The AI revolution is here. As such, it is key for businesses to adapt to these new technologies and upskill their talent to thrive in a future underscored by innovation.
In a recent podcast interview with Cheque Point, Dr Semih Kumluk, Head of AI and Digital at PwC, discussed the integration of AI in various industries and the importance of upskilling workforces to adapt to technological advancements.
With a PhD in finance, a background in telecommunications and experience with AI upskilling, Kumluk highlighted the benefits of algorithms in tasks like text generation and data analytics. He also shared his predictions for how genAI will change workforce dynamics and stressed the need for organisations to have an open mindset, invest in technology and focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full interview here.
New technologies are coming up all the time, with the latest wave being genAI. How can organisations ensure that their workforces can adapt to these changes?
Digital upskilling is nothing new. With all the advancements in AI, it is getting more and more important, and it is getting a bit more challenging for organisations to adapt. One PwC study says that one of the reasons digital transformation efforts fail is when we forget the people. We invest in technology, we digitalise processes but we don’t upskill people.
For companies to succeed and get the benefits of all these recent technologies, we need a particular focus. Not everybody will become an AI expert, right? You cannot invest in everyone to become AI experts or machine learning experts. So, it starts with envisioning the organisation structure, how many people in which part of the organisation will become the experts, whether everybody in the organisation is aware of AI, aware of all the technologies impacting their business, their industry; and whether you need some kind of middle ground between the experts and the rest of the business.
Once you set this strategy, you need programmes. Another PwC report found out that when you launch an upskilling programme,-not just standalone training- it has many side benefits in terms of culture, engagement, productivity, etc. This is also one thing to consider when you launch an upskilling programme in AI, genAI, etc. What is the return on investment? That is the million-dollar question for training programmes. Organisations need to see the gain they will get as a result and push the employees to apply what they learned about these technologies.
Everyone is now talking about generative AI. What are some of the ways you see it impacting businesses?
Especially for text-generation tasks. We see it a lot in marketing, HR, internal communications, procurement and legal. In these kinds of text-heavy roles, I can say there are huge gains. I’m not saying the AI can do the whole job. There is a nice quote I like: “AI took my job to the next level”. AI is already taking the jobs of these people to the next level, not replacing them. When you are preparing a communication, you can get the draft easily and quickly from genAI tools, and then you focus on editing, polishing, etc.
The benefit here is the time saved. In the past, you would spend more time drafting some content, but here you spend more time on editing, because you get the draft from these tools quickly. There are several empirical studies here. One says there is a 37% time-saving gain when you do your job with this. Another one is regarding the diversity of ideas. AI is helping you come up with new kinds of ideas. I run a lot of brainstorming workshops and the first ideas that come to people’s minds are always the same. We need a trigger to come up with new ideas.
“AI is already taking the jobs of these people to the next level, not replacing them.”
When you go into more advanced use cases, you can do it for many other tasks. For example, data analytics requires some good skills, some advanced skills, I would say, so when you use these tools, you can actually analyse your data by asking questions, even if you don’t know any statistics. Another use case I like is where you have a report and you can easily convert it into a presentation. When you integrate these tools into your own data, the possibilities are even bigger.
How do you foresee the integration of generative AI, changing the future of the workforce?
I think we haven’t seen most of it yet. We see maybe 10% to 20% of what will come.
There has been a recent announcement that the Dubai government will try a four-day working week. One of the future predictions I have is we will generate the same economic output by working less. So, that is the foreseeable and also the most motivating and promising future benefits and future impacts to the workforce.
The way we do tasks will change dramatically as well. If you consider the most popular genAI tool, ChatGPT, the interface looks like one chatbox. When you compare it to other interfaces, they are sophisticated, they have all the buttons, all the features, all different options, etc. That interface will be the benchmark within five years. This was last year’s prediction. So, within four years, many technologies, beginning with our phones, our laptops, and maybe our cars, will have the simplicity of ChatGPT. Instead of all the apps you have on your phone, you will just ask your phone, and of course, it will soon switch to speech as well-it like an obvious near future.
You will ask your phone to send a message to someone. You will ask your phone to read your emails, and you will speak your replies to those emails. It will make you call a taxi or order pizza by just talking to your phone. Currently, this is possible technology-wise, all we just need is the integration of all this data, all of your accounts, and all the different apps you have. When you put it into the workforce, you might soon see an office full of people speaking to your laptop, “Do that, open this and this, open this, etc”.
That will be interesting, but its implications are still quite different. Knowing how to use a software will not be a differentiator. Currently, in the workforce, when you know how to use something, it’s a differentiator. So that lack of differentiation between the people will be quite interesting. And, since we can delegate more on the technical side to these tools, soft skills will be even more important: critical thinking, negotiation, problem-solving… If we have more time, we will have the opportunity to focus on solving the big problems of humankind, like climate change, recessions, etc.
