business does not need to evaluate the effect of AI through quick savings / Economic news of Krasnoyarsk and the Krasnoyarsk Territory / Newslab.Ru
Businesses will be able to fully feel the effect of introducing artificial intelligence in two to three years, while the assessment of the financial return of such projects differs from the traditional one. About this at the VTB forum “Russia Calling!” in St. Petersburg, said Sergey Karpovich, deputy head of the T1 AI department (T1 IT holding).
Speaking at the session “Artificial Intelligence: Technologies and the Future of Private Investment,” the expert emphasized that many organizations are still dominated by an outdated investment paradigm: AI is seen as a tool for cutting costs, and instantly. The real effect is delayed and is largely associated with changes in the operating culture itself.
“Those who approach artificial intelligence as an ordinary IT project with questions: how much will we save, how many processes will we speed up, how will we optimize the staff – greatly underestimate the potential of the technology. The economic return becomes noticeable after two to three years, when processes are rebuilt and the company learns to work with data in a new way,” noted Sergei Karpovich.
At the same time, the expert emphasized that it is important for businesses to look not only at direct savings, but also at the cost of abandoning AI technologies.
“Companies still hardly know how to calculate losses from not using AI and are focused mainly on reducing costs. If we model the scenario “What will happen to business in three years if we don’t use AI,” many will be very surprised by the numbers that will be obtained in terms of competitiveness and efficiency,” said Sergei Karpovich.
According to him, this approach is especially dangerous in industries where rapid digital transformation is taking place and competition for clients is increasing.
“Artificial intelligence provides three key advantages: speed, the ability to process huge amounts of information and personalized, high-quality services. Banks and financial organizations compete for clients by offering this particular combination. Therefore, the financial sector was logically one of the first to begin to receive a measurable effect from AI,” the expert said.
He recalled that today AI in finance is already widely used in credit scoring, cybersecurity and anti-fraud, as well as in the personalization of services and automation of back-office processes.
The expert focused the audience’s attention on the difference in the perception of artificial intelligence by managers and ordinary employees. According to him, surveys show that top management significantly underestimates the actual level of use of AI in companies.
Sergei Karpovich provided data from a recent research: CEOs estimate that about 3% of their company's employees use AI at work. At the same time, the real figure is closer to 13%, that is, management underestimated the scale of the use of technology in the workplace by three times.
The expert also noted that as available AI tools spread – from office assistants to specialized analytical services – the share of employees regularly using AI in their daily work will grow, regardless of how formalized the company's strategy is.
“The extent to which an organization knows how to work with artificial intelligence – trains people, changes processes, consolidates new practices – directly determines what its effectiveness will be. If the culture does not change, AI remains, in essence, marketing noise, while employees still use it selectively in their work,” emphasized Sergey Karpovich.
