, monitor usage, and ensure the technology augments internal work with qualified data.

6. What does the future of ChatGPT and Generative AI look like?

Expectations for ChatGPT involve moving from its beta phase to early trials and pilots, where best practices for use will mature and adoption into business workflows will increase. However, this phase might also witness backlash over privacy, misuse of information, and bias.

7. What are the Recommended Actions?

While it’s still early days, the potential of this technology is immense. Users should encourage careful experimentation, understand the risks and best practices, and ensure all generated text is reviewed by humans. Form a task force to explore opportunities and threats, plan a discovery roadmap, and determine the skills, services, and investments needed.

8. How is ChatGPT trained?

ChatGPT is trained using a diverse range of internet text. But, it does not know specifics about which documents were in its training set or have access to any personal data unless explicitly provided in the conversation.

9. How reliable is the information generated by ChatGPT?

ChatGPT’s responses are generated based on patterns it learned during its training phase. It does not have the ability to access or retrieve factual, up-to-date information. Therefore, while it strives to provide useful and accurate information, it is always advisable to cross-verify the information from reliable sources.

10. Can ChatGPT replace human interaction?

While ChatGPT can mimic human-like conversation, it cannot replace human interaction. It lacks an understanding of context, personal experience, and common sense reasoning that is integral to human conversation.

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News

“Unleashing the Power of Generative AI” with Kieran McCorry, National Technology Officer at Microsoft Ireland

 

In the latest episode of the AI Ireland podcast, Microsoft’s National Technology Officer, Kieran McCorry sheds light on the transformational impact of Generative AI and its integration into Microsoft’s overall products and service.

In the episode, Kieran emphasises the role of ChatGPT and its partnership with Microsoft Azure in making AI technology accessible to the masses. The discussion highlighted various applications of Generative AI, including its ability to assist users in creating PowerPoint presentations and even writing code.

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Government 2

E104 Kieran McCorry, National Technology Officer at Microsoft Ireland

 

Welcome to episode E104 of the AI Ireland podcast, the show that explores the applications and research of Data Science, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence on the island of Ireland.