ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN OUR BUSINESS
Javier Zarraonandia, Corporate Development Manager
Intelligence has been and is something differential in the human being, and in the development of humanity. When Eistein and Chaplin met:
Einstein told Chaplin: “What I admire most about your art is that it is universal. You don’t say a word, and yet the world understands you.” Chaplin replied, ” It is true, but your fame is even greater: the world admires you, while no one understands you. “
Both Einstein and Chaplin have been two geniuses and have shown the world their intelligence, each in a very different way.
Now the world is facing a new challenge, a new kind of Intelligence. We are faced with the challenge of developing, using and controlling artificial intelligence.
The truth is that, unconsciously, we have been using and applying artificial intelligence in a multitude of daily applications for years. But that said, it seems that we are in a moment of technological disruption or take-off when it comes to artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is absolutely transversal, affecting all sectors of industry. We must be aware that the use of AI in our company represents a total paradigm shift in our business model.
But each case is different. Each company must reflect and analyze to visualize how it can optimize the application of AI in the best possible way.
Honestly, what is happening now with AI reminds me of what was happening 10 years ago with the implementation of Industry 4.0. At that time, the initial fears were diluted as each company visualized the possibilities offered by this technology (predictive maintenance, big data, digital twins, process efficiency, etc…).
Today we are facing this same opportunity with the application of AI. We have the possibility of applying AI in an absolutely personalized way in our companies to achieve a multitude of applications (performance measurement, prevention of accidents or attacks, improvement and efficiency of processes, identification of customers or markets, risk analysis, etc, etc, etc …). To do this, we have to be able to visualize the multiple applications that AI can have in our business.
But AI, in addition to its challenges and opportunities, also brings us some doubts and uncertainties.
- a) How will it affect employment? Some studies predict that AI will bring a strong destruction of jobs, while other studies say that in the end GDP will increase due to the use of AI, and it is not that it will replace people, but that those who do not use artificial intelligence will be replaced by others that are using it.
b) Given the speed at which AI technologies are advancing, will we be able to ride the AI wave in time?
c) Given the enormous possibilities that are opening up, how are the ethical and moral aspects of AI applications controlled?
To conclude, it should be said that the enormous interest that AI is currently arousing is also reflected in the world of M&A.
There are many more references to operations of companies related to AI in the USA than in Europe, since there they are well ahead in the development of this technology. In any case, the multiples applied are diverse (depending on the size, degree of technological advance, takeover or not of the company) but in practically all cases, they are very high double-digit EBITDA multiples, which reflects the enormous interest of both financial and strategic investors to bet and position themselves in Artificial Intelligence technologies.