The first AI In Action Business Summit was hosted by Northeastern in collaboration with the Maine Chamber of Commerce and the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.
David Delmar Sentíes, the founder of Resilient Coders, a non-commercial coding bootcamp, is trying to stay up to date with the latest trends in software development.
The organization recently began integrating artificial intelligence into its curriculum, recognizing the growing importance of the field.
“There's a big market for people with AI skills,” Senti said while attending the AI Action Business Summit at Northeastern University on the university's campus in Portland, Maine. “What that really means looks different in many different companies. That's a very exciting moment in this area.”
The summit often sees AI adoption by New England companies, including some of Maine's most practical sectors.
“These are spaces I didn't identify with AI,” he said of industries such as wood and salmon agriculture. “But they use AI just like everyone else.”
Building an AI-led economy
The first AI in Action Business Summit, hosted by the Lou Institute in Northeastern, in collaboration with the Maine Chamber of Commerce and the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, is intended to celebrate the transformational role of Maine's evolving economy and AI.
“The Lou Institute is focused on being a catalyst for Maine's economy,” said Chris Mallett, chief administrative officer of the Portland campus in Northeastern. “I firmly believe that the future of economic opportunity here is driven by AI.”
However, as interest in AI increases, so does fear and uncertainty about workplace use. So, one of the important messages of the summit was about building familiarity.
“You have to get it,” said Matt Holbrook, vice president of data and analytics at Memic. “If they don't want to try it yourself, show it. …You always have early adopters in your organization. You use those people to learn things about it and they show it to Laguard.”
Holbrook also highlighted the importance of providing employees when hiring AI and investing in formal training on responsible AI practices.
Scaling AI across infrastructure
Large companies can provide powerful examples of the possibilities of large-scale AI. Enrique Bosh, director of corporate innovation at Avangrid, is an energy company that serves more than 3.1 million customers in New England, New York and Pennsylvania, calling Electric Grid “the biggest machine on the planet.”
“This big infrastructure is very old and difficult to maintain. It's a very big engineering problem. That's where we identify gaps for using AI,” Bosch said.
Avangrid implements hundreds of AI applications. One is Geomesh. Geomesh is a platform that integrates weather forecast data with grid infrastructure to help you strategically position your crew before a storm occurs.
Small and medium-sized businesses, big innovation
It's not just large companies that embrace AI. Small businesses use this technology to target niche issues.
Conductor AI, a software company in Bideford, Maine, helps clients simplify government contract deficits by providing tools to automate parts of the paperwork process. The company works with agencies such as the Air Force, Navy, the Army, and the Department of Justice.
“We're taking the biggest approach to AI,” said Ben Fichter, co-founder of Conderoi. “There are so many tools pop up to promote and celebrate the software development lifecycle. We really need to adopt the tools, or at least give it a try.”
One such tool is Code Rabbit, an AI system that reviews bugs and quality code. This helped the conductor speed up the delivery while keeping the human in a loop for final approval.
“It minimizes this non-sexy task you have to undertake,” Fitchter said. “Everyone is more efficient and there's no need to do the parts they don't want to do.”
