In November, 3M, manufacturer of industry, worker safety and consumer goods, hosted an event in partnership with The British Science Association (BSA) titled Charting the Path Forward: A Call for UK Leadership in AI and Innovation. The event brought together key AI experts from 3M, the BSA, Microsoft and The New Statesman. The discussion covered the impact of AI, public and business perceptions, regulations, innovations and future usage.
The event was held at Digital Catapult and its Director of Strategy, Philip Young, opened the discussion. He explained how the catapults were established in 2014 with nine innovation hubs across the UK focusing on translating research into commercial success. They specialise in various technologies like AI, space, smart cities and transport systems, working to create or transform markets and drive technological adoption.
The panel
The event featured a panel discussion, moderated by Jane Wakefield, Freelance Writer, Conference Host, Podcaster and Media Trainer (formerly Senior Tech Journalist at the BBC). She began by addressing the current AI landscape; it’s the hottest topic in the tech world right now and it can be used to help solve some of the biggest challenges we face. The current government has committed to using AI but we are still unsure of what that could mean and the effects it could have.
She commented: “My children are considering their choices at university and my son is talking about finance. I’m wondering if that is an area that is going to be taken over by AI. As individual’s, these are the conversations people are having with their families about how AI is going to affect our daily lives,” she said.
Key points raise
It is reported that 73% of individuals agree that AI will change the world as we know it but, the first question asked was what change AI will bring and what that will look like. Here are some of the responses:
Paul Cardno, Global Digital Innovation Lead at 3M: “One third of employees in the workplace are already using AI every week, so what we are talking about isn’t something in the distant future. When we talk about change, we’re talking about something that’s already present and impacting the way we work.
“Some research has stated that most managers don’t think their employees use AI. This creates challenges when it comes to safety, observability and authenticity.”
Sarah Armstrong, EMEA Modern Work & Gen AI Director, Microsoft: “The change is being free from the mundane. AI will allow you to focus on more creative, strategic, innovative tasks and on relationship building. AI is offering us the opportunity to change and grow, not by replacing people but empowering people by allowing them to focus on higher value tasks.
“The question then becomes, how can we leverage AI to make the world and the environment a better place? How do we use it to heal people, for society and to drive inclusiveness? What do future jobs and skills look like?”
Hannah Russell CEO, British Science Association: “Seventy-three per cent of people think that AI will change the world. These changes can be both positive and negative.
“The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published a report earlier this year and one of the questions asked people to sum up their views about AI in one word. The most common word by far was ‘scary’, followed by ‘worry’ and then ‘unsure’. It shows we have a job to do around public perception.”
Will Dunn, Business Associate Editor at the New Statesmen: “The case of AI feels quite different than any technology we have seen before. It is something that everyone can see, everyone can set examples and everyone has, to a certain extent, started using it.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen this huge boom in news stories and investments related to this sudden public awareness of large language models. Over the next few years, we are going to see more real-world examples that are geared more towards businesses being able to use new products in different ways, increasing productivity.”
Moving on, the panellists were asked how can we shift the public perspective away from being ‘scared’ while also ensuring that a wide range of voices are included in the conversation?
Hannah Russell: “We do a lot of work looking at public views about emerging technologies and consistently, the areas that people want to know about are who governs the technology, who benefits from it and is the technology safe and secure?
“People find AI quite scary, and we should be engaging them as it is going to change people’s livelihoods. Two other important reasons are the concerns of public trust and diversity of voices. If we want to increase public trust, then we need to hear the voices of those not currently engaged in the conversation. In turn, that makes for better science and more thoughtful, inclusive and durable solutions. It’s an economic imperative to bring the public in.”
Will Dunn: “It is very important to acknowledge those fears and discuss them. However, we should refrain from taking part in false headlines. A recent story from the Tony Blair Institute, which discussed possible redundancies from AI, said around a quarter of million jobs would be lost to AI each year. The public sees that and are worried.
“Many workplace departments seem comfortable with robots, automation and using chatbots but there are also philosophical questions about AI. A major contribution to adoption is the way in which people feel about AI. Engaging people is vital and talking more about what they will gain from it in their individual roles.”
Sarah Armstrong: “At Microsoft I work in a role with hundreds of customers on adoption of AI across Europe. If you had put a time lapse camera in our customer briefing centres a year ago, there was excitement and skepticism. Fast-forward three months, I think you would have seen a lot of fear. However, when we’re out with customers, we’re hearing hundreds of big ideas on how to transform businesses with AI. In every industry, we have seen some great examples of AI usage, such as getting better products to market quicker within the required customer satisfaction level.
“A recent IDC report on the AI opportunity talked about the use of AI in the workplace and what a business is getting out of it. At Microsoft, we monitor the real impact on our customers and on average they are seeing a 3.7x return on their investment for AI.
“These stats show that when you create a movement and when you embed AI, not only in your workforce, but to transform your business processes, the return is huge.”
Thinking ahead
To end, the panelists were asked to give one change that they think will have the greatest impact on the UK’s AI and innovation landscape. Two main issues were raised.
- Regulations: The government has a big decision to make about how much to support AI and innovation. However, the current noise is about regulations in terms of economic growth and its benefits.
- Diversity and skills: Diversity of talent and skills is fundamental to AI. Around 1.6 million people work in tech in the UK but it’s just not as diverse as it needs to be. Only 21% of people working in tech are women and only 11% are people with disabilities.
The sector needs to ensure greater recognition of the value of technical skills throughout the education system. We need to put in place strategies to build a diverse pipeline, but also look at retention. When people get into the workforce, how are we keeping them?
The full panel discussion was recorded by The New Statesmen and will be available to listen to as a podcast soon.
For more articles like this, visit our Industrial Data & AI channel.
