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‘AI adoption as catalyst for business development’

By Benjamin Alade
15 February 2019   |   1:47 am
The adaptation of artificial intelligence (AI) by organisations, which leverages technology in the 21st century drive for sustainability and growth, seeks to improve market share and grow its bottom-line.    


The adaptation of artificial intelligence (AI) by organisations, which leverages technology in the 21st century drive for sustainability and growth, seeks to improve market share and grow its bottom-line.    
    
Besides it is seen as a way of optimising the advantages of AI for greater outcomes especially to boost bottom-line and grow businesses, and achieve sustainable development.
     
These were the assertions of Founder and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Ausso Leadership Academy, Austin Okere, at the Institute of Directors’ (IoD) Nigeria, February 2019 Members’ Evening, themed, ‘Artificial Intelligence – Why it Matters’, held in Lagos.He said: “All said and done, there is a whole lot that we can use AI to help us with reducing poverty, matching jobs with people, matching people looking for homes with homes that are available, and on the other hand, we are going to create some serious unemployment especially with driverless cars; but we are also going to create jobs with more knowledge.”
 
Okere, who was the guest speaker said it is no longer an issue whether AI matters or not, as it has come to stay even though it has its negative and positive sides.
 
According to him, AI has been adopted to improve agriculture, medicine, while in some cases it can also be deployed as autonomous weaponry where a system is programmed to cause havoc.“It has happened in Yemen, where a drone was used to attack the person that was speaking. You also find that there is not any road to progress that is not risky – so, there are risks, but we have to manage the risk,” Okere stated.
     
He also said the Nigerian finance sector can take advantage of the positive sides to AI. “When the rate of change in your environment is higher than the rate of change in the internal, then the end is insight. So, we have to make ourselves ready and embrace AI for the good part that we can benefit from it.”

He added that the financial services operators can deploy AI to predict hedge funds that make better returns. Noting that hackers can easily break into the financial sector today unlike before when account holders move around with their physical cheque books; there are also cyber security software that banks can deploy to protect their customers.

Earlier in his remarks, President/Chairman of Council, IoD Nigeria, Ahmed Rufai Mohammed, said 2019 is looking very promising because people must continue to be optimistic of the future.   Mohammed said the IoD setup a committee in 2018, to handle the issues of ethical values, and as a result the institute will have a code of ethics for directors in Nigeria, adding that like the code of corporate governance; the government will fully support the new initiative.Mohammed said the ethical committee will ensure a clear and definite outline of ethical requirements of members and employees of the institute for a proper understanding and adherence to business standard, and ensure that it is able to monitor the conduct of its members and employees.

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