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August 23, 2022 16 mins

In this episode, Johan Steyn (Professor & Author) and Andreas Welsch discuss taking a common sense approach for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Johan shares his perspective on successful AI projects and provides valuable insights for listeners looking to learn from dozens of customer projects. 

Key topics:
- Avoid common mistakes when investing in AI
- Get genuine buy-in from business stakeholders
- Apply common learnings in your AI projects

Listen to the full episode to hear how you can:
- Start with a people-first approach to AI
- Balance profitability with people engagement 
- Assess if AI is the best solution

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/inZehIPVS_8


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Disclaimer: Views are the participants’ own and do not represent those of any participant’s past, present, or future employers. Participation in this event is independent of any potential business relationship (past, present, or future) between the participants or between their employers.


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Andreas Welsch (00:00):
Today we'll talk about taking a common sense
approach to ai and who better totalk to about it than someone
who's worked with a lot ofdifferent companies on just that
Johan Steyn.
Hey Johan, thank you so much forjoining

Johan Steyn (00:15):
Andreas, thank you.
It's a wonderful and lovelyprivilege to be with you today.

Andreas Welsch (00:20):
Hey, I'm so glad you're able to join.
I can't believe that this isalready the 10th episode of
What's the BUZZ?
and I'm really stoked aboutthat.
So I also wanna say thank you tothose of you in the audience for
all your questions and feedbackand engagement over the last few
months.
I'm really having a lot of funwith it, and I hear from you
that you're getting a lot ofvalue out of it as well.

(00:42):
So let's continue on that path.
And Johan why don't you tell usa little bit about yourself, who
you are, what you do and whatyour focus is around AI.

Johan Steyn (00:53):
Cool, Andreas.
Firstly I love following yourwork.
It's exciting to be involvedwith somebody like you.
Great honor to be here today.
I've worked for some of thelarge management consulting and
audit firms.
The last few weeks I've beendoing my own thing.
I'm a freelance AI andautomation consultant.
I also work with some startupswhere I mentor them and help

(01:16):
them.
And I do a lot of work in therural areas and with poor and
orphanage and vulnerablechildren.
So the whole AI for good kind oflens, if you would.
And then I also write a lot forReuters and for other magazines
and newspapers.
And I do some work in academiawith four different

(01:37):
universities, but I think to sumit up, my passion is using AI
for good for the future of ourchildren.
That really is what keeps me upat night.
Andreas.

Andreas Welsch (01:48):
That's an awesome cause I'm so excited to
have you on.
We met through Swiss Cognitiveat the beginning of the year and
had already talked about some ofthese things there.
So I'm really looking forward toalso learning from you and
getting your perspective and foryou to share your perspective
with the audience, especiallywhat you're seeing in your home
country of South Africa and thecontinent Africa as a whole.

(02:11):
Because I feel it's really anunderrepresented and undertold
story that we see in the media.
But hey it really sounds likeyou've been involved in a lot of
different things and have seendifferent aspects of AI.
So for those of you joining thestream, drop a comment in the
chat where you feel we need morecommon sense for AI and we'll

(02:35):
pick it up in a few minuteshere.
But to get started, Johan,should we play a little game to
kick things?

Johan Steyn (02:41):
Yeah.

Andreas Welsch (02:43):
Awesome.
This game is called Fill in theBlank.
And when I hit the buzzer, thewheels will start spinning.
When they stop, you see asentence and I'd like you to
complete it with the first thingthat comes to mind and why fill
in the blank and to make it evenmore interesting, you'll only
have 60 seconds for your answer.

Johan Steyn (03:03):
Okay.

Andreas Welsch (03:05):
Awesome.
So again for those of youwatching us live please drop
your answer in the chat and whywhen Johan fills in the blank.
But now are you ready for,What's the BUZZ?

Johan Steyn (03:16):
Give it to me.

Andreas Welsch (03:17):
Okay, perfect.
Then let's see.
If you're just getting startedwith AI dot, fill in the blank.

Johan Steyn (03:30):
Don't just focus on the technical skills.
Think about the business andsocietal applications.
It's sometimes more importantthan just the technical skills.

Andreas Welsch (03:43):
That was a very short answer.
Perfect.
Why do you feel it is moreimportant to to focus on
business than just technology?

