Articles about artificial intelligence often begin with an intention to shock readers, referencing classic works of science fiction or alarming statistics about impending job losses. But I think we get closer to the heart of AI in 2018 when we think about small and mundane ways in which AI makes work just a little easier. And it’s not necessarily the AI experts in your organization who will identify these mundane problems that AI can help solve. Instead, employees throughout the organization will be able to spot the low-hanging fruit where AI could make your organization more efficient. But, only if they know what AI is capable of doing, and what it should never do.
3 Questions About AI That Nontechnical Employees Should Be Able to Answer
There are three important questions that any member of your team should be able to answer about AI: How does artificial intelligence work? What is it good at? And what should it never do? Team members who aren’t responsible for building an AI system should nonetheless know how it processes information and answers questions. Learning what machine learning is good at quickly helps someone to see what machine learning is not good at. Problems that are novel, or which lack meaningful data to explain them, remain squarely in the realm of human specialties. Help your employees to understand this difference by showing them tools they already use that are powered by AI, either within the organization or outside it (such as social media advertising or streaming service recommendations). These examples will help team members to understand AI’s enormous potential, but also its limitations. Just because machine learning can solve a problem does not mean it should do so.