Interview by Renato Cudicio, MBA, President of TechNuCom.
Quebec perspectives on artificial intelligence: three experts in the spotlight
In mid-November, the Gung Ho! business club held a panel discussion in Laval, moderated by Renato Cudicio, on the rise of AI in the business world.
According to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group, between 30% and 40% of Canadian companies are already experimenting with AI or have plans to do so. Meanwhile, Gartner reports that 25% to 30% of employees are using AI without their superiors’ knowledge, pointing out that the penetration rate is even higher than estimated.
Three specialists shared their expertise on this strategic issue with a gathering of business owners and managers.
Renato Cudicio: Assuming we’re convinced of the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and the possibility of managing risk, in concrete terms, what would be the strategic approach to start with?
Audric Gagnon : To integrate AI effectively, it’s crucial to define a clear strategy and proceed in stages. The first step is to learn to master the tool and understand its uses. Although governance is often mentioned, the key is to adopt a flexible approach. Imposing a single way of using tools like ChatGPT would limit innovation and slow adoption. AI doesn’t work according to a single instruction manual, but rather through interaction, redefining the way we work.
It’s also essential to recognize the existence of “shadow AI” within companies: employees are already using AI informally, often without management being aware of it. To maximize the benefits, we need to embed AI in the corporate culture, encourage open discussion and make AI adoption a collective project. Above all, this process represents a change in human resources, rather than a technological transformation.
To get started, companies can: –
- Develop an AI strategy aligned with their goals.
- Encourage employee experimentation.
- Set up a committee of “AI champions” to steer the initiative.
Productivity gains can be significant: tasks that used to take two days to complete can now be done in a day, doubling efficiency.
The million-dollar question: how much does it cost to adopt AI?
The cost of integrating AI depends on the scale of the project. The idea is not to implement AI everywhere, but to evaluate its usefulness and integrate it gradually. The creation of a committee of champions to oversee the first initiatives helps to identify gains before deploying the technology on a large scale.
Adopting a new technology often involves a cultural change, which can require up to three or four times more resources than the initial technological investment. It’s crucial to ask the right questions: “Why do we need AI?” and “How can we introduce it intelligently?”
To give a concrete example, a professional license of ChatGPT represents around half an hour’s work per month. If an employee gains two hours of productivity per day by using this tool, profitability can reach 400% in just two days.
Can you give us a concrete example to illustrate the potential of AI in data analysis?
Let’s take the example of an Excel file containing projections for energy production in Canada up to 2035. We asked ChatGPT to analyze the data to identify emerging trends and determine the most promising growth scenario.
The results demonstrated that AI can quickly extract key information and provide relevant analysis, significantly increasing productivity. By using AI intelligently, it is possible to move from global data analysis to more targeted study, offering solutions tailored to specific business needs.
AI saves time and improves the accuracy of decisions, taking a raw statistic and turning it into a tangible product in just a few minutes.