Johan Steyn (03:54):
It's a great question, Andreas.
Look, I've worked with someexceptional people across the
world, but even here in SouthAfrica, startups and young
people equivalent to the bestyou can get in Silicon Valley, I
think the problem is a lot ofthem are so technical that you
should almost hide themsomewhere in the room and put
pizza under the door becausethey can't speak to business

(04:16):
owners.
They dunno how to translate thevalue of their products or
platforms in.
Or societal terms.
So yes, you have to continuallyupskill your technical skills,
but we do AI or automation for areason.
Don't forget what that reasonis.
It's not just a tech, it's areason.
And that's often a businessreason, and I think that's why

(04:39):
it's important.

Andreas Welsch (04:41):
Perfect.
Great summary.
And to your point, that's whereyou then really make an impact
if you tie to the business andmake it tangible.
So hey let's jump into the firstquestion.
I know you've been a consultantand you've seen dozens of
companies embark on their AIjourney and.
I'm wondering, what's the worstissue you've seen leaders make

(05:02):
when they start in investing inai?
And maybe we've already toucheda little bit on, on it with
focusing on technology more thanbusiness, but I'm curious if
there are others or what if thisis particularly unique or
important?
From your perspective, doingprojects in Africa.

Johan Steyn (05:17):
Absolutely.
Andreas, look, I think we, Ithink business leaders think
that digitization or automationor AI.
Is the remit of some people inthe dark corners of the
technology department.
It is the most powerfultechnology we've ever created.
It is still quite limited, butit's growing exponentially.

(05:41):
It should be a seniorleadership, a C-suite.
Responsibility and about seventy(7 0%) of business leaders
globally have no clue what thistechnology is about, how it'll
change the organizations, howthey need to upskill their
people, how they will interactwith their customers, so that
it's not the technology, it'sthe business understanding of

(06:04):
using the right tools for theright reason in the way where I
often see that this technologyfails.
It's, and that's why we speakabout common sense today.
It, and it's maybe not thatcommon, but forget the tech,
forget the platforms.
Just take a breath and stepback.
Why are we doing what we'redoing?
And I often say I fixed moreproblems over the last five

(06:27):
years with Excel than with ai.
And I fixed more problems withpeople understanding their jobs,
fixing toxic cultures than withautomation.
So the technology's important,Andreas, but the greater picture
of the whole organization andthe beauty of humanity and what
we can often, what we fear, thatis the picture I think we often

(06:48):
forget in this whole pursuit toautomate and AI, everything.

Andreas Welsch (06:54):
Fantastic.
I remember you, you said anarticle a couple days ago about
voice assistance in, in Africa.
Picking up, or especially notbeing able to pick up different
accents or different locallanguages.
What are some of the otherthings where you see where it's
very specific to Africa, wherethings are?

(07:15):
Are they disadvantaging thepopulation or whether or not
it's as far developed or nottaking it so much into
consideration as they should.

Johan Steyn (07:24):
Yes, it's a piece I was blessed to publish my first
piece with Reuters.
Andreas about the disadvantagethat Africans have in our data
sets around conversational AI.
There are approximately 3000different languages in dialects
in Africa.
Obviously, most of theconversational AI platforms are

(07:44):
English or some of the majorEuropean language or Arabic
potential, even Chinese.
But how do we serve people intheir local dialect and language
in this continent, even when wespeak about breast cancer
research or prostate cancer orlung cancer research as an
example, a lot of the data setsare predominantly Northern

(08:05):
American or European and theyare largely applicable, but
they're also nuances around thediseases.
People suffer in Africa.
That's not served by these datasets.
So there are a lot ofinitiatives by Africans and I'm
very proud of them, who arecreating data sets in the
language case, often fromscratch to make sure that we

(08:27):
have the right data for thesemodels to learn from and to
serve our local populists.
And then there's also thequestion about almost like a
colonization by China andothers.
Taking over the digital world ofthis continent and it's already
taken over lot of our naturalresources and mining and energy
and the like, but what will ourchildren, what will my eight

(08:50):
year old son be left with in 30or 40 years from now if we don't
regulate this better?
If we don't as Africans?
I'm not saying reinvent thewheel.
Let's use the wonderfulplatforms built in the US and in
Europe and elsewhere, but wehave to build on top of that to
make sure that it is applicablefor the specific societal and
business needs of our continent.

(09:11):
And I can do this for hours.
This topic I'm very passionateabout, but I'll stop there for
now.
Thank you so much for yourperspective.
And I think I can see and theaudience can see your passion
definitely is as well.
And it's a it's a very key topicthat you raised there.

(09:33):
Making data sets more morediverse catering matches for
individual regions as, as well.

Andreas Welsch (09:42):
Maybe if we pivot a little bit to towards
business say you're in financeor in procurement, you're
probably not that deep into AI.
And when you hear AI it'sprobably either the headlines of
AI gone bad that come to mind.
Where it's the Hollywood movieswhere AI destroys humanity.

