Is AI really the future ?

Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash 

"Artificial intelligence is not the future. It is already happening". This is what Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and IBM said on the 2018 IDB ITE workshop (thanks to our CIO Nuria Simo for this momentous event). We had the amazing opportunity to watch and listen these great companies sharing their thoughts about the future, one after the other.

It was interesting to hear each major player’s point of view on the same technology. Each company had a different message, but all of them emphasized how AI can transform products and services, in a very quick and straightforward way. But don't think that it is not complex or challenging. The tools and services available were built to facilitate the incorporation of Cognitive Services, for instance, on your next project - all are cloud based. But the actual results, due to the belief that machines can really replace human brains on some tasks, will depend on the real problem and how it will be addressed using AI.

"The world of digital business is described by Gartner as the creation of new business and unprecedented convergence of people, business, and things that disrupts existing business models and creates new revenue opportunities -- something referred to as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” - said Microsoft's Kent Cunningham during his introduction. He talked about the opportunity we all have: everything is getting embedded into technology, and Cloud services are the main entrance to quickly create, scale and delivery cutting-edge projects, with people-centered experience, AI and ubiquitous computing.

AI is quickly changing the way we live, learn, work and dream about the future. Microsoft shared some real examples about how AI can transform our lives, like: mosquito blood analysis using drones to trap and capture them to analyze the blood taken from animals; and Microsoft translator, successfully tested on our last Townhall on November 5th, converting audio into translated subtitles in real time. Microsoft has proved to have consistent services that can be quickly used with minimum effort.

Another speaker at the annual workshop was IBM. I’ve known IBM since I was born. My career started in 1989 working with an IBM 4381 mainframe accessed via a 3278 terminal. It didn’t ring the bell, did it? Unfortunately, it’s long gone (at least this specific model and of course the terminal) but it will always be my reference to the company. However, when Michael Flores started the presentation asking what everyone would think when they see the IBM logo, Mainframe and Watson were the first two words mentioned by the audience. Watson is IBM’s suite of enterprise-ready AI services, applications and tooling (<https://www.ibm.com/watson/about/index.html>) and it is where IBM is investing hard to make their 4th transformation in the last 50 years. So, IBM is proposing to start the Cognitive journey in 3 steps: build a robust digital agenda, prepare a cognitive foundation and manage the change. We need to be prepared to climb the ladder to successfully deploy AI on our organization. And it looks like IBM has a very strong portfolio to support the journey.

 The last presentation was from AWS, by Soo Lee. Amazon is the leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service. And their message was clear - they have the biggest cloud services portfolio, ready to support our needs. They want us to focus on differentiation and Technical Debt reduction (focusing on our core mission and reducing the time spent managing infrastructure), innovation at start-up like speed, migration under our terms (infrastructure, already existing applications and creation of a reference architecture for cloud native applications) and risk reduction (by trusting the cloud leader security solutions). In other words, Amazon is here to facilitate the application of apply AI in our projects and to let us concentrate on our core mission.

 The key takeaways from all 3 presentations are:

• AI is part of the 4th industrial revolution and will help extract value from 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created daily;
• The volume of data, digital transformation and pace of technological changes impacts the ability of organizations and IT professionals to stay current and to quickly adopt new technologies;
• Both Microsoft, Amazon and IBM have Cognitive Services available in the cloud to support fast adoption;
• More important than starting using is to plan how AI will be incorporated in the projects. It is important to have an AI agenda;
• Evaluate and compare the same service from different vendors. The billing model is also something very important to take into consideration, besides integration and scalability.

And here is my take about AI: Most of the tech giants are investing on standard AI services, that can easily be consumed on a pay-per-use model. The adoption is easy - via API, for instance. But I don't think that an out of the box AI service by itself will give the results you expect and create intelligent products in 24 hours. In many cases, the value of AI is related on how you train the algorithm used, how the machine can learn. And while for many companies AI could mean a new business opportunity, for us at the bank the usage should be primarily focused in adding value to projects for the Countries and the Bank's workforce.

Not sure where to start? My Colombian friend Pedro Gutierrez suggested a free course hosted at EDX: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Click on the following link or copy and paste to your browser: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-artificial-intelligence-1

At the end, regardless of the technology used, an effective solution is the one that addresses and resolves a given problem. Always keep that in mind when thinking about alternatives. Microsoft, AWS and IBM have great tools to support our projects, letting us focus on what really matters for the Bank, our core mission: improve lives.

 Have fun with AI!