The buzz around AI has become palpable as it permeates and transforms many aspects of everyday life. On the one hand, it opens up new possibilities; while on the other, it has triggered a frenzy of opportunistic marketing of useless or bogus AI applications.
What are the risks and opportunities presented by AI?
We must become well-versed in managing AI risk in a balanced way that enables innovation while instituting appropriate guardrails. We must remember that we could reduce many near-term risks by avoiding AI use. Still, in doing so, we could introduce the long-term risk of obsolescence and obscurityÐa risk far greater than any of the immediate fears most of us have.
When to embrace AI:
When implementing AI technologies, start with an idea of a business problem you want to solve, evaluate the best solutions for that problem-including objective analysis of options that do not involve AI-and then test your leading solutions and validate the results. Also, make sure your security and legal teams are closely engaged with the project; and if they are not deeply knowledgeable, support them via outside experts. Ensure you have a clearly defined AI policy validated by business, technical, and legal stakeholders.
When to avoid AI:
As a starting point, we can consider what to avoid when using AI. Beware of use cases driven by vendor promises or ambitious upstart managers looking to make their mark by being the first to implement something new and shiny. The idea is to look deeper and ensure transparency to the underlying motivation for and utility of any AI/technical project.
What should board members ask about AI?
A few key questions board members should ask the executive management, including both business and technology leaders:
What policies and procedures have you created around AI for the the company, college or university, and how have they been communicated?
What is your overall strategy for enabling innovation using AI while managing the risks?
How are you maintaining visibility and governance of AI use, and what are your decision-making criteria for what proposals to approve vs. which ones to reject?
Final Thoughts
While the opportunities and risks associated with AI are both tremendous, the fundamentals for technology risk management apply here the same way they have for every technology revolution that has preceded AI- and many of the same fundamentals will be the ones we will lean on again when the quantum computing revolution hits in another 5-10 years.
"Make sure AI projects have a legitimate business need that makes logical sense, versus a shiny new toy to play with."