Businesses that are going to be successful and thriving in the next five years are those which are harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and generative AI to transform what they are doing, data science and analytics leader at Deloitte West Africa, Jania Okwechime posited.
This is even as Okwechime has advised firms to leverage AI responsibly and sustainably by creating AI strategies in line with their business plans. According to her, businesses also need to put governance and risk processes in place so that they can innovate with trust and confidence.
Okwechime who gave the advice at an interview with the media at the sidelines of the just-ended 8th Ghana CEO Summit held in Accra, also mentioned that in this era, AI is transforming businesses more than anything else in the world and therefore called on institutions across West Africa to embrace it.
She asserted that the African continent has adopted the potential of AI, but there is need for acceleration. “In the African continent, we are still experimenting with some of the opportunities that AI can generate for the people. So, we see adoption, but it could get accelerated. I think it is not going to be long before they will see the impact of AI. You already saw some of the presenters [8th Ghana CEO Summit] today specifically in the telecoms and advertising industry that AI is already being leveraged by businesses. We are only going to see the acceleration in the next coming years.
“Every time an action is created, data is formed. Every time we send a text message, every time we pick up the phone to make a phone call, every time we pick our favorite series on Netflix, it’s creating data. So, there’s a huge data explosion. Ninety percent of the data that we used today were created in the past two years. So, you can imagine. Now we have no choice but to harness technology like AI to be able to gain insights”, she added.
Touching on Generative AI and traditional AI, the analytics leader said, “The difference is that Generative AI can perform tasks predominantly done by humans. Like reading documents, creating documents, generating videos, generating reports, etc. Now, it is making AI more accessible to businesses in a way that they can harness in three different ways. They can change the way they interact with their customers and increase customer experience internally within their network and their internal organisations. So that they can improve their internal statistics.”
On concerns of AI leading to job losses, she said, “I mentioned that there are certain things that AI and generative AI can do today that were predominantly done by humans. So, that is a concern, and we understand why. However, it doesn’t need to be. We don’t need to worry about our staff and our talent losing jobs, but rather we must transform the talent. So, things are going to change in businesses. Their staff are going to change the way they work. So, organisations are responsible for upscaling their staff.
“Their roles are going to be transformed. Instead of one person being in charge of creating a report, now that person needs to know how to use and leverage AI solutions to be able to interpret that report to be able to make strategic decisions. So, AI has a big implication on talent and the responsibility and the responsibility of the organisations to invest in the talent and upscale it”.