Amber Group CEO urges Jamaica to match pace with AI
Published:Thursday | June 22, 2023 | 1:34 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
AS ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) continues to advance at a fast pace and is integrated into daily life, ambassador Dushyant Savadia, founder and CEO of the Amber Group, is concerned that Jamaica may be left behind if people do not become acquainted and accustomed to the role it plays in society.
Savadia, who was speaking at the Jamaica Productivity Centre 20th anniversary forum hosted at Terra Nova All Suites Hotel on Tuesday – which coincided with the observance of World Productivity Day – stated that AI was the future and that it would boost the productivity and efficiency levels across Jamaica’s economy.
“It’s a whole new arena what AI is doing for the world,” he said while speaking at the event, which was held under the theme ‘Paving Productivity Pathways for a Prosperous Nation’.
“Everything is changing, and if we do not adopt AI, if we do not move as fast as AI is moving, then Jamaica will get left behind. It’s all about adopting technology as Government, as businesses ... but the final stop is at consumers,” he said, stating that they, too, had to get on board with utilising digital services and becoming accustomed to using the technology as opposed to fearing it.
He further argued that AI made life easier and that from a business perspective, its tools would not replace the creativity and intelligence of human beings.
“What created AI is also human beings, so everything that we do today is going to get [a] lot more efficient, lot more faster, lot more easier, lot more economical, and, perhaps, finally, the human race will have some time to itself,” he said, noting that one could spend more time with family, rather than being glued to a computer screen engaged in work from morning to night.
He added that there was nothing to be “so threatened about”, namely believing that its evolution would change who we are as human beings.
Savadia, therefore, urged the business community to utilise AI within the labour market while also investing in it to upskill their workers in positions that AI could not function so as to cut company costs and human requirements to provide service. He further encouraged them to be prepared as while AI could assist in creating new job descriptions, it could also disrupt sectors and create a lot of job losses.
Priority areas to invest in for the acceleration of innovation and the use of technology within the labour market included the digitisation of government services, the education sector, and the health sector, he said, noting that the Government was the largest employer.
“The bank sector, health sector, every single sector is changing ... adapting to normal new technologies that is providing better care, better cost ... and is also creating a lot of profits for the company,” he said.
He said that there were a lot of other areas that needed significant change in policy, visibility, and technology, which could not be executed solely by the Government.
“Government can only be a catalyst to change. The change comes from people. If people are not willing to change then no matter what we produce – if I put a beautiful cake in front of you and you don’t want to eat it, then the hunger remains with you,” he said.