Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help businesses make better decisions, as it can be used to analyse large amounts of data and identify patterns that it would be difficult for humans to see, according to Astro Technology chief executive Munyaradzi Gwatidzo.
“Artificial Intelligence will do your job better than you within seconds,” Dr Gwatidzo told participants in the Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe summer school in Nyanga last week.
He told them that he had used AI to put together his presentation to them. He just had to look it over before coming to present it.
He said AI could be used to automate many of the repetitive tasks that people currently performed, freeing employees to focus on more strategic and creative work.
It could provide personalised customer service that was more efficient and effective than traditional methods, thus helping businesses to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
It could identify patterns and anomalies in financial data that it would be difficult for humans to notice. This could help accountants and auditors identify potential fraud or errors.
AI could generate real time reports that provided insights into a company’s financial performance and help businesses comply with accounting and auditing standards. Chatbots could even interview people for jobs, he said.
It would in future be used to create new products and services that are not possible today. Healthcare chatbots could provide personalised medical advice to patients, he said.
“AI will enable new business models that are not possible today. For example, AI powered peer-to-peer lending platforms can connect borrowers and lenders without the need for a traditional bank,” he said.
However, while AI had the potential to revolutionise businesses, it could be expensive to adopt, especially for small businesses. There was also a shortage of skilled workers who know how to develop and use AI.
He said there is a crisis in Africa of having people with relevant skills. “Things they are learning are no longer relevant,” he said.
Speaking at the same summer school, Industrial Psychology Consultants managing consultant Memory Nguwi said the key issues when it came to staff turnover were age, with the turnover highest among young people, and marital status, with married people staying for longer, especially if they had children of school going age.
Paying better salaries did not mean better performance. In Zimbabwe people were paid a fixed salary whether they performed or not.
The mining and tobacco sectors could pay well because they earned foreign currency from exports. Paying US dollar salaries was unlikely to be sustainable for most businesses, he said.
