Experts are warning business owners and organizations to be cautious when implementing artificial intelligence (AI) to protect their businesses from its negative effects.
While experts acknowledged the potential of AI to streamline operations and reduce costs, they emphasized the importance of mitigating potential downsides.
“We can't get rid of technology. No matter what direction the world is going in, whether we want it to or not, technology is part of us, so the sooner we embrace it, the better. But technology comes with risks. That's why we need to be careful, because even the criminals on the outside are becoming more and more sophisticated.” Business Resilience in Kampala Thursday. breakfast.
Artificial intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual recognition, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.
These are systems with human characteristics, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience, and are taking over the performance of tasks previously reserved for humans.
Apart from its benefits and convenience, there are also multiple concerns and ethical dilemmas, including the possibility of structural bias.
Mukasa gave the example of Marsh, where employees help advise clients on risk management, ultimately increasing job security rather than replacing employees.
Ms Xenia Wachira, Country Manager for BrighterMonday Uganda, said that both positive and negative perspectives on AI need to be kept in mind.
“We need to understand how human interaction and AI can work together to increase productivity, and how to ensure that people who will be displaced by AI do not have their future jobs affected. “We need to understand how we can retrain them,” she says.
In this context, Jonan Petersen, Head of Africa Strategic Risk Consulting at Marsh, said that companies need to adopt AI with care, adding: “We just need to take advantage of the efficiencies that AI brings. Instead, we need to educate ourselves to recognize things like: The worst that comes with it. ”
However, Ms Meg Jakwei, president of the Uganda American Chamber of Commerce, said people need to think positively about the use of artificial intelligence in business.
“I use AI every day, and it makes us more efficient. When our employees are more efficient, our customer base appreciates that efficiency, and our employees have more job security. It's not a replacement, it's like a co-pilot to your employees, leading to improved customer satisfaction.
The conference was hosted by Marsh in collaboration with the Uganda-American Chamber of Commerce with the aim of engaging CEOs from a variety of companies on risk management, especially during difficult times.
Mukasa said discussions centered on the importance of technology's role in proactive risk management, crisis preparedness and ensuring continuity during disruption.
Mumba Karifunwa, managing director of Absa Bank Uganda, says the world is now living in the fourth revolution where “technology is part of us” as businesses prepare to manage risk. He said it was necessary to know.
“Therefore, we must embrace technology responsibly and take responsibility for stewarding it, just as the companies providing services that use it must protect the users who use it. , users themselves need to know that they should also embrace technology cautiously to protect their finances and data sets,'' he said.
