Artificial intelligence experts say that with technological advances, within a few years “all the pieces will be in place” for digital twins to attend virtual meetings and speak on users' behalf.
Zoom CEO Eric Zhuang recently said that employees will be able to send digital twins to work meetings so they can do other things, like go to the beach.
Innovation consultant Ed Dever said his company is already using artificial intelligence technology tools in meetings.
“Over the last six months, we've probably invited AI to a number of meetings.
“There are certainly times when you can't attend a meeting or have to be in two places at once.”
Dever said the technology has been “more useful than we ever imagined” because AI can provide insights that traditional transcription can't provide.
“It was like someone was sitting next to me taking notes and something was mentioned. [ask] “Has this topic come up?” [and] What was discussed on this particular topic?”
Justin Fritter from New Zealand AI told Breakfast that “all the elements that allow you to create a digital avatar” that could contribute to the conference already exist.
“But they're not yet ready to come to the table and speak on your behalf,” he said.
Fritter said AI for business tools can be used to invite people to meetings through most applications, including Teams, Skype and Zoom, and then transcribe what's said in the meeting and efficiently create summaries, to-do lists and other actions.
“People have been using these tools for a long time and we know that meeting summaries are the biggest productivity boosters. [and] The most common use case is summarizing long, complex documents.”
Fritter said the biggest security threat to businesses right now is employees bringing their personal AI tools to the workplace.
“Companies need to deploy enterprise-grade AI solutions so that all of the meeting recordings, conversations and negotiations are contained within their own tenancy. All of the security protocols are inherited so they have control.”
When asked how long it might be before an AI avatar can sit in on your behalf, Fritter took a deep breath and said: “It's a few years away.”
“[The AI] I'll need to know about your work projects and their status, and I'll need access to some documentation to clarify the status of those projects. That's probably a bit further down the line.
“But all the components are there.”
