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The good, the bad and the AI

Earlier this year, IOL published a report about Nedbank rolling out customer service robots to its branches, which the bank said could replace about 3000 workers. Naturally the move was not met with a positive response with the South African Society of Bank Officials (Sasbo), which represents about 70 000 finance workers expressing its displeasure.

The world has arrived at a point where technology is not merely something we use, but something which can replace people, doing jobs faster and more accurately than human workers due to the advances made in artificial intelligence (AI). Some say this is a positive move, others fear for their jobs and their future.

It’s estimated that AI will create a market worth over $35-billion by 2025 and the optimistic view is that humans and machines (robots or computers) will work together to solve the world’s problems. On the other hand, to take advantage of the AI-enabled future, public and private organisations will have to be ready to take advantage of the new technology. Old legacy systems and a workforce unable to adapt to change will be a hindrance and the effects may go as far as impacting national economies – as if the local economy needed more problems.

Desan Naidoo.

Desan Naidoo from SAS Africa defines AI as the science of training computers to perform tasks that require human intelligence to complete. He adds that the concept of AI is not a new science. It has been around for many years, but it is only recently that we have had the processing power to make it a reality.

Fear is unfounded

Additionally, he does not see the need for people to worry about AI taking over. If one looks at the security industry as an example, we see how AI can change the market. He says humans and technical security systems will work together to deliver more effective security in future.

A computer can watch multiple screens endlessly without losing concentration, but it can’t respond and resolve a situation. AI will have computers doing the drudge work while humans are deployed in instances that add more value. Behavioural analytics, for example, will be able to identify potential problems before they occur, alerting the human security officers and empowering them to be proactive and prevent incidents rather than reacting after the fact.

Basically, Naidoo says AI will not take away jobs, but help people do their jobs effectively. Furthermore, as technology improves, humans will also improve and the value AI delivers will have a positive impact on our lives.

Looking at the response to Nedbank’s robot, Naidoo adds there is a change management process that needs to be initiated before people are surprised with news about job losses etc. People need to see the value, the benefits and the positives if we want to keep them from panicking.

The value of AI

When asked to highlight some benefits we could see through AI today, Naidoo says the country’s fight against corruption could benefit tremendously from AI. In the procurement sector alone AI can be the checks and balances that prevents fraud. This means more money in government’s coffers to deliver citizen services.

Similarly, AI could have a significant impact when it comes to the maintenance of state equipment – think Eskom and SAA – where algorithms can monitor equipment continually and raise an alarm before something breaks or wears out. Again money is saved, downtime is minimised and efficiency is maximised.

He adds that this also applies to legacy equipment, an area SAS is involved in for a state-owned company. Technology can be adapted to provide relevant information and allow for predictive maintenance, pre-empting a problem instead of waiting for a failure.

Unfortunately, South Africa is not as advanced in the AI game as other more mature markets and this may prove to be a problem over time. There are already pockets of excellence when it comes to AI adoption, but on the whole the country is still in its infancy when it comes to understanding and capitalising on AI.

The situation can only be resolved when both the public and private sectors engage and identify opportunities that will serve to advance their interests. Since the country is lagging, it has the opportunity to see how AI is changing other countries and industries, and adopt best practices without having to make all the mistakes from scratch, which can assist in the more rapid and value-adding adoption of AI.

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