With AI becoming an increasingly important force in business and the wider society, could we be overloading on AI? Are there situations in which AI is not the answer? Where should we draw the line?

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force in business that has been reshaping how companies operate, interact with customers, and manage resources. While its adoption brings significant advantages, it also presents challenges that need careful consideration.

Over the past several months, business leaders have been excited about AI’s potential in the workplace. Without a doubt, there are several often repeated benefits of using AI, including the following:

  • Increased efficiency and productivity. AI can process large volumes of data and perform repetitive tasks faster and more accurately than humans, which can result in significant time savings thus allowing businesses to allocate team members to more strategic and creative activities.
  • Cost savings. By automating routine tasks through AI-powered systems, such as chatbots and automated data analysis tools, companies can reduce their labour costs. Effectively, these platforms can replace or supplement human roles at a fraction of the cost.
  • 24/7 availability. Unlike human employees, AI systems can work around the clock without fatigue or any special benefits or compensation. Such systems are particularly beneficial for customer service and potentially other customer-facing activities, where chatbots can handle inquiries anytime, enhancing customer satisfaction.
  • Improved accuracy and reduced errors. AI excels in tasks requiring precision, such as data entry, financial forecasting, and quality control. Their use would minimise human error, resulting in improved decision-making and a reduction in costly mistakes.
  • Scalability. Finally, AI systems can easily scale to meet increased demands. For example, AI algorithms can analyse millions of transactions in real time, which would be impossible for a human team to achieve, costly and require considerable planning and coordination.

However, some concerns have recently been raised about whether organisations might be going overboard with how they are using or intend to use AI.

 

Scenario 1:  An AI travel influencer

Last month, the National Tourist Board of Germany launched an AI travel influencer, called Emma, to help promote the country.  In having Emma on the team, who by the way has an Instagram account, the Tourist Board would have a travel ambassador that would be available 24/7, have access to a huge reserve of facts and data, and would be cheaper than human travel influencers.

Although Emma’s launch experienced some technical difficulties, critics also argued that the content did not generate an emotional connection that would cause people to spend their hard-earned money to travel. Further, and as expected, human travel influencers felt their livelihood was being threatened. However, they were also of the view that using AI did not produce authentic experiences and genuine storytelling, which human travel influencers bring to the table.

 

Scenario 2:  An AI book publisher

Spines, an online book publishing platform, recently announced that in 2025, it plans to publish up to 8,000 books next year using AI. The company intends to charge authors between USD 1,200 and USD 5,000 “to have their books edited, proofread, formatted, designed and distributed with the help of AI” (Source: The Guardian).

As expected, some authors and independent book publishers were vociferous in their reaction to this initiative, accusing the company of just wanting to pump out books and not being prepared to give attention to the craft of writing.  On the other hand, Spines is of the view that its platform will empower authors: allowing more of them to get published and to do so without having to directly access or pay for individually all of the services required in the lead-up to getting a book published. Ultimately, the company wants to help 1 million authors get published.

Finally, and just a point of note. Spines is not the only entity using AI in book publishing. Microsoft has launched a new book imprint, 8080 Books, with the goal of accelerating the publishing process and getting books to market faster than traditional publishers. The company has entered into an agreement with HarperCollins for the latter to supply book titles with which Microsoft can train its AI model.

 

The value of scarcity

These two scenarios are just a few of the ways AI is being used to potentially disrupt traditional industries – though the full results are yet to be seen. Nevertheless, AI and, by extension technology, are making some significant inroads into areas that perhaps had been considered human-centric and human-driven. For example, Emma might need some work to ensure the technology operates well and the content connects better with viewers; but those are fixable problems.

However, an emerging concern based on the book publishing scenario is that ‘more is not always better’. If book publishers start pumping out a million books each, we, the reading public, will be inundated with books – many of which are likely to be poor quality, making it considerably more difficult to find the real gems in the sea of new publications.

Having said this, it could be successfully argued that traditional book publishers have had way too much power over which authors get published. Numerous now-famous authors have shared stories about having their manuscripts rejected by well-known publishing houses before they finally got accepted, usually by a small, independent publisher. However, although there might be a case for greater equity, potentially being overwhelmed by poor-quality books is disconcerting.

 

Being statistically average

AI travel influencers may be especially appealing to Caribbean countries, many of which count tourism among the largest contributors to their economy. Moreover, being able to stretch a country’s marketing and promotion budgets further by leveraging AI could be quite compelling.

However, an important question that needs to be asked is, “Could an AI help us to be unique?” “More compelling?”

One of the challenges with most of the publicly available AI platforms is that the advice or insights they tend to share are statistical norms or around the average, as was discussed in a recent ICT Pulse Podcast episode on whether you would let AI make all of your decisions. Further, although to the individual user, the AI recommendation or AI-generated content may appear novel and insightful, if more people ask the same question, they are likely to receive similar answers – which, of course, will no longer seem unique.

Hence, if Caribbean countries used AI in their tourism promotional effort, they could end up with similar content and/or a similar aesthetic – especially since most are selling sun, sea and sand, and if the same AI platform is used.

 

In summary and as noted earlier, AI is and will continue to have an impact on virtually all industries and sectors, even those considered sacred cows and impervious to technology. However, the decision to use AI to replace certain roles or functions in business is not one to be taken lightly. Although AI offers unparalleled benefits, there are also well-known challenges such as high initial costs, job displacement and ethical concerns, as well as other adverse consequences that are likely to only emerge when it is being used. Hence businesses and organisations ought to carefully the pros and cons, to ensure they are adopting AI responsibly to balance innovation with humanity.

 

 

Image credit:  kues1 (Freepik)