“Can we survive without handwriting?”
The skillset of the future will be quite interesting. I have a daughter, she is four years old now and, a couple of years ago, she was able to type on her tablet and on my laptop. She was quite curious about it. So, I was thinking, “Although she cannot write, she can type”. I was thinking, “Does she need to learn how to write? Can we survive without handwriting?” I’m not saying, should we but can we survive? I told it to a friend, and he has a son about eight years old. He said, “My son is refusing to learn how to read because his tablet, his computer is speaking back to him”. The way we consume media is less reading and more watching, listening, etc. From that perspective, future generations don’t need to learn how to read and write. The implications of that will be very, very interesting.
These new generations are going to join the workforce with fully digital mindsets. What can organisations and educational institutions do to prepare for this new landscape?
It requires an open mindset. We had this clash between generations already, like between five to 10 years ago, but it is increasing now. If the new generations are adapting to technology, but the old generations are not, you need to have that open mindset. It’s also the most difficult one to change. Shifting the culture requires a lot of effort. I would focus on keeping track of technology. Investments in technology are able to change the culture and the ways of working. That’s one of the things. Also, you need to be quite flexible as well to be able to upskill.
“We need to be ready to inject new skills, new people, and new generations into the organisation.”
There is this term I like: “unlearn”. We should, especially the leadership, be willing to forget. Because this new way of working might be better. We need to be ready to inject new skills, new people, and new generations into the organisation. And organisations need to be ready with this AI-enabled workforce.
Are there any examples you can think of of successful programmes or initiatives?
Yes. I’m the genAI lead of my line of service at PwC and it has various aspects. We have the AI Factory. In itself, it’s a workforce or working group. It has all the representatives of different roles. It has a prompt engineer, a data engineer, and an algorithm expert. It also has the product leader kind of role. So we might need these kinds of small workforce groups that are more agile, more flexible and can act more quickly to solve some business problems using AI. We also launched our genAI upskilling program globally, in which PwC promised to invest around $3 billion just for the genAI skills of the employees. It requires some investment, some effort and prioritisation by the leadership as well.
Another recent good practice came from the Dubai government. Dubai launched the Dubai Universal Blueprint for AI. In case you didn’t notice, the initials make “Dubai”. Part of this blueprint is that Chief AI officers are assigned to all government entities. It is unmatched globally, anywhere in the world. There is also the Dubai AI Campus and commercial AI licenses for AI companies. In terms of attracting and reaping the benefits of AI, the Dubai government is setting a good example.
Do you see a similar emphasis on AI across the rest of the Middle East?
Yes, of course. It is one of the hottest regions in the world when it comes to AI. Saudi has one of the largest AI funds globally and they are investing in AI startups and AI ventures, which is a great investment in terms of diversification of the economy. Also, the Saudi government is sponsoring AI training programmes as well, which we have developed. I’m happy to share that I launched with our academy the first-ever AI certification programme across the Middle East four years ago. This is a great initiative by the Saudi government also to promote AI and other technological advancements.
I think all governments, maybe with a few exceptions, have their own national AI strategy, with some initiatives to be completed by the government as well, which is quite promising for AI enthusiasts like me.
What would you say is the most pressing question that kind of all leaders should be asking themselves in terms of AI adoption?
I think they should ask the ultimate question, “Are we ready?’ AI is already here, right? It’s not our future anymore. It’s here and now. Are we ready and are we doing the right things right now?
There should be some kind of FOMO, not to make them too anxious. But definitely, seeing the benefits AI promises, impacting all industries: are you ready? Are you already using that? And it comes down to asking some specific questions, are our technology ready? Do we need to invest in our technology? Do you have the right organisational structure? Is it flexible enough? Do you have the right skilled personnel across the organization to achieve this? And do you enough about AI?
“AI is already here. Are we ready and are we doing the right things right now?”
Rather than pushing it top-down, let the people, the process owners, business owners, and operation managers, come up with ideas to solve their actual problems by using AI. We call this “citizen-led innovation”, which is much more promising than trying to push something from the top.
Looking at change management efforts like top-down, and bottom-up, when you cover all these we have this new change management approach called “wildfire approach”, because of how wildfire spreads. When you complete all these requirements, all these different angles, you can approach a much faster adoption to achieve change.
Is there anything that you want to add?
My ultimate message would be to have an open mindset, to keep an eye on what’s going on, and, more importantly, try to apply Start adopting it and, if it’s not relevant, just keep on learning.