All aboard the AI train!

The other week, I spotted a Times article with a rather peculiar headline: ‘Gail’s asks computer where it should open branches next’. I was intrigued – what is so special about Gail’s approach to scouting for new locations that warrants a standalone article in one of the UK’s most-read newspapers? Turns out, nothing. They have built a model and have been feeding it data, including the number of churches and schools in each area, the sites’ proximity to tube stations and more, for the past eight years. That, in turn, has allegedly helped the bakery chain make more informed decisions about where to open new outlets. 

What is so surprising about a big, largely private equity owned business using data analysis in business development? We live in a world where Spotify curates personalised playlists for its users based on what they are listening to and when, which songs they are adding to their playlists, and the listening habits of people with similar preferences. Supermarket loyalty apps offer tailored vouchers based on our shopping history, Microsoft Word autocompletes our sentences for us, Google Maps uses AI to help us get from point A to point B; Uber relies on AI to match drivers with passengers, not to mention the infamous Hinge. Given how over-reliant on AI we have grown to be in our daily lives, it is little wonder that businesses seek to optimise their processes and garner important insights with its help. 

What, in my opinion, should have been the focus of the article, is the fact that despite having tons of data and a clever algorithm to sift through it, Gail’s has encountered a few bumps on the road as it embarked on its expansion journey, having faced opposition to some of its planned openings in various parts of the country, including Walthamstow, whose residents launched a petition against the chain in a bid to protect ‘the unique identity’ of their community. Humans are complex, and our behaviours and reactions to various phenomena are not always rational and calculated, which is something that AI (at least at the time of writing) has trouble anticipating.

Does it mean businesses should dismiss it as misleading and useless? Absolutely not. In an ideal world, AI should be used to rid our jobs or daily tasks of their most cumbersome elements and free up space for things that require creative thinking, as well as emotional and social intelligence. Using the Gail’s example – there is nothing wrong with creating a shortlist of potentially workable locations for your next bakery using an algorithm, but a bit of community engagement work and on-the-ground research certainly won’t do any harm. It may take additional time and effort but will also enable organisations to anticipate and mitigate potential crises. 

Instead of worrying about AI taking away our jobs, we should spend some time trying to understand the tools that are currently available to us and think about the ways they can facilitate the tasks in front of us. That is not to suggest that everyone working in communications should outsource all of their written work to Chat GPT, but, with the right amount of supervision, it can certainly be used to help with initial research and idea generation, which, in the absence of a brainstorming partner could be highly valuable. 

If you are not sure where to start, look no further. 

On 6th March, SEC Newgate’s AI network will be hosting an event looking at how AI is altering the world of work, which will undoubtedly provide plenty of food for thought for all of us, whether you’re an AI sceptic or, on the contrary, aficionado, like Gail’s co-founder.