The power of AI in business
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the business landscape, offering new opportunities to increase efficiency, reduce costs and create innovative solutions.
However, along with its benefits, AI also brings significant risks, such as the automation of prejudices and the lack of human supervision, which can lead to unfair or wrong decisions.
Companies therefore need to approach these challenges strategically, ensuring that the implementation of AI is done responsibly and ethically, so that they can make the most of the advantages of this revolutionary technology while mitigating its potential risks.
But how do you make the most of the advantages of AI while controlling all these risks? This was the theme of the latest MEO Empresas Talks, an initiative in partnership with ECO, which exposed the risks, but also all the precautions and advantages associated with the use of AI.
Opening the conference, Nuno Nunes, Chief Sales Officer B2B at Altice Portugal, began by saying that "what we do with time is absolutely decisive for the competitiveness of Portuguese companies".
The CSO also pointed out that combining technology with efficient time management can provide a significant competitive advantage by reducing costs and speeding up processes. "I am sure that AI will no longer be a choice, but a must-have that will be part of our society," he said.
"I'm sure that AI will no longer be a choice, but a must-have that will be part of our society"
Nuno Nunes, Chief Sales Officer B2B at Altice Portugal
How to use AI and make it strategic for companies
After Nuno Nunes' opening speech, there followed a presentation by Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, a partner at Pérez-Llorca, in which he recounted a paradigmatic case that took place in the Netherlands, where a fraud identification system resulted in 100,000 families being unfairly notified to return subsidies of 30,000 euros, based on skewed data and without adequate human supervision.
"The Tax Authority had set up a fraud identification system to ensure that this support was properly allocated. The point is that this system had been given some clues to identify fraud, namely if people were immigrants or if they had two nationalities in addition to the Dutch one. And what happened was that the algorithm identified, based on this, that the person was committing fraud and because human supervision was so weak, hardly anyone investigated and the letters went directly to the families, who were demanded to return their money," he explained.
The Pérez-Llorca partner gave this example, which took place in 2019, to illustrate the dangers of poorly implemented AI, while emphasizing the need for human supervision and responsibility: "If the information we put into AI systems and tools is of poor quality, the decisions are of poor quality. My point is that AI is not an IT issue, it is a strategic issue for any company."
"Everyone is selling AI, everyone wants to buy AI, but each company has to understand to what extent the use of AI does or doesn't make sense in their processes"
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, Partner at Pérez-Llorca
Low-code can help with adaptation
The conference ended with a round table, in which Adolfo Mesquita Nunes once again stressed that the adoption of AI must be done with caution and ethics. "Everyone is selling AI, everyone wants to buy AI, but each company has to understand to what extent the use of AI does or does not make sense in its processes," he said.
He also highlighted the importance of carrying out a detailed mapping of all AI applications within companies to avoid reputational risks and discrimination.
Also at the round table, Jorge Sousa, head of Business Communication at Altice Labs, presented BOTSchool, a platform for democratizing AI technology for companies, focused on communication between the company and its customers. "BOTSchool aims to be a platform for democratizing access to this type of technology for companies," he explained.
The head of Altice Labs emphasized that the platform uses a low-code interface, which makes it easy to use for people without advanced technical knowledge.
"BOTSchool aims to be a platform for democratizing access to this type of technology for the business community"
Jorge Sousa, Head of Business Communication at Altice Labs
AI in the automotive industry and ethical requirements
On this point, Miguel Pinto, Managing Director of Continental Advanced Antenna Portugal, addressed the application of AI in the automotive sector, both in in-house production and in product development. "We work for the automotive industry and we all know that it is undergoing a disruptive process," he commented. This process, he believes, not only improves productivity and product quality, but also increases the safety of autonomous cars by predicting, for example, pedestrian movements on the road.
During the discussion, it was unanimously agreed that companies should invest in training and preparing their staff for the ethical and effective use of AI. Among the ethical requirements put forward were human supervision, transparency, diversity, non-discrimination, technical safety, social and environmental well-being, privacy and data management.
Despite the emphasis on the risks associated with the use of AI, this MEO Talks reinforced the importance of embedding AI in companies, not just as a technological tool, but as an essential strategic component.
"We work for the automotive industry and we all know that it is undergoing a disruptive process"
Miguel Pinto, Managing Director of Continental Advanced Antenna Portugal
ECO