BUSINESSES need to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to remain competitive and provide more value to their customers, the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) said.
On the sidelines of an AI Advantage Workshop, Christopher P. Monterola, head of AIM’s Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, said AI must be allowed to enhance returns in sales and marketing, process improvement, or innovation.
“There are many dimensions that result from that return. But I guess the most important component will be agility, given limited information, that you will be able to make the best possible decision for whatever you’d like to do,” he told BusinessWorld on Friday.
“If you do not embrace AI, then you will have a problem with your competitors and the market itself,” he added. “It really brings value to the customer, assuming that businesses know how to use it.”
He said that almost all industries today require AI adoption, noting however that mom-and-pop stores may not require it now for the time being.
“It’s a must for almost all businesses right now, I would say. But of course, again, it goes back to Return on Investment. If your goal is not to scale up and simply to sustain what you’re earning, then the risk there is that there will be a competitor that is more efficient than you,” he said.
“Sari-sari stores don’t need automation. But if your goal is scaling up, making your product more competitive globally, then the only way to go is to use data science and AI and work with competent partners who understand the risk,” he added.
However, he said AI adoption remains a challenge, especially for smaller businesses, as it is capital intensive.
“The smaller ones, there are many issues to be resolved, including, among others, the cost of doing this… because data scientists are expensive and the infrastructure to do it is also somehow expensive,” he added.
He said that the government needs to help micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by providing them access to public data.
“There is a lot of public data, and I hope the government can be a caretaker of many of these that can be shared with all MSMEs,” he said, noting that such data can help forecast the movement of people and wealth.
“One of the most important things in many businesses will be, of course, (data on) customers and foot traffic and the demography of the people that you want to target for your products are actually available,” he added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile