How AI is being used in businesses today, insights with Bernard Marr

Interesting interview with Bernard Marr, Internationally best-selling author; keynote speaker; futurist; #business, #technology, and #data advisor to governments and companies.

What is your background briefly?

After studying business, engineering and IT I joined academia for 10 years (Cambridge and Cranfield School of Management), before I left to focus on my own business (Bernard Marr & Co) over 10 years ago.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

It has given me a very solid background to understand tech trends and AI, from both a business and a technology perspective.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

I am helping businesses and their leadership teams with their strategy and technology transformation, I write books and have a regular column in Forbes, and I am a keynote speaker on topics such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation.

Why did you decide to write your latest book – Artificial Intelligence in Practice?

Because it was the book every executive was asking me for – to provide a practical overview of how AI is actually being used in businesses today. I wanted to provide a state of the art overview. Not a technical book but a business book.

Where do you sit in terms of the AI debate, i.e. AI is awesome versus AI will be the generator of our own demise?

AI is awesome – it has the potential to make our world a better place and help humans fulfil their potential. Having said that, AI also has the ability to cause a lot of harm which we need to mitigate. However, the opportunities far outweigh the dangers.

You briefly touch on the topic of ethics in the book. In many ways, with the current (legitimate) outcry about Facebook’s liberal usage of our personal data for many, non-authorised activities and shared with third parties too, is potentially the defining question for all of the FANG companies and beyond: “How do we use AI in an appropriate way and balance this with the desire for individual privacy? Is this even something we can still do, or is the genie out of the bottle, never to go back in?”. What do you think?

For me the key is trust and transparency. Businesses that want to use anyone’s data have to be open about that, let people know why and most importantly offer value in return. I don’t think Facebook is getting this right at the moment, but others such as Apple are taking privacy and transparency very seriously.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

They can find information and 1000s of articles on my website at www.bernardmarr.com or they can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

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