ESG Seminar – Leadership with AI - How to use “AI Canvas” Make Our Business Smarter and Stronger

The Executive Study Group (ESG) seminar – Leadership with AI –  “How to use “AI Canvas” Make Our Business Smarter and Stronger” was held by the ESG, Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APIFS) on 20^th Dec 2019.  Before the seminar, I took a photo with Dr. Mak Lee (Research Director, APIFS) and other friends for memory. After that I would like to summarize the seminar for sharing below.

I met HKSQ Corporate member Mr. Dominic Lam (COO, CMA Testing) and member Mr. CY Lam (Technical Service Manager, Global Accounts, Apparel, COATS).

I recognized new friends Mr. Terruce Wang (Managing Director, Head of Corporate Partnerships and Alliances, Retail Banking (HK), Standard Chartered) and Mr. Francis Sin (Investment Manager, King Link Consulting & Service Limited, China Soft Capital).

In the beginning, Dr. Mark Lee briefed that this year is the 10^th anniversary of Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APIFS). Then he briefed the history and goal of APIFS.

Then he mentioned the contents included “Definition of Intelligence”, “Crystal Ball for Auto-Prediction”, “Determine to use AI for a Task” and “AI Canvas”.  Firstly, He employed Netflix as an example to explain how they analyzed audience data to select for which kind of TV program production.  One of recent success TV program named “The Crown”.

Then he showed a video for Netflix analytics, indicating that AI, Big Data could assist us to make better decision.

Then Dr. Lee used a game to explain AI prediction and Mr. Terruce Wang gave his idea.

After that he quoted Prof. Ajay Agrawal (Professor of Strategic Management, University of Toronto) that Prediction is the process of filling in missing information.  It is the process from “you have” to predict “you don’t have”.  He also mentioned the case of Alibaba’s Brand Databank for retailer that was not only platform for sale but also AI service to enhance your precision sale & promotion. 

In the first discussion session, Dr. Mark Lee asked a question “AI’s prediction capability can improve my industry’s business performance significantly. Agree or not?” Then he invited three guests for discussion and they were Mr. Joseph Poon (Chairman, Hang Sang Index Advisory Committee of Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited; Former Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Hang Seng Bank Ltd), Mr. Benjamin Ma (Managing Director, Global Trinity (HK) Ltd) and Mr. Thomason Lai (Chairman, Trio Industrial Electronics Group Limited).

Mr. Joseph Poon said AI application should be considered the explainability.  AI is more like conditional probability.  AI used in NLP using rule-based in the past but now using data-driven that means from top-down approach to bottom-up approach.  Lastly, he said CEO due with people more than others.

Mr. Benjamin Ma said AI related to the 4^th Industrial Revolution.  He shared that his clothing company increased production rate around 20%~25%.  And sale data collection could help for proactive promotion.  Lastly, he use driver as example for CEO’s job that driver’s key work is not driving but waiting to drive.  He means that CEO do most preparation work.

Mr. Thomason Lai shared that AI like fortune teller using I Ching. It separated into three parts indicating past, present and future.  He also mentioned that his factory entered i4.0 industry and the first lecture was collecting real time data.  They integrated AI and Manual to build Intelligent Warehouse.  Finally, he said CEO should build internal network and called “Happier Environment” for staff.   

After that Dr. Mark Lee introduced machine learning and its algorithms which was a mathematical model based on sample data (training data) to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform the task.  But traditional prediction had limitations such as identification of a group of pictures.  Then he stated the self-learning approach named Deep Learning and using clustering methodology.

And then Dr. Mark Lee said AI is still at early stage and far away to ‘Artificial General Intelligence” or “Strong AI”.  The current generation of AI provided tools for prediction and human as Tools Builder.  Then he showed a young Steve Jobs video to explain AI like the bicycle as a tool.  Video named - Steve Jobs, "Computers are like a bicycle for our minds."

The second part of discussion session, Dr. Lee asked question to identify the mostly likely to apply AI and most unlikely.

Dr. Mark Lee invited Mr Anthony WONG See Ho (Advisor, APIFS; Previous Managing Director, HACTL) to be special guest to share his view for us.  He shared the third runway of airport that could handle for 15 to 20 year capacity.  Why HK to be air logistic hub?  Because of our high efficiency.  

Mr. Joseph Poon shared that HR employed AI mostly but the most important was to ask the right question.

Mr. Benjamin Ma said AI had assisted most of business functions but the unlikely on Customer Service because of human to human interaction. For industry, they would like to invest AI for 24hr delivery cloth ordered by customer.

Mr. Thomason Lai said his factory employed AI in many department but Customer Service Complaint was not suitable.  Because they were B2B.  He shared the financial department should be posted into high position as steeling department and using AI.

Finally, Dr. Mark Lee introduced the seven elements to work with AI through workflow breakdown included Prediction, Input, Judgement, Training, Action, Outcome and Feedback.

Then he showed AI Canvas and discussed its application.

Dr. Lee used a startup company named Atomwise as example to explain how they employed AI and got very high amount of investment in the A round funding.  

IBM help Atomwise Discover Potential Drug Treatments

Another example was MBA Student Recruiting using AI Canvas.

In the last discussion session, the question was “My industry is likely to apply AI to support predications by coming 3 year”.

Mr. Joseph Poon said customer complaint should be solved and not accept even though 97%.  Root cause analysis should be done for safety.  He said Innovation and Problem Solving used the same model.

Mr. Benjamin Ma told us that most innovation through cross-over such as medical and clothing industry.  Entrepreneur should accept new ideas.

Mr. Thomason Lai shared his think inside the box.  Firstly, you should define your box dimensions (e.g. Time, Resource and Technology) and then change the amount such as 3 month reduced to 3 week.  Innovation would be forced out.

Reference:

Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (亞太策略研究所有限公司) – www.apifs.org

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