(10:04):
Yes.
But making it more real and moretangible.
From your experience, havingworked with different companies
in that space on these topics,how have you seen companies
actually get genuine buy-in fromfrom their employees and from
their team members to do AI?
And that it is not destroyinghumanity, but that it is real

(10:24):
and delivers.

Johan Steyn (10:26):
What a great question, Andreas.
Look, again, don't let it be atechnology led initiative.
It must be a people firstinitiative supported by
technology and the technologydepartment.
People naturally fear thingsthey don't know.
We are all like that.
And to your point, Hollywood, wethink of Terminator.
We think of the robot with thered eyes and smoke coming out of

(10:48):
its nose.
And a lot of people still thinkof it.
If you just google the word AIor in an image search, it's most
likely humanoid robots oranthropomorphized robots.
And we know it's code and it'san ambivalent technology.
It's created neutrally.
It's how we use it that makes itgood, whether it makes it bad,

(11:09):
at least for now.
So I tell my customers, startsmall.
Pick the initiatives that willmake life easier for your staff
and your customers.
The best change management isthe water cooler chat or people
in the smoking balcony or in thevirtual world it's a bit more
difficult, but once people starttalking about the fact that I'm

(11:31):
actually enjoying my job more, Idon't have to do all this
repetitive nonsense, thesedigital assistance and
conversational AI agents arereally helping me.
It is what I often call takingthe out of the human because
there are still many things thattechnology can't do that only
humans can do.
And the other way aroundintuition experience, looking at

(11:54):
a human being in the face.
A customer saying, are youreally okay?
How can I help you?
We can't automate that, sothat's the key thing.
Make sure that we use thetechnology for the what the
technology is good at.
Set the humans free to do whatwe are good at and start small
so that people can learn totrust this technology, to see
that it's a benefit.
Don't go in with some sort of abig bang approach.

(12:17):
And lastly, don't let thetechnologist lead this.
Let them support you.
Let business lead.
I hope that helps.

Andreas Welsch (12:25):
Seems like that perspective really resonates
also with Denise here saying,bringing people in connecting
them, showing them the greaterbenefit and objective.
Now to wrap it up our thirdquestion.
If you put all of this togetherI'm wondering what project comes
to mind and that you've seeneither be super successful or

(12:48):
not and for what reason?

Johan Steyn (12:51):
Okay.
There's an example I often useas, it's so simple that it's
laughable, but it illustratesthe point.
I worked with a large hospitalgroup here in South Africa at
about 83 different hospitals.
They wanted to automate and AItheir front desk operations when
patients walk into the hospital.

(13:13):
And after investigating it, Irealized that the printer.
Is to far away from theadministrative staff.
So with every patientengagement, they had to walk to
the printer three times.
So we moved the printer closer,it increased their productivity
with 320%.
No AI, no robotic processautomation, common sense.

(13:38):
So before we dive into all theseplatforms and these platforms
are incredible, think about whatwill make the life of your
easier and don't make decisionson the executive level.
Actually spend time, have acoffee with your administrative
people, with the people whosejobs you're trying to automate.
Cause they have insights aboutwhat will make their lives

(13:59):
easier, that you as an executivewill never know.
So that's why I say start withthe people.
Then bring in the technology.
It's so common sense, but wenever remember this.

Andreas Welsch (14:12):
That's awesome.
And some solutions can be sosimple, right?
And they can be right in frontof you, but you don't see them
immediately.
So hey, we're getting close tothe end of the stream, and I was
wondering if you could summarizethe key three points from our
talk today that you wouldn'twant to leave our audience with.

Johan Steyn (14:32):
Okay, Andreas.
Look.
Wow.
Firstly, this technology isincredible.
It's advancing a lot faster thanwe think.
It'll never replace human natureor, and experience and
intuition.
And always start with peoplefirst and take them on the
journey with you, because peoplewill always be more important
than technology.

(14:53):
And I understand that We are onbusinesses and we are not in a
kumbaya world.
We've got shareholder pressure.
Why can't we both make lifebetter for our people and be a
lot more profitable business atthe same time?
It must be possible.

Andreas Welsch (15:12):
That's a beautiful statement to end on.
Thank you so much for thesummary.
Thanks for joining and forsharing your experience and for
those in the audience forlearning with us today.

Johan Steyn (15:21):
Thank you.
It's been amazing, Andreas.
Thank you.

Andreas Welsch (15:24):
Awesome.
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