Is it a Good Idea to Base Decisions on Artificial intelligence?
We all have read stories or watched movies where machines take over humans, and with AI (Artificial Intelligence) making significant breakthroughs in the world of commerce and business, it seems that our ancestor’s predictions might become true any time soon.
The power of AI rests not only in quick data processing but also in its ability to radicalize the decision-making process. It promises a completely new way of doing business; however, how many of these promises are true and how many of them are mere myths? And, is AI always reliable?
In this article, We at Down2You tries to discuss these important questions.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
In simple words, AI means when a machine can replicate or reproduce the ways humans learn or perform cognitive functions. The purpose of AI is quick decision-making or problem-solving strategies, free of human errors.
Simply speaking, these “Intelligent bots” aren’t only able to perform better than humans, but are also way quicker. Here is what you need to know about AI decision-making.
AI Decision-making
When AI is utilized in data processing, we call this AI decision-making. AI is able to process large amounts of data within seconds. When companies use AI, they get more accurate and consistent decisions, in a small period–allowing employees to focus on other, more productive tasks.
How does it work?
AI can help you in various ways: From assisting humans in basic tasks to working completely independently without human intervention. Humans can benefit massively from the speed, scalability, and consistency when it comes to AI decision-making. Broadly speaking, AI can help you on three levels: assisted intelligence, augmented intelligence, and automated intelligence.
Assisted Intelligence
Assisted intelligence refers to helping humans in making decisions with increased accuracy and speed. It assists humans in combining their expertise with insights driven by data and machine learning.
Augmented Intelligence
Augmented intelligence means a machine’s ability to replicate human input. It helps human actors in managing tasks they couldn’t otherwise do, with learning gathered from human input. Simply put, it is a mixture of human-machine learning, where both collaborate to gain the best results.
Automated Intelligence
Automated intelligence means a machine’s ability to not only follow decisions but also make them; it doesn’t require human intervention on any level and is completely autonomous. Assisted and augmented intelligence are similar. Automated intelligence is the most useful yet the most difficult and risky.
How are decisions made based on AI?
When it comes to data processing by any AI platform, AI decision-making becomes a crucial subject. AI cannot just quantify data, it can also detect anomalies. It can further handle complex analysis, data crunching, and can help in spotting trends. If the platform is completely automated then human intervention is not needed; otherwise, the final decisions are made by human actors.
The Benefits of AI
The advantages of AI lie in the ability to combine human intelligence and data-driven insights. Common sense may be subject to flaws; however, when combined with expertise and AI, it can result in the best possible decisions.
Free of Cognitive Bias
If you try to search why there is a need for AI in the first place, you will discover one very important phrase: ‘Cognitive bias’. Humans are a product of their environment and several unreasonable biases may control them, resulting in bad decisions.
We can make sure that we have made the best possible decision on the available information only by overlooking these biases. AI allows companies to filter through these biases and choose what is best for the business.
Quick and Enhanced Analysis
AI enables quick and accurate analysis of large, complex data, which allows companies to make immediate decisions. Businesses might use AI–either in part or completely–to process such data to analyze trends or suggest a future course of action. Choosing a machine over humans can result in effective decisions and accurate predictions, especially when the outcome is measurable.
Enhanced Sales and Marketing
There is a specific branch of AI, called the Natural Learning Process (NLP). This can be understood as a decision-making application that enables businesses to understand and react according to the consumer mindset. Effective use of NLP can boost sales and popularize marketing campaigns.
Algorithms and other AI tools also help businesses understand customer behavior, expectation, and satisfaction. AI modeling and simulation methods may result in accurate short-term and long-term decisions by giving an insight into the consumers’ perspectives, called opinion-mining.
Risks of AI
If AI promises such benefits and promises ease and accuracy, how come there are risks to it? While the myths, such as complete automation will eventually turn evil or control humans, might be false, it is not good to base all decisions on AI for various reasons, as listed below.
AI does Not ALWAYS Result in Better Decisions
The ability of AI to be quick and radical might seem attractive but it is a machine after all. While AI can predict future outcomes, it cannot determine one outcome to be better or worse. When data is not clearly defined or quantifiable, AI is at risk of overlooking hidden costs, rewards, and crucial sentiments. This is where human judgment plays an important role.
Competent Yet Misaligned Goals
Intelligence enables control. Even though AI cannot replicate such human emotions as malevolence or evilness, misaligned intelligence is dangerous. AI does what you want it to, not what is needed and might perceive alternate instruction as a threat. This might seem far into the future, but automated weapons such as heat-seeking missiles and slaughter bots are already here. A heat-seeking missile has a ‘goal’ and slaughter bots are autonomous AI machines that do not need human intervention to identify and kill a target.
Final Verdict
Humans are indeed incapable of leveraging large datasets and are liable to make errors. They also keep track of large amounts of data by summarizing as it is impossible to process all records. When it comes to decision-making, humans are unable to find links among aspects–a crucial aspect of decision-making. However, humans take into account every aspect of a dataset, such as relationships, sentiments, patterns, and important insights, which an autobot might miss. However, Since sentiments can cloud human judgments, they are liable to make errors and be biased. However, leaving all work to machines is also not a smart move as AI may miss important aspects of decision-making and may in turn have misaligned goals. It can also be dangerous if allowed to work without human invention. The solution lies in assisted and automated decision-making.
Conclusion
In businesses, human decision-making has a major impact on the desired outcome. Completely automated decisions have a scope of error and risk. The true potential and benefit of AI can be achieved when both humans and machines collaborate: such as in assisted or augmented decision-making. Whether it’s a new marketing strategy, opinion-mining, customer support, or an innovative marketing copy, a decision-making model, created by both human and artificial intelligence can truly be revolutionary.