Riding the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) carries risks, as scientists and personalities from the technological world have warned throughout the year. Despite this, in the business world, its implementation, although slow, seems to be an inevitable destiny. The benefits range from automating more mechanical tasks such as report writing to personalizing customer service. Not forgetting the potential to accelerate innovation, save costs and improve employee satisfaction. This is reflected in a global report by the consulting firm KPMG, which shows that more than half of the managers consulted – 55% of a base of 2,100 – consider that the inclusion of AI will be crucial to achieving the company's objectives during the next years. next three years.
The study highlights how the private sector increasingly depends on technological bets to generate added value and stand out from the competition. Companies already faced the challenge of digitizing a large part of their procedures when the pandemic hit almost three years ago. Now, with the arrival of generative AI bots, history repeats itself, at least in part.
Although the development of AI has been brewing away from the spotlight for more than a decade—in 2010 a group of scientists met with the desire to create what would later become DeepMind, Google's AI—it was not until last year when The landing of the generative AI program ChatGPT, developed by Open AI, caused a revolution. It was an appearance supported by the release of a range of programs from different companies – such as Bard (Alphabet), Grok from Neither seems to have won yet.
Now, share work hours with a text generating bot (program), like the one that accompanied the protagonist of the film Her (2013), no longer seems to be a science fiction story. Eva García, partner responsible for Data Analysis and AI at KPMG in Spain, explains that companies that are using tools based on this technology have managed to automate processes that once took mainly time and little technical knowledge. The vast majority of procedures can now be written, analyzed or summarized by AI bots. This technology also allows, García highlights, for employees to obtain information more quickly and in an orderly manner, although she emphasizes that “its quality has not yet reached a sufficient degree of maturity.” However, in tasks such as personalized customer service, detecting consumption patterns and inventory management, it is becoming an increasingly necessary tool.
Despite everything, in Spain its deployment is still limited. Only 8% of companies admit to having proactively integrated AI into daily processes. According to García, this is due, on the one hand, to the scarcity of technological profiles that are capable of instructing company personnel and, on the other, to the biases that accompany a technology: a kind of “fear,” explains the expert, which distances companies from these instruments.
57% of leaders surveyed in Spain – from approximately 100 companies – say their progress has been delayed by doubts about how AI makes decisions (a figure similar to the global result of 55%). Companies are concerned about the use that may be made of internal company data. The litigation takes place, mainly, in two ways: one where AI may present certain biases—racial or gender—when making decisions, and another that addresses privacy problems.
The ethical dilemma
Some Spanish companies, such as Redeia—the former Red Eléctrica—, They decided to veto the use of ChatGPT after warning of “possible risks linked to the protection of information.” Telefónica only allows it when the account has been contracted and controlled by the operator itself. At BBVA, on the other hand, they have prohibited its use in general, but employees are allowed to access the bot through authorization. “Legal teams must work together with the business, innovation and information security teams to coherently define a responsible policy, taking into account legal but also ethical parameters,” emphasizes Noemí Brito, partner responsible for the Legal Operations area of KPMG.
Although the debate has progressed slowly, the first results are beginning to emerge. Less than a week ago, the European Union marked a milestone by writing the first official draft with the intention of fully regulating the uses of AI in the region. The text, which will come into force at the end of 2026, mainly aims to put limits on biometric categorization systems (by political, religious, philosophical beliefs or by sexual orientation or race); to systems to expand or create facial databases and to the recognition of emotions in the workplace, among others. For generative AI models like ChatGPT, the legislation instead aims to ensure that the data used by these programs specifies whether the material is a product of AI while respecting copyright.
Other fundamental technologies
Not everything is about the benefits and challenges that AI has brought during the last year. Other types of technologies have also become crucial to advance towards digitalization. One of them is the use of large volumes of data (Big data) and its application in decision making. 17% of those surveyed answer that they have begun to apply this technology in daily operations and that, as a result, economic benefits have improved. Companies in the logistics and parcel delivery sector, to cite an example, admit that the massive use of data is becoming one of the pillars of the industry.
The firms in the study also admit to having greatly increased the use of software per service (SaaS) —a modality that involves using a program on the Internet instead of downloading and installing it on computers, for which a subscription is normally paid in exchange. This business category, included within cloud computing, is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative. 61% of Spanish companies indicate that they have increased their profits after their implementation and two thirds trust that the opportunities provided by SaaS technologies outweigh the risks they entail.
KPMG highlights that companies need to learn to optimize the management of this type of resources. “It is an important lesson that should be applied especially in a context of budget restriction, since digital transformation must be aimed at boosting profitability,” the report concludes.
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