To kick off Business+Tech’s annual Tech Literacy Download, Dinkar Jain, Head of Remote Presence Platform at Meta, spoke to a crowd of business, information and engineering students about management in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) at the Ross School of Business. Jain graduated from the University of Michigan in 2006 with a BSE in Computer Science and later received a MBA from Harvard University. Prior to joining Meta, he worked at Twitter, Amazon, Alphabet and Boston Consulting Group.
Jain started his presentation with a brief discussion of the history of AI and how global participation in the information economy has grown as the marginal cost of disseminating information has decreased with the advent of the internet. This has led to an explosion in data-driven technology such as machine learning, but also uncertainty among management on how to account for this relatively new asset: “Data is the biggest asset of a company and we don’t account for it, and its economic value could be anything.” Jain said.
Jain believes that AI is best suited for industries in which aggregate harm can be minimized, like farming and advertising. It’s less suited for purposes like weapons, where the potential damage can be catastrophic. “A high tolerance to inaccuracies is the best indicator of suitability,” he said. He also noted that repetitive tasks with objectively definable outputs will best be done by AI. This could prove beneficial for industries such as accounting and manufacturing.
Beyond its technological implications, AI can also be seen as a marketing tool. “AI will be your brand,” Jain said, referencing how smart assistants like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa have become synonymous with the identity of the two tech companies. He cautions marketers to be careful, as “branding soft skills is the most difficult algorithmic challenge.”
He concluded the presentation with a brief discussion of the ethics of AI and its potential harmful applications. He noted the technology can be unpopular, and there is a gray area in terms of when or how much information a company should be required to share. AI should also not be universally regarded as a good thing due to its potentially racist applications. Jain referenced a 2016 case involving Amazon’s use of data to determine which neighborhoods it would offer one-day Prime delivery to, which resulted in divisions along racial and demographic lines.
As AI’s growth continues, its implications and use cases will span across areas of interest including risk management, finance, marketing, strategy and more. Jain stressed that managers must be prepared to respond to the benefits and risks of this technology.