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Monday 7^th October 2024 saw the CogX Summit come to the Royal Albert Hall in London. This piece of land was bought by the profits of the 1851 Great Exhibition, and Prince Albert wanted the land to be used to advance collaboration around innovation, discoveries and technology. What a great venue therefore to come together to discuss AI progress in the world.

My personal need was to see how AI was impacting on organisations and the people that work in them, plus the impact this then has with their external environments. Below is some commentary from the discussions I listened in to.

First up on the stage at the #CogXFestival was “AI and the Future of Work: Supercharging Industry Performance”. A great, broad opening conversation. A great panel discussion with varied experts from key stakeholders such as UK Research and Innovation, Microsoft and Vodafone, with our moderator from CNBC.

Thomas Balkizas from Microsoft UK outlined the advance of AI in life sciences and medicine and demonstrated how AI was accelerating discoveries with insights such as “we’ve had 10 years of (standard) innovation in the last 18 months in Life Sciences”.

On the topic that we might be going too fast for regulation to keep up, Tania Bryer, CNBC Anchor and today’s moderator, asks should we slow down to allow policy to catch up, to which Marika Auramo, CEO of Vodafone Business replies “Can we slow down?” and “Cyber criminals will not be slowing down”.

When discussing the impact of AI on the workforce, Thomas explains that AI is coming in waves. The first wave was an increase in productivity, the second wave is better ways to be collaborative. The third wave is coming and that is true automation where the workforce will be truly impacted. Ottoline Leyser, CEO UKR&I, says that this is happening everywhere and we need to “different skill” (rather than upskill). Everyone wants meaningful work, rather than focus on “loss of roles”, we need to look at new roles.

All agreed that we need a focus on learning and development and changes in the way of working. Helping people learn how to use AI like Co-Pilot is important, not just give it to them without showing the benefits.

When discussing what is holding AI back, Marika from Vodafone says that a key organisation concern should be data management. You need to make data your strategic asset. She also warns that our networks are still not good enough with high latency issues in the UK.

Ottoline Leyser, CEO UKRI, is excited about the potential positive impact on diversity and inclusion. She says that there is potential to level the field more with the application of AI. However, a danger is that our historical data might not be equitable and we need to be careful how we apply future AI.

This opening discussion set the scene for the day, introducing some key topics that as an audience we needed to reflect upon.

Next up at the CogX Summit was a focus on trust. How can we assist the relationship between humans and technology through proactive policy? This conversation reviewed some of the major events of the last 12 months in technology. From the UK’s summit on existential risk from AI, to the Post Office scandal where technology, organisations and the law failed humans, to the Gemini recall when AI was creating inappropriate diverse images of far-right groups. On the panel were representatives from the legal profession, Stanford University, Accenture and the EU Parliament.

On the question of how quickly as humans we can adjust to trust AI, Phillip Souta from Clifford Chance LLP reminds us that we are quite used to machine learning now and this is a recent technology, but this is different to AI or LLMs (large language models).

On the concept of regulation of AI, Marietje Schaake, from Stanford University, questions if we are allowing large global organisations to make the policy as they are bigger than national and multinational governments. Ali Shah from Accenture continued on this topic by saying we need really strong governance of the biggest tech firms. As citizens with democratic governments, we are used to “having” a say on big issues through our votes. The issue is that we are not sure if we have a say in multinational corporations and their policy on what is good and bad.

One government entity has been able to start regulating around AI. Recently the EU introduced the AI Act. Kai Zenner from the European Parliament talks about how they tried the make the law as agile as possible to allow it to be constantly adjusted. The issue is that this has made the governance now so great that it is pushing too much compliance work on organisations. Pros and cons of having a nimble set of regulations or a fixed policy! It is good though that the EU is realising that the AI tech will be evolving rapidly and it needs flexibility, unlike regulations like GDPR.

Ali Shah from Accenture reminds us that it’s not just external governance, it’s the money and activities of CEOs that also need to adapt. AI is not an IT problem; it is core to the success of the organisation. He remarks “How comfortable are you to talk to your stakeholders about your companies AI readiness?”.

We finish with how disinformation might affect the US election, a key topic of AI and trust. Marietje Schaake, from Stanford University makes an interesting point that disinformation researchers in the US are being targeted so little finding becomes available, in addition to a lack of access to information from the social platforms.

The last word was from Ali Shah with a thought-provoking question to the audience (and I think especially for my profession, Human Resources): How are you operationalising AI responsibly in your organisation?

A final discussion I observed by an interesting “fireside chat” with Debbie Weinstein, CEO of Google UK on Boosting Business Growth Through AI Innovation. Google with their Gemini tools are seen as at the forefront of AI in our work and personal lives.

Debbie started with an observation that there has been a mindset evolution in the last 18 months when talking to CEOs, a move from “wow to how”. Rather than seeing AI as futuristic, it is now more about let’s get it in our organisations as we are seeing the benefit of AI. Debbie explained that you don’t need a separate AI strategy. What you need to understand is how can AI accelerate your current strategy. What is your business strategy and how do you take AI and apply it in a useful way to achieve those goals faster?

Initially AI was used as a cost saving activity, but now it is not used to increase customer satisfaction by redeploying humans to more complex tasks.

The conversation returns to skills that we heard at the kick off discussion. We need to help workers learn how to release the lower order tasks from their work, for example teachers creating lesson plans. We need to make sure that everyone is comfortable at using the available AI tools. So many are not at the moment. Her latest project/pilot is “AI Works”: getting out into the community and working with small businesses, schools and a trade union to help them get the best out of AI. We need to ensure lifelong learning.

Debbie’s finishing advice was a reflection question. What are your levers in your organisation to increase revenue / productivity and how can AI assist this?

Overall I found the CogX summit very thought provoking, covering a much broader set of topics than a technical approach to AI. With real business leaders giving tangible advice and connecting the use of large language models to real areas of benefit, I feel I have left with a clearer understanding of a word we are hearing so much of in our lives. I am definitely challenging myself to constantly learn and do more with AI in my work and personal life.