What Executives Really Need to Know about AI | Part 3

These days, corporate decision-makers can hardly browse a website or crack open a journal without being flooded with good advice on how to use AI for the benefit of their company. But what is sound advice and what isn’t? Which fields should you focus on in your capacity as a manager, and where best to begin? To answer these questions, Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Dean of the WU Executive Academy, and digitalization expert Martin Giesswein have summed up the most important and state-of-the-art “AI Thinking Points” in a three-part series.

1. Your Business with AI

2. Your AI Strategy for the Upcoming Years

3. Your Corporate AI Responsibility

Do You Know Your Digital Impact?

Each organization has its own digital impact: the digital systems used have a significant influence on employees, customers, and also the environment, to name but a few factors. These days, due to the omnipresence of AI tools, the question of how to best deal with the “digital sphere” in both society and the world of work preoccupies us more than ever before. Decision-makers are increasingly scrutinizing this issue, often subsumed under catchy phrases such as “digital humanism” or “Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR).” And that’s certainly a prudent decision. Very often, this development is jumpstarted by the CEOs of a digital enterprise or a company that relies on a lot of IT services who are eager to contribute to a fair and sustainable digital future.

For this reason, the WU Executive Academy has joined forces with Goodshares to develop a simple six-step method for companies in a project funded by the Vienna Business Agency. The Digital Impact Method enables companies to analyze the digital ramifications of their systems and the AI used, create a simple guideline based on these findings, and immediately implement concrete measures in their daily business.

Why should your company put digital humanism at the top of the agenda? Let us give you five good reasons for more digital humanism in your operations from a business management point of view:

1. Position your company as an attractive employer in the recruitment process.

2. Retain talents through real value-based purpose.

3. Benefit from a long-term competitive edge and stability through sustainable digital operations.

4. Save costs thanks to a more efficient use of energy and resources when it comes to digital hardware.

5. Brace yourself for future EU regulations (think: taxonomy), including reporting regulations and the upcoming AI Act.

The Artificial Intelligence Act, in short AI Act, is the EU’s response to the risks posed by artificial intelligence. It provides a legal framework for the development and use of AI. The goal is to minimize damage done by AI and create uniform rules for the AI market within the EU. This regulatory framework will likely enter into force in 2025 and affect all EU citizens, companies, and authorities that provide or use AI systems.

©WU Executive Academy

This is why we strongly advise companies not to wait any longer to scrutinize the principles of the looming AI Act and adjust their systems to the changes ahead already today. Companies proactively dealing with this issue now will save themselves the hassle of having to make major adjustments basically overnight later, the way it happened with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted in 2018. Companies striving to fulfil the requirements of the AI Act as soon as possible will not just get their compliance measures on track early on, they will also manage a more fluid, cost- and time-efficient implementation of all necessary changes once the Act will have entered into force in 2025.

The Austrian Press Agency addressed the upcoming AI Act early on and implemented a guideline on the ethical use of AI already in April 2022 to ensure that the company lives up to its particular ethical responsibility as a media outlet. The focus is not just on respecting human autonomy and preventing damage but also on using AI systems that are fair and transparent.

Verena Krawarik, head of APA-medialab, explains: “Human-in-the-loop is more than just signing off on the work done by a machine. Automation through AI requires a deep understanding of and insight into the algorithms as well as ongoing tests before and during the use of AI.”

Bei der Entwicklung von Generativer Künstlicher Intelligenz hat sich die Europäische Union vorgenommen, eine starke Rolle einzunehmen und nicht den amerikanischen und chinesischen Unternehmen das Feld gänzlich zu überlassen. Eine Hoffnung dabei ist ein Start-up aus Heidelberg: Aleph Alpha. Dieses Unternehmen ist auch Teil des Innovationsparks AI in Heilbronn, wo ein AI-Ökosystem zwischen Unternehmen und Wissenschaft entstehen soll.

Soll man als Unternehmen, das KI-Systeme einsetzen möchte, nun auf ein europäisches oder sogar österreichisches KI-Angebot setzen, um die Binnenwertschöpfung anzukurbeln? Die oben erwähnte Austria Presse Agentur hat eine klare Antwort auf diese Frage: In einem nächsten Schritt baut sie ihr CompanyAI mit dem Anbieter 506.ai aus Linz, der wiederrum auf europäische KI-Modelle und Datenzentren setzt.

Kaum ein anderes technologische Thema hat – global gesehen - jemals in so kurzer Zeit so viel Aufmerksamkeit des Top-Managements bekommen wie KI. Aber genau das ist notwendig, um alle betriebswirtschaftlichen Chancen zu nutzen und die unzähligen Stolpersteine bei dieser digitalen Evolution auszulassen.

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