Here’s a long-form blog article I wrote for Squareplanet, a presentation and strategy company based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Blog Post: Inevitability of AI – Solstice
Skynet. HAL. The Matrix. Artificial intelligence has gotten a bad rap on the silver screen. It was understandable at the start of the computer age, where Hollywood capitalized on the fear of modernization. None of us wants to follow in the footsteps of Frankenstein, creating a monster that’s out of control.
It’s not what’s happening in reality, though. Amazon Echoes are in millions of homes. Across America, people are receiving the day’s weather and news with their morning cup of coffee.
Artificial intelligence isn’t the enemy. It’s our unobtrusive companion, one that knows what we like, manages our shopping lists, and doesn’t mind dimming the lights on command.
We’ve welcomed artificial intelligence into our homes. The same thing will happen in the business world.
Artificial intelligence in the workplace is inevitable. At Solstice, we’re ready to make it a key part of your business.
Humans use tools. If given the choice between digging a hole with our hands or a shovel, anyone would eagerly reach for the shovel. And why not? It protects our hands from the rigors of digging in the soil and it’s more efficient. It requires less wear and tear from us and gets the job done faster.
Let’s modernize the examples. In the late 1970s, Allen Sneider was an accountant in Boston. Lots of people were accountants back then. You had to have a lot of them because financial calculations were done on spreadsheets. Physical spreadsheets. Ones that accountants filled out by hand, with pencils and erasers.
Sneider happened to have an Apple II computer around and asked himself, “is there a way I could get the computer to fill out a spreadsheet for me?” He wrote a quick program, and voila, the electronic spreadsheet was born. And it was FAST. Questions about how adjusting labor costs and delivery methods would affect return on investment would take seconds rather than hours of painstaking calculations by hand. The change certainly didn’t get rid of the profession of accounting; the innovation drove the profession to a new level.
We are at the cusp of such a revolution when it comes to artificial intelligence. It’s going to be disruptive, absolutely. Some people aren’t going to like it. In a lecture at Cambridge last year, physicist Stephen Hawking said it could be the worst thing that could ever happen to humanity.
However, he also said it could be the best thing to ever happen to humanity. He said it could eliminate disease and poverty, and reverse some of the damage done by industrialization.
At no point did he say artificial intelligence wouldn’t happen.
Artificial intelligence is a reality now, but it’s been a part of the human psyche for centuries. In the late 18th century, a Hungarian inventor named Wolfgang von Kempelen created the Mechanical Turk. It was made up of a large desk with glass sides that revealed intricate mechanical workings. Seated at the desk was a mechanical mannequin, and on the desk was a chess set. Kempelen was in demand by the aristocracy and curiosity seekers who thought they could put their chess skills to the test against a mechanical foe.
Of course, that’s not exactly what was going on. There was a person inside the contraption. They’d monitor the game and manipulate the mannequin to be able to give people a decent game.
It was too early for artificial intelligence in the late 18th century. However, technological limitations never stopped people from working towards the goal.
The same could be said of powered flight. Humanity has always dreamed of taking wing in the air. Advancements in technology made it seem possible, there were hot air balloons, but it took two Ohio-born inventors in North Carolina to become the first to achieve powered flight. It was a groundshaking invention, one that changed the course of human history. Certainly powered flight has had its share of tragedy. But no one questions whether it should have been achieved in the first place. It’s what allows us to cross thousands of miles in mere hours so we can share Christmas with our loved ones. It’s how we can press a button on our computers and get a new pair of shoes or an interesting book delivered to our doorstep in a day or two.
Innovation drives the human experience. In Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” humanity experiences a quantum leap when a primitive man realizes he can grasp a bone and use it as a club. He hurls it up into the air, and the movie cuts forward to a spaceship. The meaning is clear. One leads logically to the other. From one primitive man with a club to a spaceship docking with a space station, it’s all a matter of humans using the tools they have and building upon their experience to drive the species forward.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, we now have the technology and expertise to bring it into the world of commerce. We’re able to utilize machine learning: the ability of machines to teach themselves based on their own experiences and memory. The process brings the potential for explosive growth. As long as there is electricity to power the computer, it will work tirelessly to acquire information and build upon its knowledge.
Much like “The Matrix,” where Keanu Reeves can become a kung-fu master by absorbing a vast amount of knowledge in mere seconds, machine learning will only get more detailed and comprehensive. There are self-driving cars on the streets right now that are gaining experience with every new test drive. That information is passed and shared among other cars. We may soon reach a point where the autonomous vehicles are safer than those driven by humans.
Artificial intelligence in the workplace has similar explosive potential. It can reduce costs, but the bigger impact will be delivering brand-new experiences to customers.
Let’s say you’ve got a message you’d like to deliver to someone across the room from you. Your first choice isn’t going to be to take out a pen and a piece of paper to scribble out your message. You’re not going to reach for your phone and tap out a message. You’re going to talk to them. It’s the most natural way to get things done. And that person is going to take that information, process it, and respond, and the cycle gets repeated over and over again.
We believe artificial intelligence should work the same way. Personal home assistants are great, but we’re going beyond just simply processing natural language requests. Artificial intelligence is personal. It not only understands questions; it asks questions.
Business websites and applications can be dense with information. It can be difficult to find what you want. Google search has sufficed for years, but as the amount of available information increases, it can become difficult to reach the exact combination of keywords you need to find exactly what you need.
It’s time to go beyond just keywords. It’s time to forge a new path beyond just natural speech recognition.
We believe AI should be having a conversation with your customers. No one person is exactly the same as the next. Why should we expect search results to be the same? Artificial intelligence should help ensure there’s as little friction as possible between what the user wants and what the user gets. Our aim is to give you the power of AI so that customers are connected to your products and services in a way that’s as easy and natural as speaking to another person across the room.
AI is constantly learning as well. Lessons learned from one customer interaction inform the next. The more it’s used, the smarter it gets. At Solstice, we harness the power of AI-driven search to deliver a remarkable digital experience for your customers and the information you need to expand your services in the right direction.
Artificial intelligence will go beyond search commands, of course. It will revolutionize manufacturing. Factories will have better command over how they should change and optimize their products. Items can be adjusted in a granular manner to deliver a better experience and a cheaper price to consumers.
We’d love to talk to you about how we can transform the way you do business with the power of technology and artificial intelligence. AI in the workplace is going to happen. It will be a force to be reckoned with, a tsunami of change. We’ll help you ride the wave.
