When it comes to building artificial intelligence tools into business infrastructure, Badel Mbanga said there needs to be a focus on the value-add that the technology can offer an organization at a minute level and not just the broader implications that such tools offer.
Mbanga, the head of data science innovation at PNC Financial Services Group Inc., shared these remarks and others following his keynote address during the Beyond Big Data: AI/Machine Learning Summit, an annual event put on by the Pittsburgh Technology Council that looks to offer business leaders insights on how AI and other machine learning (ML) tools can improve an organization's bottom line.
"It's important to build the big, large assets, but it's also important to extract value along the way as you're developing the long-term solution and with AI in particular because they're big, ambitious goals that when everyone thinks about AI, the goal is artificial general intelligence," Mbanga said. "There's anxiety about once these technologies become super smart, do they replace humans and all of that. But that should not be front and center. Can we have an impact today, can we solve problems for the business, for the customers? And as we evolve toward this long-term goal, can we extract this value, can we learn from data, which is really the one thing that's important for me; how we extract value from data."
The widespread use of AI has become a popular topic of conversation among those in and familiar with Pittsburgh's tech community, especially following the widespread use of ChatGPT, an advanced AI chatbot tool from OpenA that's capable of producing all sorts of conversational-based content and messaging. But figuring out how tools like ChatGPT and others that use generative AI has been a challenge.
Brian Kennedy, the senior vice president for operations and government affairs at the Tech Council, hopes that at least some of the 300 attendees at the day-long event went home with some solutions in mind.
"Our goal for this event is to allow our members to meet companies who are using big data, AI and machine learning in practical ways," Kennedy said. "Our hope is that every one of our panelists talks about a practical way that the ML and AI are being used because as you hear, there's a lot of hype about things. … The theme is that there's a lot of hype around AI, machine learning and some of it's hype, but the other key theme is that there are also some real big problems that it's solving right now, and that's really what the people are talking about here."
As for Mbanga, leader of one of the two keynote addresses amid an itinerary filled with panel discussions surrounding various AI for business topics, the event served as a great opportunity to meet others who are doing similar work at other companies in different industries.
"Everyone has the same questions about talent, everyone has the same questions about the impact of technology on communities, and so on," Mbanga said. "In my mind, it creates this group where we can challenge one another, and make sure that we not only bring in value to our businesses but bring value to the greater Pittsburgh area in general."
