Panel Discussion: Navigating AI integration in strategies and best practices

During a Panel Discussion entitled “Harnessing AI for Business Transformation” at the 15th Limassol Economic Forum, business leaders joined artificial intelligence and tech expert Inma Martinez to discuss AI-driven innovation.

Elias Neocleous, Managing Partner at Elias Neocleous & Co LLC, Georgia Pitta, CFO / Executive Director at ECOMMBX and Peter Sarlin, CEO and Co-Founder of Silo AI – AMD, tackled topics such as navigating AI integration in strategies and best practices, the role of AI in enhancing competitive advantage, preparing for an AI-enhanced future, and data-driven decision making.

Elias Neocleous & Co LLC realised early on that AI is something that adds value to a business, said its Managing Partner, citing reports that showed that of those that adopt AI, 70% of companies increase their revenue and 30% reduce their costs.

“AI is not just a tool; it needs to be seen as a strategic asset,” said Neocleous. “It could also be a peril. AI has hacked the operating system of humanity. We’ve been hijacked by AI.”

But, he added, “We also need to think about the risks and the risks are there. A lot of them have to do with how we treat data; what we need to do to ensure that the processing of data doesn’t push us into biased decisions. How do we regulate but not overregulate? To my mind as a lawyer, we need to have a system that not only does not undermine the rule of law and instead advances the rule of law. It is critical that the enforcement bodies, lawyers and governments interact with innovators and scientists to create the correct landscape for AI.”

Pitta agreed. “AI is part of our strategy and we do invest a lot in that. Not just for regulatory purposes but also for enhancing the experience of our customers. We use AI to personalise our customers’ experience. At the back of the business we use AI to comply with regulatory regulations that are always changing.”

She said ECOMMBX does this “to make sure we do our job well, accurate and fast”. Pitta added that AI “helps us better understand customer behaviour and patterns, and it’s becoming increasingly easier for us to transact with our customers”.

According to Peter Sarlin, AI in itself doesn’t really create any value, it creates value in the product. “We’ve been talking about AI as if it would be reasoning. It is not reasoning, it is machine learning and for this there needs to be mapping, and today we are doing this. The models are doing just what they are taught to do. A-to-B mapping, which is basically mapping from one word to another and learning from trillions of tokens.”

There’s a lot of risks out there, he said. “This technology can be used in various ways. The models aren’t doing anything else than what we are teaching them to do. you need a talented team to do that. I think we are talking too much about regulating AI. AI in itself and on its own is nothing, it’s a by-product.”

Inmes Martinez believes the problem is that AI is being pushed incredibly hard by the big AI developers. “We need to become very aware of what it is so we can make the right decisions in terms of what platforms to use etc. The market is going to be incredibly competitive.”

If you have the money to play around with AI do it, she suggests. “Some sectors like financial services that have large budgets to play around with, are doing it.”

According to Inmes, governments are working towards validating the various AI models so they can be adopted by society. “Let’s make sure that these AI models work the way we want them to work, and then put it out there.”