#Africa's Trends to date. AI Advancement or not?

Slow and steady wins the race, we have heard. Halfway point of 2023, well almost, and we have seen some developments utilizing AI within the continent. I'm excited. If I had to list some examples, I'm afraid it may take up the entire article :-) What are we seeing more of in applied AI within Manufacturing, Health, Finance, Insurance, & RegTech. How you ask? I have listed some 'dent makers', those which have started to see impact into sectors and economies.

Dent Maker 1: Beyond AI Pattern Recognition: Decision Making Systems

While Machine Learning and AI technologies are now advanced enough to outperform humans in a variety of tasks, how we make decisions with models varies by practitioner. Reinforcement Learning is promising but it is limited to adversarial settings; or, in vernacular, situations where decisions directly impact the environment. Realignment needs to be solved. Without figuring out how AI systems can make good decisions in environments they cannot influence, we may forever be stuck in a limbo of pattern recognition, prediction, and analytics. What if we can develop a “theory” of AI decision making? Can we view different decision-making situations as a set of engineering systems? Can we define the key components of an AI decision-maker?

• AI systems are far more valuable in making decisions than making simple predictions and pattern recognition's. 
• "Theory of design” for AI decision-making systems, for AI to become a trusted part of decision-making both in and out of the industry, we need to understand and generalize components of AI systems and define what it means to be “robust”. 
• This starts with looking at actual use cases, identifying similarities, and quantifying key parameters – so we may use standard design techniques to design AI systems. 

This proven by AI CEO of metaverse company in Asia, the stocks are out performing the market. NetDragon Websoft, Tang Yu AI CEO. AI-powered virtual humanoid robot

Dent Maker 2: The Future of AI Research in Finance

Unlocking Digital Identity is key, right? This is why fintechs have as their next goal together with lack of data privacy adoption.Use cases utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP), Speech Recognition, Computer Vision and more.

Can we predicts and effect economic systems, how to liberate the data, how to eradicate financial crime, and then also how to empower employees, protect life experience, and eventually also help with policy compliance.

Dent Maker 3: Identifying and Addressing Bias in Machine

Learning Models in Use . Lets look at Banks as an example. They are increasingly relying on Machine Learning models as decision support systems in various areas such as fraud detection, credit scoring, and optimal order execution. When a model makes a decision on a client application, it is important to ensure that the decision is unbiased and explainable, both from a regulatory and moral standpoint. Can we find some of the ways in which these biases can be identified and addressed within reason.

Dent Maker 4: Using Advanced Analytics and AI to transformation the Core Business

Financial institutions for example have already started to embrace AI as a part of their core business strategy. The AI investments are not only focused on enhancing the customer and risk controls analytics but also to transform and modernize their core business function areas. The AI technologies (Automation, ML, NLP, Deep Learning etc) combined with the unprecedented amount of data are helping to increase the operational efficiencies and reduction in cost while mitigating Risk and Compliance issues by creating timely awareness and preventative measures. What are the challenges to establish the AI framework i.e. how to start a journey from foundational analytics to advanced analytics; processes and methodologies to identify and prioritize the business problems that can be solved and scale quickly across business function areas. Modernization of Business Core Functions is a must and should be a part of overall corporate strategy.

Simple right! AI solutions are bringing gain in operational efficiencies and mitigation in operation and reputational risks.This is where we unlock value business and data value in a rhythmic dance.

Dent Maker 5: Chat bots Fail & Conversational AI Supersedes

The challenge of messaging for businesses is scale. How do we keep up with the volume of messages that our customers send over the many different messaging channels they use while simultaneously making it a positive, accurate, and quick experience? Generative AI!

Instead of people handling every interaction, think about people designing interactions. We teach artificial intelligence systems how to understand and fulfill customers' needs using life experience in regard to how they interact with our customer service teams. And we enable the system to start learning on its own based on feedback from our customers. Finally, we tune in to our customers' moods and interaction style and we mirror that, so their conversation with a machine feels relevant, efficient and even connected.

Conversational automation in real-time is

• Intelligent
• Contextual
• Problem-solving
• Connected to systems
• Accessible automation

Where to next on Africa's journey #shespeaksafrica