Should we build AI-proof businesses to protect our jobs? Or should we embrace AI as the path to new and better opportunities?

As Artificial Intelligence continues to shock the world with its endless possibilities, businesses are questioning its use as a threat to jobs and information security. Recent AI trends have carried a sense of denial in the business community, often paired with uncertainty about how to move forward.

During Liberty Network’s LINKS Conference last month, global entrepreneur and business professor Doron Hacmon shared insights and guidance on moving forward with AI.

Artificial Intelligence is nothing new. So what’s the hype about?

“AI has been there all along,” Hacmon said. The difference is that nowadays, there is unlimited computing and unlimited storage that enable this revolution. The new capabilities in bandwidth have cleared the field for tools such as Chat GPT to make an impact and challenge people’s beliefs about AI.

Hacmon argued that “another component in the AI revolution is that everything humanity has ever known is somewhere in cyberspace and available.” 

“Any book that was written, any academic research, any Ph.D. thesis, any electronic medical record, any financial transaction and stock price, any hotel, pricing history, flights, everything humanity knows is online,” continued Hacmon. 

This endless library of data, combined with today’s bandwidth, allows AI tools to carry solutions forward more efficiently. This includes the creation of Artificial Neural Networks, breaking down the relationship between knowledge, context, and form. 

Not only is AI providing answers, but it is now capable of providing contextualized answers in language form.

Fear for your job… if you’re sitting on the sidelines

More recently, we have seen a tsunami of new AI tools – roughly 5,112 tools only 204 days after the launch of Chat GPT. These new tools “touch upon every single thing you can imagine from code writing to legal, marketing, product development, customer care, data, binders, video creation, you name it, everything,” Hacmon asserted. 

There is a high probability that an AI tool, or several, can provide solutions to most if not all steps in your business process. 

The question is: Do you recognize your company in any of the AI tools currently out there? If the answer is yes, the next question should be, how can you use such tools to support your business and create new opportunities?

Integrating AI in your business: Digital Transformation vs. Digitalization

As connectivity continues to evolve, so will AI and AI tools. It will continue to be present in business trends and strategies. However, Hacmon argues that business leaders are better off keeping an exploration mindset with AI, especially as they seek relevance and credibility in their industry. 

Hacmon provides the following suggestions for using AI technology as a path forward in business acceleration: 

1. Avoid sitting on the sidelines. AI is here to stay. Dive into the opportunity. 

2. Figure out how to leverage AI for efficiencies and strategies for transformation. Differentiate where your business needs digitalization vs. digital transformation. 

3. Determine how to secure quick wins at a low cost. You don’t need a team of experts to benefit from the advantages of AI. 

4. Continue to deliver on ethics, people, and budgets. ‘Business as usual,’ just with add-on support from new technologies. 

5. Consider rebuilding your growth engines with AI. There is an AI tool out there that can support your business development - sales, marketing, customer support, etc.

The goal is to use AI to carry out the digital transformation of your business and not just the digitalization of current offerings and processes. 

Finally, the message when facing the fear and denial of AI technologies is to create a future-forward mindset, not a future-proof business.