Will AI Replace Human Decision Making?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming more and more embedded in our everyday lives. From driver-less cars, to smart-watches for example. However, will AI replace human decision making totally and if so, when?

Artificial Intelligence for the consumer

Pepper Robot

Aldebaran Robotics built Pepper, its humanoid friendly robot back in 2012 with an “emotional engine”. In other words, the robot interacts with customers and perceives their human emotions. Pepper is already appearing in 140 SoftBank mobile stores with positive results, and SoftBank CEO has ambitions to sell it to consumers for the home.

Amazon Go

The recently launched “Amazon Go” shops in the US uses a mix of deep learning, computer vision and sensor fusion. Similarly to how driver-less cars work. Firstly, consumers must download the application before they can walk into any “Amazon Go” store, take the products they want and leave without having to checkout. Subsequently, as they leave the shop, the artificial intelligence detects the products that have been taken and finally charges their account.

American Express – Fraud department

With over $1 trillion dollars in transaction, and 110 million AmEx cards in circulation (according to a recent Forbes article), American Express uses artificial intelligence to detect possible fraud violations.

Chef Watson

IBM’s Chef Watson can suggest recipes based on just a few ingredients and style of food that a person prefers. In addition, Chef Watson’s deep learning algorithms can understand complex and complementary flavour compounds that a human chef would find impossible to learn.

Will AI replace human decision making in the workplace?

All these examples of artificial intelligence do include automated decision-making, although in a limited capacity. Ultimately however, they still need some form of human intervention.

But can AI replace human decision making in the workplace?

There is a very interesting section in the report ‘Artificial Intelligence Innovation Report 2018‘ published by Deloitte:

Business decision making is a critical process, at all levels. Many business experts suggest that the future of AI in executive decision-making actually lies in a partnership, with humans defining the questions to be asked, or problems to be tackled, and having a final say on the best answer for their business, while AI is used to analyse large volumes of data to provide a basis for the decision.

We have been using artificial intelligence at Wide Ideas for the last 5 years in our innovation software, with astonishing results. In my latest 4 min video (see below), I explain more and answer the question ‘will AI replace human decision making‘ based on my own thoughts and experiences. Hope you enjoy it!