Navigating AI Risks and Opportunities in the Workplace

We all can agree that Artificial Intelligence moved from just a marketing pitch to a real thing in our minds once OpenAI has announced in 2022 the launch of its product ChatGPT. Everyone was caught off guard by the capabilities of the new product. The rise of AI comes with a lot of risks but also much more opportunities. This article discusses the aspects of Artificial Intelligence and addresses opportunities, challenges and solutions.

#Opportunities

Opportunities are endless, I will not try to mention them all. But, I think that there are three main opportunities for businesses.

1. One of the features of Artificial Intelligence, which has seen great development in the last few years, is Generative AI, or GenAI. Thanks to this technology, we are no longer limited to training the machine to understand different datasets, but we also train it for creating new content. This is hugely beneficial for increasing productivity and the accuracy of the decision-making process.
2. Thanks to the new capabilities of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, businesses can now start to develop their own applications without the need to hire a team of developers. We have never seen opportunities before where the end user is given the opportunity to modify their applications. We can now provide that capability and help the business thrive. This will make applications more efficient and intuitive for the end user while the professional developers can assist with intricate processes and details.
3. Automation is becoming more accessible too. From writing adaptive software to summarizing large amount of data, automation is going to be used more and more and organization should incorporate it in their processes.

#Risks and challenges

I mention in this article only the top three areas that I think are most impacted by the development of AI.

1. Privacy: the Machine Learning models that enable artificial intelligence consume data to provide updated valuable information to the consumers. While effort is undergoing to control and anonymize the data being transmitted it’s still not fully developed to the extent of guaranteeing privacy. That’s why privacy remains the top issue that is caused by the open use of AI products.
2. Intellectual Property: businesses now are concerned with the possibility of accidental data disclosure of intellectual property after the usage of artificial intelligence.
3. Social Engineering: the technology now can help hackers craft content that bypasses the protection provided by content filtering and monitoring solutions.

#Solutions

I give in this section the three most important solutions to adopt, in my opinon, in order to control AI use in the workplace.

1. Governance:  a survey conducted by ISC2 on Artificial Intelligence shows that only 27% of organizations have a policy in place for the usage of Artificial Intelligence. Each organization is different and each organization needs to address the opportunities and risks that are presented by AI.
2. Private hosting and machine training:  Microsoft started proposing private AI services based on the OpenAI public model. These services provide the assurance of data protection while enabling organizations to benefit from the technology. Another option is to build a machine learning model in-house and train it with relevant data allowing organizations to develop and retain their tools and techniques.
3. Data Loss Prevention: DLP is a security control that has proved its efficiency in traditional environments. It needs to be adapted to new challenges posed by the usage of AI, which is something AI itself can help with.