How Do You Know When It’s Time To Use AI?
I do not doubt, you probably heard a lot of advice and received many answers to the above question. In some cases, perhaps it came as a shameless pitch aimed at gravitating you toward a certain AI Platform? Or you were given a 3 pager — full of mathematical formulas — straight from the scientific journal, or a Ph.D. Thesis…
Well, whatever it was — don’t panic. And don’t quickly discard your “gut feeling”, either. But did you ever look at the scrolling numbers on a computer screen and get dizzy by trying to make sense of the data flushing in front of your eyes? Did you ever experience a whirling sensation in your head that almost made you fall over?
I did, right after visiting Visa Fraud Detection Center at one of the largest Canadian banks… You can find more details about such an event in my book and in my LinkedIn posts, including “How To Eliminate Billions In Credit Card Fraud By Lifting An Index Finger — No AI Necessary!”
Yet, I still vividly remember how after watching an experienced Fraud Detection operator at work for not more than 10 minutes — it made me sick…
I am referring to the Visa Fraud Detection solution that my company, International Neural Machines Inc. developed for the bank — using extremely large data sets of fraudulent transactions. We spent hundreds of hours at the fraud detection center as observers — watching the human experts at work…
It became very clear to us that the bank needed help. The poor souls placed in front of the scrolling transaction records remained glued to the screen for hours. And every few minutes, they would hit the keyboard to stop the madness and to take a deeper look at the transaction in question.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There was plenty of data to look at with each transaction. The good, the bad, and the ambiguous. And the best operators knew when to press the brakes…
The problem was that it took months to train a good Visa Fraud detection specialist and that the recruits often ended up getting dizzy, and puking and vomiting in distress… In addition, without the assistance of AI — the human operators ended up generating too many false positives and false negatives — under the real-time pressure of high transaction volume…
So, we knew right away that our AI solution was not only more accurate — but also… more “operator-friendly”. The human operators would still review our findings, but they could focus only on transactions with a very high fraud probability — that our systems flagged and selected for their review… No more screen-induced vertigoes, for sure.
BTW, I also described a similar strategy applied to monitoring collect calls from maximum security prisons. Our ability to spot specific keywords within the audio recordings using AI and NLP — was very well received. And our joint presentations with Verizon solved a huge security problem within the prison walls…
You can see more details in my LinkedIn post: My 1001 Entrepreneurial Tales: Keyword Spotting & The Magic Of Closing The Deal
But don’t just blindly assume that AI is the right solution for any kind of human operator’s dizziness. Sometimes, it’s not the data that makes you sick at all. It could be… the ergonomics behind the chair you are sitting on — while observing the computer screen.
The Russians Are Coming…
As funny as it may sound, below is a real story about the most bizarre “engineering solution” I saw in my entire life.
Back in 1973, I was serving in the Israeli Air Force — supervising the technical aspects of Air Defense Systems. Such units included both: stationary as well as mobile radar systems.
Shortly after the end of the Yom Kippur War, I was invited to inspect the Russian mobile radar systems — supplied to the Egyptian army by the hundreds. All such units were strategically placed along the Suez Canal — but eventually captured by the Israeli Army.
To deliver the low-cost systems to the Egyptians, the Russians decided in a hurry to place the entire mobile unit on a single truck… I am talking about the radar’s antenna, gearbox, electronics, display units, and even the generator — all residing on a single truck!
Forget about the noise level from the diesel generator. Perhaps a simple earplug would suffice. But the Russian Einsteins decided in their infinite wisdom to also attach the air traffic controller’s chair — to the rotating antenna. As a result, the radar operators would constantly turn around… in circles.
No wonder, just when I finished inspecting the Russian trucks, I saw a small sign attached to the unit, advising in bold: to replace the human operators every… 20 minutes. Surprised? Don’t be…How is that for feeling dizzy — no AI necessary…
For More Information…
For more information, please see my posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium, and CGE’s website.
AI Boogeyman
You can also find additional info in my book on amazon: “AI Boogeyman — Dispelling Fake News About Job Losses”, and on our YouTube Studio channel… Thank you.
“BODs Serve Investors, Advisory Boards Are CEOs’ Best Friends”
- Imitation works best in karaoke bars, not in business. To escape the competition, businesses need to constantly reinvent. So, I join Advisory Boards and “unlock” Radical Innovation.
- Good advisors help increase REVENUES and reduce COSTS. Great ones, turn COST into PROFIT centers. And my BusinessAI™ guidance delivers the right KEEs (Knowledge, Experience, and Expertise) to do so.
- Warren Buffett once said: “predicting rain doesn’t count; building arks, does”. Yet successful ark builders also work with the best lumber salesmen, and more.
- Helping the CEOs to escape the competitive floods — is what I do. If product descriptions qualified as IP, Business Development (BD) would have been easy. The problem is that all the competitors can use the same narratives.
- No amount of branding, marketing, and wordsmithery is going to suffice w/o utilizing BusinessAI™ — the strategies I specifically designed to achieve BD excellence.
- As a 30-yr BusinessAI™ veteran, I offer unmatched BD investment advice to VCs, PEs, and their portfolio companies. In many cases, I also Propose, Design, Structure, Finance, and Deploy state-of-the-art Joint Ventures to bring RAPID REVENUES — just as I did w/ Verizon already 20-yrs ago…
- As a founder of Canada Green ESCO Inc. (CGE), I used BusinessAI™ strategies in CleanTech and focused on fighting Climate Change and Environmental Risks — dealing with stranded assets at the largest utilities. In total, CGE raised $1B+ in project finance linked to solar (utility-scale and distributed), wind, geothermal, Waste-To-Energy (WTE), energy efficiency, and more.
- Now, I help maximize returns also in Healthcare, Fintech, Transportation, and Construction industries. And I apply the same structured finance expertise I acquired through financing Cleantech projects. It involves equity, non-recourse debt, balance sheet financing, and tax equity.
- My pattern recognition abilities allow me to see what is still missing & how to maximize business offerings & profitability. And as a coach & mentor, I bring unparalleled business savvy to separate the wheat from the chaff…
- What I learned over the years is that it is not just technology innovation that makes all the difference. Business Model Innovation is as disruptive as Technology Innovation and yet I see too many companies focused on pushing their product out the door — while losing ~70% of untapped revenue streams.
- You can call me: “The Midas of Business Development (BD) Innovation™”. It’s worth its weight in gold…
