Telford business owner shares pros and cons of AI

Corndel surveyed 300 senior data leaders and 1,500 employees who work with data tasks.

And it revealed 61 per cent believe new technology will take at least 25 per cent of their role in the next ten years, with 38 per cent of the 18-34 year olds fearing that AI will take at least 50 per cent of their job in the next ten years.

James Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Corndel, said: “Younger employees are already acknowledging the risks of being left behind by technology, which is shown in the large number of 18-34 year olds who think their jobs are at risk from AI.

"Only by implementing continuous skills development programmes to support lifetime learning among employees, as well as investing in technology and data infrastructure, can organisations empower their employees to leverage tech and data knowledgeably, confidently and effectively, to fuel transformative change and drive successful performance.”

We caught up with Hollie Whittles, director of two digital companies – FraggleWorks and Purple Frog Systems – to hear more about her views on the pros and cons of AI.

"Everyone assumes that AI is the Hollywood version with robot overlords taking over the world," she said. "In reality, AI is already here and we are using it in society.

"Phone apps such as Uber using an AI to figure out the closest car to your destination, Netflix suggesting films for you to watch based on your history, Amazon prompting ‘customers also bought’ options on checkout, digital assistants like Alexa and Siri all of which are helping to make our lives better."

So what are the pros? Hollie says these include enhanced decision making.

And she added: "In our business, we develop machine learning solutions to predict patterns in data, for example, to predict customer churn and enhance decision making.

"There's also improved customer experience. "We are automating social media posts and using AI algorithms to improve customer experience."

And she said there is also mitigation of human error.

"We are automating processes to make things quicker and more efficiently and mitigate human error – all of which can save costs and provide huge returns on investment," she adds/

"As with all things, there are always pros and cons and there is a lot of concern about the future of AI.

"Film director James Cameron told CTV News “I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger.”

So what are some of the cons?

"With automation, people are concerned about their jobs becoming obsolete therefore AI integration must be careful planned to minimise displacement and allow for staff to upskill into new roles," said Hollie.

"I champion apprenticeships for the Federation of Small Businesses and this is a great route to consider when upskilling existing staff.

"There are concerns around privacy, bias and transparency – remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal for Facebook (Meta)? Businesses need to address these concerns and establish guidelines to minimise misuse."

Accuracy is another key point.

"Where humans are involved in a process, there’s always a possibility for errors such as data entry typos so automation can help improve but AI can lack creativity and accuracy too," she said.

"People are using ChatGPT but it doesn’t always give the right answer so humans are still needed to fact check and research any information given.

"In addition, for a business to embrace emerging technologies it can be quite worrying, costly and time-consuming.

"Businesses are ruling out AI due to a lack of knowledge to implement it so the UK Government needs to support businesses and provide further training and incentives so that business can scale up."

Hollie says that AI will be transformative to our society.

She added: "We need to tread carefully but I still believe there are many positives that will allow business to adapt, evolve and transform."

The report by Corndel can be found at https://www.corndel.com/