Artificial intelligence conquered Davos: Swiss bosses do not trust artificial intelligence yet

class = “sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>

You can see how quickly artificial intelligence (AI) is permeating our lives from the promenade at Davos GR. While until last year most of the rented shops and boutiques were occupied by sellers of medical cannabis or cryptocurrency, at this year’s World Economic Forum things are completely different: the letters A and I dominate – an abbreviation for the English phrase Artificial Intelligence. German AI only.

While laymen are surprised by this rapid development, Dalith Steiger-Gablinger (53) says: “I am even more surprised that artificial intelligence was not so prominently represented in previous years. AI has finally become socially acceptable.” Steiger is co-founder of SwissCognitive, works for AI Ventures, and has been a consultant on AI and its predecessors for years. Because AI didn’t appear overnight, tech giants have long taught computers to learn and think. He’s trying to teach.

Skepticism in the executive suite

What’s different now: “Many employees use AI privately and want to use it in the company as well to make their work easier,” says the artificial intelligence expert. This means employees are ahead of bosses, and he suspects AI will replace more than half of jobs in Switzerland.

The boardroom is much more skeptical, as the Swiss edition of the global CEO survey presented by consultancy PwC in Davos on Monday evening shows: “Swiss CEOs are still very cautious about the use of artificial intelligence and are more skeptical than their colleagues abroad,” says PwC Switzerland Its president, Andreas Staubli, is 56. The reason: Fear of risk still prevails. Cyber ​​risks are at the top of the global elite’s anxiety barometer, even displacing geopolitical risks.

Fear of misinformation

The problem: Not only are companies upgrading AI, but hackers can also use it and are therefore much faster at finding gaps in the company’s security architecture. There are also reputational risks. For example, if a company relies too much on artificial intelligence that likes to invent answers, in technical language this is called hallucination. “CEOs have great respect for misinformation,” Staubli says. After all, the survey also shows that 90 percent of bosses do not plan to reduce their workforce. Besides, the situation of the Swiss economy is not that bad.

Marco Huwiler, 48, president of consulting firm Accenture Switzerland, is realistic about the future of work. «Compared to other technical developments, artificial intelligence will impact every industry and sector. And everywhere activities will be eliminated.” However, new ones are also being added. Exactly where and which ones are still an open question. Huwiler gives an example: “Linguists may suddenly be in great demand. Because the success of productive artificial intelligence largely depends on artificial intelligence being fed with human intelligence.”

“Democratize technology”

It is also important for bosses to know exactly where they want to go in the company and the use of artificial intelligence. “It also requires well-structured training and advanced training for employees.” This also applies to managers. This is the only way to involve employees in this development. “I can understand many people’s fear, but perhaps AI will mean that we will work less in the future and work will become more exciting,” says Huwiler.

“We need to democratize technology for the benefit of poor people,” says Steiger-Gablinger. This applies to people in developing countries as well as to those who are weaker in the labor market. “Otherwise there is a risk of a huge gap between rich and poor.” The expert also believes that AI is far from helping us in some areas: “In areas of speed or quality, AI is superior to us, but the machine is still not even close to human intuition.”

Source :Blick