Hoyoung Pak
Partner & Managing Director, Global Co-Leader, AI & Data Practice Group
Chicago
AI is profoundly reshaping the very fabric of business operations and competition. These technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for optimizing efficiency, fostering innovation, and driving sustainable growth.
Understanding how AI works can no longer reside solely with the tech team.
Today, it's a strategic imperative for CEOs and other senior leaders to fully grasp the terminology, their attributes, and how these technologies work together. This is the only way to make the right investments, ask the right questions, and ultimately unlock its full potential for the organization.
While many technical explanations on AI exist, we are sharing our answers to the most common questions we get asked by C-suite executives to help you understand the technology in practical business terms.
1. What is artificial intelligence (AI), and how do machine learning (ML), neural networks, deep learning (DL), and generative AI (GenAI) relate to it?
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term, dating back to 1956 and referring to machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, encompassing all the other technologies in this primer.
- Machine learning (ML) is a subset of AI that focuses on creating algorithms and models that enable computers to learn and improve their performance on a specific task without being explicitly programmed. These models are trained on large datasets, allowing them to identify patterns, make predictions, or take actions based on the input data.
- Neural networks are a type of machine learning model that can automatically learn and extract complex patterns from raw data. They consist of interconnected layers that transform the input data, allowing the network to learn increasingly abstract and sophisticated features. Traditional machine learning algorithms require carefully structuring and specifying the features used to train the models; neural networks, on the other hand, demand less from how features are structured in the data but generally require more data and intensive processing.
- Deep learning (DL) is a further specialization within ML, utilizing neural networks with many layers (hence "deep") to find patterns in vast volumes of data. DL is computationally intensive, typically running on expensive graphical processors (GPUs), and is useful for computer vision (detecting and classifying objects in images) and natural language processing.
- Generative AI (GenAI) uses both ML and DL to create content – such as text, images, videos, and music – that resembles human-generated content. It learns from a vast dataset of existing content to generate new, original creations.
2. What is the difference between ML and the traditional approach to building models?
- In traditional statistical models, experts explicitly specify the functional relationship between features and the target being predicted or explained. A traditional model is expressed as an equation, such as yi = a + b*xi + errori, and algorithms will calculate values for the parameters, in this case a and b, that satisfy an objective, such as minimizing the total error from the model.
- By contrast, machine learning models do not require specifying the precise functional relationship between features and the target being predicted. Instead of a simple statistical equation, a machine learning model produces a complex set of instructions yielding specific predictions for y depending on values or ranges of values for x.
- Traditional models are more constrained but generally require less data. And because the output is an equation, traditional models can often generate predictions in a spreadsheet or a single line of computer code. Machine learning models, on the other hand, require larger volumes of data. ML models tend to produce more accurate predictions than traditional statistical models, but the model is expressed in hundreds or thousands of lines of computational instructions, which cannot be easily interpreted by humans or expressed in a spreadsheet.
3. How can ML and generative AI drive business value?
ML and generative AI can drive business value in several ways:
- Automation and efficiency: ML algorithms can automate complex, time-consuming tasks, from data entry and analysis to customer service inquiries, leading to increased operational efficiency and reducing costs.
- Improved decision making: By analyzing vast amounts of data, ML models can uncover insights and patterns not easily visible to humans, supporting better business decisions. Predictive analytics can spot and even forecast market trends, customer behavior, and potential risks, allowing companies to act proactively rather than reactively. These insights can help businesses optimize inventory, allocate resources, and make proactive decisions.
- Personalization at scale: ML and GenAI enable businesses to offer personalized experiences to customers by analyzing their behavior and preferences. This can range from personalized marketing messages to customized product recommendations, significantly improving customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value.
- Innovation and new products/services: GenAI can generate new ideas and designs, from creating new product concepts to optimizing existing ones. For example, it can simulate how a new product might perform or generate creative marketing content, speeding up the innovation process.
- Fraud detection and risk management: ML algorithms can identify patterns and anomalies in data that may indicate fraudulent activities or potential risks. This can help businesses mitigate financial losses, protect customer data, and maintain regulatory compliance.
By leveraging ML and GenAI to drive automation, improve decision-making, enhance customer experiences, innovate, predict future trends, and manage risks, businesses can gain a competitive edge, optimize operations, and unlock new growth opportunities.
Senior leaders play an important role here, which is to ensure that AI projects align with a company's value proposition and advance its strategy. A low-cost producer will want to emphasize automation, efficiency, and similar activities; a company whose value proposition centers on customer experience will have different priorities and should pursue different projects.
4. What are the primary tasks of ML, and how do they apply to business operations?
The primary tasks of ML can be broadly categorized into several key areas, each with distinct applications that drive business value:
- Classification: Predicting a discrete outcome or state, such as purchasing or contracting {purchase, no purchase}, churning {churn, no churn}, outcome {success, fail} or performance group {high, medium, low}.
- Regression: Predicting continuous values. Regression analyses can forecast sales, demand, inventory levels, and market trends, enabling better resource planning and market positioning.
- Clustering: Grouping data points based on similarities. Businesses use clustering for market segmentation, targeting marketing efforts more effectively, or identifying patterns in customer behavior.
- Recommendation systems: Suggesting items users might like based on their history or similar users' actions. This is crucial for personalized marketing, improving customer engagement, and increasing sales through targeted recommendations.
- Anomaly detection: Identifying unusual data points. This task is vital for fraud detection in financial transactions, network security, and monitoring industrial equipment or processes for unusual patterns that could indicate problems.
