Is everyone marching towards AI and ML? AI leaders from a digital identity verification company set the tone for the evening’s discussion by explaining their approach to AI/ML. They had to convince the board to make a multimillion dollar investment to strengthen the Data and ML capability. They told us of their powerful tactic of guiding excitable data science teams with the mantra to “always be in service to the business”

 

AI and ML are integral to their business, so they’ve been on this journey for a while. But that doesn’t mean their enthusiasm has curbed at all. They pointed out that AI and ML are ‘in-style’ now and there is a risk of applying it without adequate consideration to whether it’s the right solution to the problem or not. Instead of using four lines of code for a solution, data scientists will train a machine or AI model. It’s something they continue to deal with within their company, working hard to emphasise delivering value above all else with their delivery teams.

 

With this in mind, they developed a set of guiding principles for their data science teams, to help keep them on track. The key sentiment behind these principles was shared by a number of audience members and went on to frame much of the evening’s discussion: be driven by value.

 

As our speaker so aptly put it, “If you think algorithms or AI or ML isn’t adding business value, then you should shut it down”