Beyond the Hype: Introducing AI in Your Organization
Details
Elevator:
We hear about AI every day, yet about half of small and medium companies have not started adopting this technology. This presentation will introduce you to AI, what it may do for your organization, and give you concrete steps to approach it.
Abstract:
AI means different things to different people: for some, it represents an effective solution to many of society’s problems, and for others, it conjures images of robots taking over the end of the world. In reality, AI and machine learning are tried and tested technologies that can improve the bottom line for many companies. In order to remain competitive and profitable in today’s market, there is mounting pressure to bring AI into the organization. Decision makers increasingly understand that introducing AI into their organization is an essential part of remaining competitive and in today’s rapidly evolving tech environment.
In this presentation, we look at three broad applications of AI: gaining insight, optimization, and innovation. The presenter starts with an overview of how AI has become integral to many parts of today’s companies, and what challenges decision-makers face when trying to introduce AI into their environment. The presentation continues with a machine-learning primer, then examines how one measures its effectiveness and what the typical development cycle of an AI project looks like. The presenter then explores where AI is commonly found in traditional companies, from optimizing infrastructure usage in the IT and operations departments, to helping sales and marketing target customers better. The last section proposes a phased approach to planning your first AI project and provides a concrete strategy that includes project selection, communication across the organization, and common pitfalls.
Presenter Bio:
An accomplished software engineer and passionate data scientist, Gerald Burnand has helped several companies leverage AI and linguistics over the past 20 years. In the last 5 years, he witnessed first-hand what it takes to deploy machine learning end-to-end into an organization, all the while heading one of the engineering teams and coordinating closely with the C-suite, product management, IT, and marketing departments.
Gerald has developed several enterprise and web search engines in multiple languages. He maintains a specific focus on Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing capabilities, incorporating large ontologies, semantics, text understanding, and intention detection. Gerald now heads Indigo Strategy and leads companies in their adoption of AI.