- Natural language processing (NLP): Understanding, interpreting, and generating human language. NLP applications include chatbots for customer service, sentiment analysis to gauge customer satisfaction, and automated content creation or summarization.
- Computer vision: Interpreting visual information, including facial recognition. In business, computer vision is used for quality control in manufacturing, retail analytics through customer movement tracking, and healthcare for diagnostic imaging analysis.
5. What are the core capabilities of GenAI, and how do they apply to business applications?
GenAI encompasses several capabilities that have implications for business innovation, content creation, and operational efficiency:
- Content creation: GenAI can generate text, images, videos, and music that mimic human-like creativity. Businesses use this capability for creating marketing content, developing new product designs, or generating stock images and videos, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with traditional content creation.
- Data synthesis: GenAI can create synthetic data sets that mirror real-world data, which is invaluable for training ML models where actual data may be scarce or sensitive. This is particularly useful in fields like healthcare for research and development without compromising patient privacy.
- Personalization at scale: By generating content tailored to individual preferences, GenAI can personalize marketing messages, product recommendations, or even customize products and services for each customer, enhancing the customer experience and engagement.
- Automation of creative processes: From drafting emails to writing code or automating the design of digital and physical products, GenAI streamlines creative processes.
- Simulation and modeling: GenAI can generate realistic scenarios and simulations, useful for training, forecasting, and decision-making. Businesses can simulate different outcomes to aid in strategic planning.
- Interactive Customer service: With the ability to understand and generate human-like responses, GenAI can power chatbots and virtual assistants, providing personalized customer support, enhancing satisfaction, and reducing operational costs.
6. When is AI not the best tool for the job?
While AI can be a powerful tool in various business contexts, there are situations where it may not be the best choice. Here are a few examples:
- Small datasets: AI, particularly machine learning, relies on large amounts of quality data to train models effectively. If the business problem involves a small dataset, traditional statistical methods or human expertise might be more appropriate.
- Interpretability and transparency: Some AI models, such as deep neural networks, can be complex and operate as "black boxes." If the business requires clear explanations for decision-making processes, such as in legal or medical contexts, AI models that lack interpretability may not be suitable.
- High-stakes decisions: When decisions have significant consequences, such as in life-or-death situations or major financial investments, relying solely on AI might not be advisable. Human oversight, expertise, and judgment should be involved to ensure responsible and ethical decision-making.
- Creative and subjective tasks: AI excels at pattern recognition and automation but may struggle with tasks that require creativity, emotional intelligence, or subjective judgment. For example, while AI can assist in generating ideas or providing insights, tasks like developing marketing strategies, product design, or managing complex human relationships often benefit from human intuition and creativity.
- Insufficient ROI: Implementing AI solutions can be resource-intensive, requiring investments in data collection, infrastructure, and talent. If the expected benefits do not justify the costs, or if alternative solutions can achieve similar results more efficiently, AI may not be the best choice.
7. What are the different ways that ML algorithms learn?
ML learns in two basic ways:
- In "supervised learning” the goal is to make accurate predictions or decisions, and each model can be assessed by its accuracy. For instance, predicting next quarter’s revenue, or how many units will be sold next week, or whether particular individuals will make a purchase in the next month are all tasks for supervised learning.
- In “unsupervised learning” the goal is typically to find descriptive patterns in the data. Unsupervised learning is less about accuracy or being right and more about generating useful, sensible results. A common unsupervised learning task is to group similar observations, such as in customer segmentation models, market basket analysis, or mapping employees into common work functions.
There are variations and hybrids. One interesting hybrid is "reinforcement learning" where the algorithm, or agent, learns to make decisions by performing actions and receiving feedback in the form of rewards or penalties. Through an iterative trial and error process, the algorithm gets progressively better at obtaining rewards.
8. Why do people say that AI is a "black box"? And should I be worried about it?
The "black box" nature of ML and GenAI refers to the difficulty in understanding how these models make decisions or generate outputs, due to their complex and often opaque algorithms. This can pose challenges in terms of trust, accountability, and compliance.
To address this, there is a growing field of explainable AI (XAI) that aims to make the decision-making processes of AI systems more transparent and understandable. Additionally, collaboration between data scientists and business leaders can help in developing clearer guidelines and explanations for AI behaviors. Regularly reviewing and auditing AI models for fairness, bias, and accuracy also contributes to demystifying the black box, ensuring responsible and ethical AI use.
9. What are the ethical considerations in using ML and GenAI, and how can businesses address them?
Ethical considerations in using ML and GenAI span several key areas, reflecting the importance of responsible development and deployment:
- Bias and fairness: ML algorithms can perpetuate biases present in their training data, leading to unfair outcomes. Businesses must ensure diverse data sets and regularly audit algorithms for bias, adjusting as necessary.
- Transparency and explainability: The "black box" nature of some ML and GenAI systems can obscure how decisions are made, challenging accountability. Promoting transparency and developing explainable AI systems help stakeholders understand and trust AI-driven decisions.
- Privacy: ML and GenAI often require vast amounts of data, raising concerns about data privacy and security. Implementing robust data protection measures and adhering to privacy regulations are essential for maintaining user trust.
- Security: AI systems can be targets for malicious attacks, potentially leading to the manipulation of algorithm behavior. Strengthening security protocols and regularly assessing vulnerabilities are crucial to safeguarding these technologies.
- Intellectual property: With GenAI's ability to generate content, questions arise about copyright and ownership. Developing policies that respect intellectual property rights while encouraging innovation is important.
Addressing these ethical considerations involves a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating legal, technical, and ethical expertise. By proactively engaging with these issues, businesses can lead in the responsible use of ML and GenAI, fostering trust and promoting a positive societal impact.
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