Espresso, cappuccino what’s the difference?

By: Fathi alWosaibi

The story goes, a coffee shop used a robot to wait on customers. In the first robot engagement, the customer says to the robot, “I ordered Espresso, not a cappuccino”, the robot replied, “my AI programming says there is no difference between the two”.

The story describes the chaotic approach that some companies are taking in the midst of their excitement to deploy AI solutions. It clearly highlights a risk that these companies are taking by jumping headfirst to automation. In the previous article, I outlined a framework for AI deployment originating from the company strategy, and in this article, I will outline, in my opinion, the natural progression of AI deployment in a company to reduce risk. Every phase has its own process, algorithms, thresholds, and reports to assure a safe transition to the next phase.

These phases are:

• Assess: this phase describes the company environment and ecosystem. In our robot example, here is where the robot understands the differences in hot drinks.
• Assist: building applications that can Aid human decision making, and in a mutual benefit, the humans correct machine decisions and results. In our example, the robot assists humans in waiting on customers and humans correct the robot’s decisions.
• Automate: and this is the ultimate phase, where you are confident of the machine’s performance to let it take over.

So far, We collected initiatives across the company stemming from the company strategy, and we have three phases of execution to deploy AI solutions.  All in practical, risk-aware steps (Assess, Assist and Automate).  This is a perfect ingredient for developing “Key Performance Indicators” measuring AI deployment in a company.

I proudly followed the giant forward leaps we are scoring in various international indices, and I followed the impressive AI Summit gathering.  I truly believe we are heading towards the Kingdome being a pioneer in AI, however, to be truly a pioneer we must provide a systematic measure of our progress in this domain.

I am not aware of an international index to measure AI deployment in a country, and hence we have an open unprecedented opportunity to impress the world at the next AI summit by presenting our own.

But, be warned, AI is not a solution for all your challenges, so sleep tight Abu Asem.  So how is Abu Asem and how is he related to AI is what you will read in my next article.

Fathi alWosaibi

AI, IT Consultant

@wosaibfm