Natalie Cramp, Partner at JMAN Group and panel chair, demonstrated the AI Readiness Assessment, a tool for businesses built in collaboration with JMAN, NorthCap Cyber, Inference and Pinsent Masons. Using the tool, leaders can plot their readiness to take on the new technology against six key criteria, benchmarking against other businesses of similar size and across different industries and seeing their results in an interactive dashboard and a downloadable report to use within their business.

Natalie explained how going into this kind of detail breaks down the concept of AI from being an all-conquering external force and instead puts the emphasis on individual businesses to be prepared for the technology. This includes the readiness of the people within an organisation to start using it:

“There won’t be one silver bullet, but marginal changes will add up to transformation.”

Echoing the remarks of Lord Holmes, Cramp added that the human dimension was one that should not be neglected: “Sadly I see few Chief People Officers present when I talk to organisations about
their data and AI transformation.”

Sam Brown, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at NorthCap Cyber, said that the threats of AI need to be thought about in a strategic way:

“At present, people are gung ho – welcoming AI guests into their home without thinking about the full implications. Starting your AI journey has to be done with some degree of caution. Now we are playing catchup with how we educate people about how AI can be used and abused.”

On the subject of threats, Cerys Wyn Davies reminded the room that the law is changing and it is essential for businesses to keep up with the regulations: governance needs to be in place now, because sooner or later there will be a call for accountability. She said:

“The EU is not the gold standard; in France and Germany it is seen as too restrictive and there is fragmentation between countries trying to attract AI talent.”

Richard Davis, CEO and Co-Founder at Inference, added his thoughts on how to make AI work in a practical way within a business:

“Those who are doing well aren’t doing everything, they are investing in lighthouse projects. Set up, deploy and communicate benefits, then develop re-use capabilities. The key is to start small, talk up successes where they happen and stop projects that aren’t delivering.”

Closing the discussion, Natalie Cramp agreed that as leaders, “our job is to both encourage and kill experiments to avoid POC purgatory. And as a general principle, to remember that strategy, data, process and people come first, because technology is the icing – not the cake itself.”

To try the AI Readiness Assessment Tool for yourself, click on the button below.