Predictland’s Director of Operations and Strategy was the guest speaker at the first edition of the Luze Forum, organised by the Navarrese hotel group at Luze El Villa de Castejón. At this meeting, this expert, who regularly appears in national media, outlined the key points that businesses must focus on in order to implement AI.
In an increasingly digitalised business world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has established itself as a fundamental tool for optimising efficiency and improving the customer experience. A notable example is the case of BSH, where one of its engineers used to spend ten days identifying common patterns in the reports that technicians sent after repairing broken washing machines. Now, thanks to the incorporation of AI, this process has been reduced to just six minutes, which represents a clear competitive advantage. This reduction in time allows this same professional, who previously performed a somewhat cumbersome and complicated task, to focus on improving the reliability of the products using the same data generated by AI.
This case was one of many presented throughout his presentation by Andrés Visus, Director of Operations and Strategy at Predictland, during the first edition of the Luze Forum, organized by this Navarrese hotel group at the Hotel Luze El Villa de Castejon. Before an audience composed mainly of businessmen, managers and heads of companies from the Ribera region, among which the presence of Rafael Loscos, president of the Asociación Empresa Ribera (AER), stood out, Visus advised “to understand well how Artificial Intelligence can benefit both business and people.” “The most common mistake is to adopt it without a clear objective or without a specific problem to solve,” he added.
Previously, the group’s commercial director, Raúl Casanova, recalled that his organisation, born in the Ribera de Navarra “under the impetus” of the businessman Jesús Berisa, has three establishments (El Toro, in Pamplona; Luze Castellana, in Madrid; and the aforementioned Luze El Villa, in Castejón) and with “a proven track record of twenty-five years of experience in hospitality”.
He also recalled that its reason for being is “hospitality and having the customer at the centre” of all its actions. “We live for and by them, and their satisfaction is ours,” he commented before emphasising that the Luze Forum “aims to offer companies topics of interest or current events so that they can find a series of eminently practical ideas and proposals for the benefit of their organisations”.
THREE KEY AREAS
After this presentation, the guest speaker at the meeting identified three key areas where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can generate “tangible added value”. For example, he referred to the optimization of processes, since “it increases efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, which, together with data analysis, improves decision-making”. Along the same lines, he also mentioned employee productivity, who “are helped to concentrate their efforts on more strategic and less operational tasks”. And, finally, he focused on improving the customer experience “thanks to predictive analysis, which allows us to offer more personalized products or services and, therefore, more tailored to their needs”. An advance that, therefore, “can ensure their satisfaction and loyalty”.
The Director of Operations at Predictland also addressed the challenges and risks that any organization faces when it comes to successfully integrating AI. For Visus, one of the biggest challenges is to differentiate between those “hype” or exaggerated trends” and those that can really generate a significant impact. “It is also key that companies prepare to manage the associated risks such as privacy and equity, through planning and solid ethics in the use of data. AI is neutral. And only the use we give it will determine whether it is ethical or not. But ethics is not only a moral responsibility, it is also a strategy that promotes trust and reputation,” he insisted.
AI AND HUMAN TALENT: COMPLEMENT, NOT SUBSTITUTION
This expert, invited by the Luze Group and whose presence is usually common in national media such as Antena 3 TV, Cope, El Economista or Emprendedores, was clear when referring to the impact of Artificial Intelligence on employment. “AI will not replace, but rather enhance the value of people,” he said, adding that “companies that do not take advantage of this opportunity will be left behind or will simply disappear because they will no longer be competitive with those that do use it.”
However, he stressed that one of the factors that will determine a good implementation process will be “training and the continuous development of new skills.” Hence his invitation to companies to invest “in talent and in capabilities linked to creativity and critical thinking, areas in which AI cannot yet compete with humans.” “The day that Artificial Intelligence is able to reason and have empathy, I don’t know what the next limits will be,” he concluded.
METRICS AND LATEST ADVANCES
In the subsequent debate, some of the attendees wanted to know how to measure such a complex implementation process and when to know that the work done in this regard has been successful for the organization. “The metrics are similar to those of any other business initiative,” replied Visus, for whom “the essential point is to clearly identify objectives and areas for improvement before embarking on the adventure.” Following this argument, he argued that “technology can provide objectivity and precision, but it is essential to have reliable data and to be clear about what AI is wanted for.”
There were also those who were interested in the latest developments that have occurred in this technology. In this regard, Visus referred to multimodal AI, “which combines text, images and sounds to achieve a more advanced interaction with the environment.”
Similarly, he focused on the so-called voice assistants, which in his view “are an example of how this technology is already making a difference in the relationship between humans and machines, making it increasingly closer and more real.” “These types of solutions confirm that Artificial Intelligence has stopped being a distant promise to become a tool that transforms sectors and redefines business models,” he concluded.
