The Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Susan Etlinger

As a technology pioneer and popular keynote speaker, Susan Etlinger teaches audiences how to contextualize data and use it in a smart way whether their company’s going through a crisis, disruption, or looking to take their business and employees to the next level. Recognized as one of the most knowledgeable experts on artificial intelligence (AI) and “Big Data,” she works at the intersection of people, processes, and technology, helping leading brands generate culture, strategies, and practices through a holistic interpretation of social and enterprise data.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about artificial intelligence?

ETLINGER: That it’s all about robots gone wild, or who a car should decide to kill in a crash—i.e., these really outlandish and hypothetical scenarios that we see in films and TV.

The biggest misconception is that somehow AI is inevitably going to control or replace us, when in fact AI is a tool. We need to be the ones to determine how and when and under what circumstances we use it. These decisions are under our control as leaders and we need to make them responsibly.

The other big misconception is that AI is a future technology when in fact anyone who uses search or translation algorithms, shops online, or has a smartphone interacts with multiple kinds of AI every day, albeit on a different scale.

The important thing to understand about AI is that it is a way for technology to replicate some things that people can do, such as process information, draw inferences, and, in some cases, make decisions and even act. Above all, AI needs to learn from data and experiences—something that even we humans have trouble with! However, AI is still in its infancy.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few examples of well-known brands that are using AI to maximize their performance and how are they doing it?

ETLINGER: There are so many interesting examples. Procter & Gamble’s Olay Skin Advisor uses AI to analyze people’s skin and make treatment recommendations. Many banks and other businesses use chatbots and voice agents to extend the types of interactions they can have with customers. B2B companies use AI to predict the next best action a sales rep should take to close a deal or identify red flags for customer churn. Financial services companies use AI to better understand fraud signals. There are even new AI-based apps that help patients manage depression, diabetes and other chronic conditions.

SPEAKING.COM: As of January 2018, Gartner found that only “one in 25 CIOs described themselves as having artificial intelligence in action in their organizations.” What are some strategies businesses can employ to harness the potential of AI?

ETLINGER: Business leaders need to get past the assumption that they have to build an entire AI organization in order to take advantage of AI. (If you’re Google, Facebook, Amazon or Alibaba, that’s another story.) If you’re a bank, an airline, a hospitality brand, a retail chain—whatever your business may be—there will be places where AI is embedded into the tools that you already use. This can be as straightforward as a marketing or sales tool, or finding and using an AI platform vendor to enable your AI strategies. Of course, you’ll need some depth in your own organization, but, to put it bluntly, AI is a tool; to get from A to B you need access to transportation, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be able to open up a factory to build your own car.

SPEAKING.COM: What are the limitations of AI?

ETLINGER: The main thing is that AI is great at repetitive, data-rich tasks. It’s super at finding needles in haystacks, identifying patterns, and processing huge amounts of information. I really like the guidance that the American Medical Association gives on AI; they call it “augmented intelligence” because their position is that AI should augment physicians — not replace them.

This makes sense. After all, AI can read and digest every single research paper ever published on every single medical condition—a nearly superhuman task. On the other hand, it can’t replace the human empathy or intuition needed to determine which course of action is most appropriate for a given patient.

SPEAKING.COM: How did you become involved in AI and what advice would you give to people who are considering pursuing a career in your field?

ETLINGER: I’m not a trained data scientist, nor am I a programmer. In fact, I’m kind of a case study of someone who graduated college with a humanities focus and spent some time in the early part of my career trying to carve a path for myself, so I don’t necessarily advocate that!

The wonderful thing about the time that we’re in now is that the whole point of AI is to provide tools that truly do help people do things in much more productive ways. However, because the technology is becoming more human, we need people who deeply understand how humans behave, move, communicate, decide, and so on. That means increased roles for philosophers, linguists, anthropologists, political scientists and much more collaboration overall among the disciplines.

SPEAKING.COM: What is your view of AI ethics?

ETLINGER: The theme of ethical, responsible AI has gained momentum during the past year partly because the technologies are maturing and partly as a result of numerous visible missteps in business and the public sector. At a fundamental level, we need to realize that as we build systems that replicate part of what it means to be human, we need guardrails. In the physical world, we have ethics, which are basically accepted norms of behavior. Sometimes we behave in an ethical way, and sometimes we don’t, but we tend to know that some things are unacceptable and some things are.

Of course there are cultural ethical norms as well: something that is completely okay in one culture can be highly offensive in another. However, we don’t really have norms in the digital world yet so we need to construct them to ensure that we don’t unintentionally amplify things like bias and discrimination.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ethical guidelines you recommend that organizations follow when it comes to big data?

ETLINGER: I’m working on specific research on this now, but my latest report, “The AI Maturity Playbook”, lays out some of the strategic and tactical work that public and private organizations are doing to encourage responsible development and use of AI.

To bring technology, AI and big data speaker, Susan Etlinger to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com