But there are pitfalls. About 75 percent of Australian businesses are still digitally immature, either not engaged in, or in the early stages of digitally transforming their businesses, according to Forth’s research.
They are unlikely to jump directly into the AI revolution. “You cannot mature as an AI if you are not digitally mature,” he says.
With the arrival of the latest version of ChatGPT, interest in generative AI has skyrocketed, not to mention a new bull market on Wall Street, but AI under various other labels, such as automation, big data, and machine learning. It is also being expanded. It has been occurring for many years across Australia.
As noted by UBS, Rio Tinto is a local AI pioneer in the Mines of the Future project, which combines big data, autonomous equipment and technology to mine more efficiently and safely.
Woolworths leverages its Quantium data science and AI business (which counts Telstra and Commonwealth Bank as key customers) and its retail media business, Cartology, to improve offer personalization.
CBA also partnered with Silicon Valley-based H2O.ai two years ago to create a predictive AI platform built around what the company calls a customer engagement engine: 1,000 machine learning models and 157 billion data points. developed.
Telstra uses AI in many ways, including reducing network-wide energy consumption and carbon footprint by determining which parts of the network can be scaled up or down based on demand. Like many large companies, predictive AI is also used in his Telstra online customer chat to resolve issues faster and free agents to focus on the most annoying issues.
Generative AI will help improve these capabilities, says Andersen, but more importantly, the focus shifts from using AI for efficiency to using AI to be more predictive, proactive and accurate. to bring about change.
For example, Telstra’s fixed Internet business already has telemetry in place to identify network problems experienced by end users and switch to backup systems before customers even notice.
But Andersen said the ability to simulate the entire value chain using generative AI should help Telstra better predict customer needs and invest accordingly.
“What are the expectations of our customers? How can we optimize for them? Can we communicate more proactively? Can we start investing where we recognize the need?”
Combining generative AI with big data sets owned by Telstra, Quantium, and others will enable Telstra to generate higher quality, more personalized content and offers for customers.
But Andersen emphasizes that Telstra’s plans for AI go much deeper than this. His plan is to have a data scientist on every team to better integrate technology throughout the organization. “At T25 (growth strategy), he has the ambition to power all core critical processes within Telstra with AI. It will redefine the way we do business.”
The telecoms giant knows it needs partners like Microsoft, Google and Quantium to make this happen, but when it comes to AI, Telstra “really does it just for the enterprise. We should aim to become an outstanding center, even if just a little.” For ourselves and our customers, but for Australia. ”
Forth said Telstra’s holistic approach is a good example of how companies should approach broader digitization, specifically AI. “As a business owner, you can’t be right just by signing a check. You have to bow down to this.”
The threat AI poses to jobs will be a top concern for many workers, but companies should be prepared to be as open as possible to employees about AI adoption, Force says. argues Mr.
“I would rather be an employee of a company that is at the front of this race,” he says.
Andersen agrees. “We take people on a journey and make them understand that this is how they do their jobs better, help their customers in better ways and are successful in the company.
“If you go out and ask, ‘What’s your biggest problem?’ .”
