Kathy Gibson reports from Saphila 2023 – Artificial intelligence still needs people to be able to function properly.
AI has its root in the 1970s, with the ability to analyse statistics – today it does many things that we take for granted. Of course, there are some dangers that come along with this, Blignaut adds. “So where there is an opportunity to use it, we need to think about where we are going to use it.” “We need to retain human agency. People need to be making the decisions: we don’t want machines making decisions without the people understanding how or why those decisions were made.
Addressing bias and discrimination is a big issue and one that needs to be solved. “We need to be aware of where we might be introducing bias and how we can remove it.” Another use case is in procurement, where SAP Ariba Buying offers personalised recommendations. The goal is to improve the buying experience with guided buying capability using data like employees’ roles to suggest product and services chosen by peers. This means there needs to be enough data, and people are needed to ensure this happens.