This week at BizWorthy, we spend an entire conversation on artificial intelligence and the opportunities and challenges it presents. The Charlotte Leisure Business Newsletter is dedicated to these topics this week. And then Tony Messiah from Ledger joined us.
Marshall Terry: You talked about how you’re already experimenting with AI with some companies in the Charlotte area. In particular, The Ledger focused on banking and finance. what did you find?
Tony Messiah: they’ve been working on it for a while. So big banks have been pumping money into artificial intelligence for a while now. They all feature chatbots that let you check your account balance or get information about your account. Bank of America’s name is Erica. Wells Fargo has a virtual assistant named Fargo. In Trust he has the name Trust Assist, not a very catchy name in my opinion. We also use it for certain features that our customers don’t necessarily see. you apply for a loan. There are ways that computers can be used to process loan applications without requiring too much human effort.
Terry: What other industries are already using AI and how are they doing it?
Messiah: As you know, the rise of ChatGPT has exploded public awareness over the past year. However, artificial intelligence exists in our daily lives and in many consumer products. When you think of Amazon Alexa, you think of things like the iPhone and speech-to-text applications. As you know, one of the most direct applications where many people try it is in areas such as writing, editing and marketing. Use ChatGPT, give it some instructions and it can spew out very quickly. It’s pretty decent text, and might resemble something written by a human. And there are often mistakes there. However, human writings often contain mistakes. So a lot of people we spoke to said, well, I don’t know exactly where it’s going, but I feel it’s important to start trying.
Terry: So these are some of the opportunities that AI presents and some that are already being realized. What about enterprise challenges with AI?
Messiah: Well, when I spoke with the companies for this series this week, some said they still needed someone to check this issue because of inaccuracies coming up. It’s known as a hallucination, that’s what they call it. In some cases it yields the answer, but this is a big question. Creating marketing materials is a different story. It’s a different story when accuracy is really required, for example in a medical setting. It’s a challenge. Tech companies are working on it. And businesses need to keep that in mind. Marshall, Another consideration is data security in areas such as banking and finance, and in areas that deal with sensitive customer information. Businesses don’t just want to experiment with AI on the open web. Hackers can break in. Therefore, the security of these should also be considered.
Terry: Goldman Sachs economists recently predicted that AI could automate a quarter of jobs in the United States and Europe. Clearly not what workers want to hear. But what does it look like from a manager’s perspective? Frankly, like factory workers generations ago, are bankers about to see their jobs replaced by machines?
Messiah: Well, I think that’s possible. In some industries, we are already seeing companies say they don’t need human workers anymore and are losing jobs. You can outsource this to a chatbot. Writing that does not require creativity, marketing or design. In some areas, we are actually starting to see job losses. However, many business workers I spoke to for this series said that they actually see it as a productivity tool, rather than “OK, let’s fire people and let ChatGPT do it all.” . But really, the options they’re looking at are either we don’t do these things, or we do them with computers. I have all the jobs I used to have but no longer do. A telephone operator connects a phone by pushing a cable into a small socket. There are not many unemployed telephone operators on the streets. And people started doing other things, and it’s hard for those displaced, but it’s like another step in the advancement of technology. And companies see this as an opportunity to do more than they could with the same number of people, maybe even fewer.
Terry: So what do you think will happen next? Will AI be as revolutionary as the internet, electricity and steam engines, or is it too much hype?
Messiah: The CEO of Google’s parent company said he believes the company’s work on AI could be more important than the invention of fire. And, as you know, it’s not just ChatGPT. It has much broader uses in terms of data analysis, processing, and human interaction in all of that. I don’t think it’s just a fad. I think it will stay here. And this is, like it or not, a technology we all seem to have to get used to in the years to come.
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