Generative AI adoption will determine winners, losers

Will AI lead us toward a utopian society or trap us in a perpetual dystopian nightmare?

Paul Blackler from Wavestone started off his keynote this morning at the CDOTrends 7th Chief Digital & Data Officer (CDDO) Asia Summit with a fun snap poll.

All into AI

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some 95% in the packed room of over 150 delegates were optimistic that AI will bring us to a better place.

And no wonder, as it emerged that many were working hard to implement AI in their organisations.

• Establishing business use cases.
• Setting up ethics committees.
• Rolling out pilot projects.

Or at least beginning the journey by attending events like the CDDO to hear from experts and other businesses further along on their AI roadmaps.

Key takeaways

It was a packed day for me, meeting up with friends such as Caitlin Nguyen and Clarence Goh, leading a discussion over lunch, and facilitating a panel with Sudhanshu Duggal and Carlos Queiroz about the utility of big (and small) AI models.

Now that I have some time, here are some takeaways from the day:

• Leadership conundrum: Generative AI will determine the winners and losers in the long term, says Paul. However, 16% of tech leaders believe that AI adoption should be led by the CEO. Ironically, most business leaders think AI adoption should be led by tech leaders.
• Only as good as your data: AI is only as good as your data. And IT and data leaders are facing unprecedented challenges with scaling their ability to manage more data, noted IBM's Anton Lee in his presentation.
• Which model to use? For companies creating IP or products that give them a unique competitive advantage, Carlos of SCB suggested that businesses should avoid proprietary models and go with open-source ones to ensure absolute control over their data.

It is abundantly clear that transformation is not a luxury but a necessity in our era of AI.

And unless they want to be left behind, organisations must evolve and change at a speed never seen before.

Read what I wrote about the CDDO Asia Summit on CDOTrends here.