AI Impact on Jobs, Government Services, Technology Reliability; McDonald's Backs off AI Drive Thru

[00:00:00] It's Tuesday, June 8th, 2024. And I'm Dave Sobel. Three things to know today. Deloitte's AI report, generative AI to redefine jobs, highlighting the importance of talent strategy. AI in government services, the Biden administration highlights benefits in education, healthcare and more.

[00:00:19] And McDonald's pulls that AI order takers from drive-thrus after viral failures highlight reliability issues. This is the Business of Tech. According to a report by the Deloitte AI Institute, organizations are planning to change their talent strategies

[00:00:36] by investing in upskilling and reskilling to address potential job displacement caused by AI advancement. The report also highlights the increased trust in AI within organizations since the emergence of generative AI. However, lack of trust and fear of job loss remain barriers to large-scale AI adoption.

[00:00:55] The report suggests that generative AI will redefine jobs rather than replace them and emphasizes the need for employees to prepare and upgrade their skills. A survey by Slack reveals a gender divide in AI usage among Generation Z,

[00:01:10] with men being 25% more likely to have tried AI tools than women. The report emphasizes the importance of having a diverse user base to shape the future of AI. Additionally, the survey finds that workers of color are using AI more than white workers.

[00:01:26] A series of reports released by the Irish government examine the impact of AI on the Irish economy and labor market. While AI has the potential to drive industries and boost productivity,

[00:01:37] the report also highlighted the risk of job displacement, with over 800,000 jobs at risk due to the introduction of new technology. The reports emphasize the need for public policy to minimize disruptive costs,

[00:01:48] address potential inequities, and navigate the transformative impact of AI on education, training, public finances, and social exclusion. Why do we care? The emphasis on upskilling and reskilling presents a lucrative opportunity for IT service providers to develop and offer comprehensive training programs.

[00:02:08] Providers can partner with organizations to deliver customized learning solutions that address the specific skills gaps caused by AI integration. Because as organizations build trust in AI, there will be greater demand for transparent, ethical AI solutions.

[00:02:24] IT providers can differentiate themselves by focusing on the development of trustworthy AI systems that emphasize data privacy, security, and ethical use. Are you and your clients tired of the time-consuming ticket tennis of coordinating meetings and help desk calls?

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[00:03:27] Let's talk some positive AI stories first. The Biden administration showcased the potential of AI in government services at an AI Aspiration Summit. Twelve federal agencies demonstrated their use of AI to deliver more services.

[00:03:42] The administration highlighted AI's potential in drug research, individualized education, weather forecasts, and improving customer services. A study found that OpenAI's GPT-4 could effectively analyze financial statements and, in some cases, predict a company's future performance better than a human analyst.

[00:04:01] The study examined over 150,000 firm-year observations from about 15,000 companies and found that GPT-4 performed better with larger, more mature firms. However, the researchers noted that financial analysis and prediction are complex tasks that require judgment and intuition, and neither humans nor machines achieve 100% accuracy.

[00:04:23] While GPT-4 shows promise, it's still considered complementary to human analysts rather than a replacement. And while not definitive, experiments are happening with a new AI-powered airplane black box system, or SURGERY, that uses cameras and microphones to analyze data and provide video clips and statistics for surgeons.

[00:04:45] The system anonymizes individuals and evaluates performance based on surgical safety checklists and technical errors. The system is not fully autonomous and requires human verification. While concerns about privacy and legal implications exist, the system has shown potential to improve surgical quality and efficiency.

[00:05:05] However, large-scale studies demonstrating its effectiveness still need to be completed. Why do we care? We continue to look for good examples. The recognition that AI complements rather than replaces human expertise suggests that balanced approach to AI adoption, emphasizing the importance of human-AI collaboration in complex tasks.

[00:05:27] Augment is the key word. And now some of the negative stories. McDonald's is removing that AI-powered automated order taker technology from over 100 drive-thrus after videos showing flaws went viral. The technology was developed in collaboration with IBM, but customers reported issues with incorrect orders.

[00:05:50] McDonald's will continue to explore technology solutions for its workflow and evaluate a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.

[00:05:58] A study by researchers at Stanford University finds that AI legal research tools, despite claims by providers, still suffer from a significant rate of hallucinations or demonstrably false outputs. The study tested products from major legal research providers and compared them to OpenAI's GPT-4 on over 200 legal queries.

[00:06:21] It found that while hallucinations were reduced compared to general-purpose chatbots, the legal AI tools still hallucinated at an alarmingly high rate. The researchers emphasize the need for transparency and benchmarking in legal AI to mitigate these issues.

[00:06:38] According to research published by Pega Systems, business leaders need a clearer understanding of generative AI, leading to failed implementation projects. Despite claiming to have a good understanding of AI, leaders overestimate their knowledge and underestimate the time AI has been used.

[00:06:55] Decision makers are willing to invest a significant portion of their IT budget in AI solutions, but acknowledge wastage due to a lack of well-defined AI strategy.

[00:07:06] SolarWinds' 2024 IT Trends Report on Artificial Intelligence reveals that while IT professionals strongly desire to adopt AI technology, they have concerns about data quality, infrastructure readiness, and security. The report emphasizes the need for internal systems, prioritizing security, fairness, and transparency in AI development.

[00:07:27] And IT professionals see AIOps as the AI technology with the most positive impact, but distrust the data-powering AI and cite privacy and security concerns as significant barriers to adoption.

[00:07:40] They also call for government regulation and the development of thorough ethics, data privacy, and compliance policies for successful and secure AI adoption. Why do we care? Replacing humans is a bad idea. The failure of McDonald's AI power order-taker underscores the importance of reliability and accuracy in customer-facing applications.

[00:08:03] IT providers must prioritize thorough testing and continuous improvement to avoid similar pitfalls. That doesn't mean it's not a good idea to try. IT service providers need to address foundational issues such as data quality and infrastructure readiness to facilitate successful AI adoption.

[00:08:21] Ensuring robust, secure, and scalable infrastructure is crucial for leveraging AI effectively. It remains the key opportunity. Today's episode is supported by Huntress. You want to focus on your clients and are always looking for ways to get more time.

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[00:09:24] Thanks for listening. It's International Sushi Day. For me, that distinctly should be a holiday. I'm off tomorrow for the federal holiday of Juneteenth and I'll return on Thursday with more news.

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