Gareth Kelly, Partner NI Data, Analytics and AI at EY explores how Big Data and AI is transforming lives and bringing meaningful benefits to people, organisations and society.
Gareth sits down with Sync NI to answer our questions.
Q1: We are now living in the era of AI. Should we fear or embrace this technology?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force in our world, revolutionising industries and reshaping the way we live, work and consume information. However, alongside the excitement and promise that AI brings, there’s also a significant amount of apprehension surrounding its impact on employment and wider society.
From a workplace perspective, concerns aboutdisruption are common with every major technological evolution, but history has shown that each of these evolutions has always created many more jobs in the long run. We see AI working in the same way, working alongside teams as a co-pilot augmenting human potential by automating repetitive tasks, boosting productivity, supporting ideation and research and much more.
At a business and organisationallevel, we are already working with clients to grow revenue, cut costs and manage riskwithAI.So, should we be afraid of AI? No.
The opportunity AI offers is bigger than any potential downside and we are now seeing legislation, such as the EU AI Act, coming into place to protect people, information and supervise deployment and usage.
Ultimately, the impact of AI will depend on how it is developed, regulated, and integrated into society. It is important to approach AI with a balanced perspective, recognising its potential benefits while also addressing the potential challenges and risks it presents.
Collaboration among big tech, policymakers, and the public is crucial to ensure that AI is used responsibly and for the greater good. I am excited for the future and the opportunities AI will bring.
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Q2: How is EY generating value for clients and society from AI
EY is committed to building confidence in AI and creating value for clients and society. We have invested $1.4 billion in artificial intelligence as part of a broader $10 billion three-year enterprise investment plan. This investment underscores our firm's commitment to integrating AI into our services and platforms to generate value for clients and society.
We are seeing AI make people more productive, drive new products, generate revenue and manage costs for clients. We are seeing society be impacted across health, public services and tech innovation.
EY is generating value for clients and society from AI through several key initiatives:
1.Helping clients leverage AI across their business: EY takes a holistic approach to client needs, ensuring that AI solutions are integrated thoughtfully into their business processes and strategies. This puts people at the centre and includes careful investment in the right technology, a focus on data and return on investment.
2.Ethical and Responsible AI: EY is committed to addressing ethical, regulatory, and security complexities associated with AI. This includes helping clients build frameworks for the responsible adoption of AI.
3.EY.ai Platform: The EY.ai platform combines deep business knowledge with AI capabilities and a robust ecosystem of business alliances. This supports the transformation of clients' businesses through the confident and responsible adoption of AI.
4.All in Strategy: EY's "All in" strategy aims to shape the future with confidence and drive growth by investing in areas such as AI, technology, managed services, and sustainability.
Scott Fischaber, Co-Founder and COO, Analytics Engines and Gareth Kelly, Partner NI Data, Analytics and AI, EY, at this year's Big Data Belfast conference
Q3: Are we doing enough to release the value within the data across industry?
For many years we have heard data is the new oil. But it is much more valuable than that. It’s a super fuel. It is food for AI.
The best companies are investing in data quality, governance, information curation and a strategy focused on using systems to create clean data. This is how they are getting value from AI.
Data is important for AI for several key reasons:
1. Training and Learning: AI models, particularly those based on machine learning, require large amounts of data to learn from. This data is used during the training phase to teach the model to recognize patterns, make decisions, and predict outcomes.
2. Accuracy and Precision: The more data an AI system has access to, the more accurate and precise it can become. Data allows the model to fine-tune its algorithms and improve its performance over time. But as always, the quality of data is key. As the saying goes, Garbage in, Garbage out.
3. Validation and Testing: After training, AI models need to be validated and tested using separate datasets to ensure that they work as intended. This helps to identify any issues before the models are deployed in a live environment.
Advanced manufacturing, pharma and utility companies are investing heavily in data to realise the value from AI. From demand vs supply problems, procurement, customer and revenue, the opportunities are endless provided you invest in the right data foundations.
However, you don’t need perfection, don’t drown in your data lake – focus on the data sets that matter, the data that is associated with the most value.
Q4: How is EY adapting for / expanding to the growth in demand for AI driven solutions and services?
This is all about people, capability and talent. At EY, we believe that you need the right combination of skills to really deliver value from AI. You need technologists, platform experts, data scientists, analysts and change management expertise. We are always problem-focused and work with our clients to understand their business. You have to put the business mind in the AI machine and that’s where the right people really matter!
At EY, we are pioneering the use of AI in everything we do internally to refine our strategies and be in the strongest position to advise our clients. We are training and upskilling our staff across the businessenabling and encouraging our people to harness the power of generative AI. We are actively recruiting individuals well-versed in AI technologies. As part of our commitment to a1000 jobs right here in Northern Ireland, we anticipate over 300 will be focused on AI related services. Our ambition is to have the best people working on the biggest problems for both our clients and society as we shape the future with confidence.
Read Sync NI's free online Big Data Belfast autumn magazine here.
