Artificial Intelligence seems to be all around us, and many organizations are feeling the pressure to implement AI solutions. But like with any technology, especially the emergent ones that get a lot of buzz, it’s critical to let your business and consumer needs lead the technology, not the other way around.
I believe that it is the IA practitioners in an organization who can and should be the ones leading when AI and machine learning makes sense, which interactions it can best support, and how to architect and design those interactions so that they best support humans – whether those humans are employees, end consumers or citizens.
In this talk I will ensure we all understand why we should be forefront in creating AI experiences, why they are exciting and yet challenging (and even risky) and how we can immediately get involved.
2. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
WHO AM I?
2
Vice President Design - Capital One
Formerly Ralph Lauren, Razorfish, REI, Microsoft, Amazon.
I’m passionate about creating GREAT customer experiences, regardless of screen or device; online or offline.
3. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING…
3
http://weheartit.com/entry/19106728, http://cdn.farmersalmanac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/tornado-2006-420x240.jpg
Text: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkanellos/2016/03/03/152000-smart-devices-every-minute-in-2025-idc-outlines-the-future-of-smart-things
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43015182/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/reasons-will-be-awesome-year, https://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/summits/docs/na/customer-360/C360_2011_brochure_FINAL.pdf
By 2025, a $1,000 computer will have the processing power of the human brain; 80 billion devices will be
connected to the Internet; we will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with
a human. AND MUCH MORE…
15/6/2017
4. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI WILL CHANGE ENTERTAINMENT
4
Image: http://blogs.voanews.com/techtonics/2016/06/02/musk-were-probably-living-in-a-video-game-the-future-with-ai
Text: https://www.wired.com/2016/04/magic-leap-vr, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/12/video-game-characters-emotional-ai-developers
“AI powered by a neural network could revolutionize the way player avatars animate realistically through complicated
game environments in real time….developers are beginning to think about the possibilities of non-player characters
(NPCs) who could think and act in a more complex and human way” The Guardian
5. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI WILL CHANGE MEDICINE
5
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/technology/artificial-intelligence-eye-hospital-india.html
“Researchers hope this A.I. system will help doctors screen more patients in a country where diabetic retinopathy is
increasingly prevalent. Nearly 70 million Indians are diabetic... all are at risk of blindness.” The New York Times
6. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
Text: http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/25/11492102/bill-gates-interview-education-software-artificial-intelligence
http://www.gladwinanalytics.com/blog/sesame-street-ibm-watson-personalized-learning
AI WILL CHANGE EDUCATION
6
“[With an AI tutor,] I can engage in a dialogue.
The idea that you could talk to a [virtual] advisor
that would understand different misconceptions
and arbitrary linguistics around it, that’ll
certainly come in the next decade...the beauty
of this is it could be completely free.” Bill Gates
“Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational
organization that produces “Sesame Street,”
recently announced a collaboration to use IBM
Watson's cognitive computing technology”
Sesame Workshop
7. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI WILL CHANGE WAR
7
“Of the 2.5 million Americans who
served in Iraq and Afghanistan,
300,000 of them came home with
traumatic brain injury. DARPA
initiated a series of programs to help
cognitive functioning, to repair some
of this damage. And those programs
center around putting brain chips
inside the tissue of the brain. Since
the 1950s, the Pentagon has been
pursuing artificial intelligence.”
Annie Jacobson, NPR
Text: http://fusion.net/story/204316/darpa-is-implanting-chips-in-soldiers-brains
Image: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2321081/Scientists-hope-implant-microchips-generate-memories-human-brains-2-years.html
8. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
SHOULD WE BE SCARED?
8
“The automation of
factories has already
decimated jobs in
traditional
manufacturing, and
the rise of artificial
intelligence is likely to
“With artificial
intelligence we are
summoning the
demon.”
Elon Musk
"I am in the camp
that is concerned
about super
intelligence."
Bill Gates
“What all of us have
to do is to make sure
we are using AI in a
way that is for the
benefit of humanity,
not to the detriment
of humanity.”
Tim Cook
“The future
belongs to
artificial
intelligence…who
ever becomes the
leader in this
sphere will
become the ruler
of the world.”
Vladimer Putun
9. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
OH SH*T
9
Text & Image: ; http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html
“the 21st century will achieve 1,000 times the progress of the 20th century.”
Ray Kurzweil, Futurist
Tim Urban - Wait but Why
10. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
NOW WHAT?
10
11. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
WE MUST DESIGN AI FOR HUMANS
11
“You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology - not the other way around.”
Steve Jobs
Image: https://www.wired.com/story/a-plea-for-ai-that-serves-humanity-instead-of-replacing-it/
Text: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
12. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HELP HUMANS
12
Text and Image: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/seeing-ai/
Designed for the low vision community, this research project harnesses the power of AI to describe people, text, and objects.
Leveraging AI technology to expand and help our human lives is the first area of focus we should have..
Microsoft Seeing AI
13. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
(AND HELP AI TO HELP HUMANS!)
13
Text: https://blog.cyberprosocial.com/2018/05/08/microsoft-wants-to-use-ai-to-help-people-with-disabilities/
“We should be asking not only what computers can do, but what computers should do.”
Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft
14. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
WHO CAN AI BENEFIT?
14
“The Orcam My Eye clips onto the arm of a pair of glasses and uses a miniature camera to process what it sees
through a bone-conduction earpiece…the devices then reads out the text or describing the objects stored in
its memory, such as credit cards or banknotes.” The American Foundation for the Blindhttps://pharmaphorum.com/news/artificial-vision-device-significantly-improves-vision-legally-blind/
15. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
NOT JUST AUTOMATION…
15
Image: http://www.innovationtoronto.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Robot-Integration.jpg
Text: https://www.hhs.se/en/about-us/news/2018/few-jobs-can-be-completely-replaced-by-new-technologies/
“The introduction of automation technologies will be gradual, and the long-term potential for society is job creation
rather than job losses…the potential to automate non-routine tasks is likely to remain limited.”
Stockholm School of Economics, The Substitution of Labour
16. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
BUT AUGMENTATION
16
Image & Text: https://www.wired.com/story/a-plea-for-ai-that-serves-humanity-instead-of-replacing-it
“Instead of thinking about AI as separate or adversarial to humans, it’s more helpful and accurate to think about
machines augmenting our collective intelligence and society”
Joi Ito, Director MIT Media Lab
17. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
COLLABORATION
17
Image & Text: https://www.wired.com/story/a-plea-for-ai-that-serves-humanity-instead-of-replacing-it
“We think more jobs will completely change their activities than completely disappear. And so we’ll see more of these
collaborations between machines and people.”
Michael Chui, Partner McKinsey Global Institute
18. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AMPLIFICATION
18
Image: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2018/03/22/ai-improving-decision-making/
Text: https://www.wired.com/story/a-plea-for-ai-that-serves-humanity-instead-of-replacing-it
“Everything we love about civilization is a product of intelligence, so amplifying our human intelligence with artificial
intelligence has the potential of helping civilization flourish like never before – as long as we manage to keep the
technology beneficial.“
Max Tegmark, President Future of Life Institute
Unleash Live for Lifeguards
19. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AND EXTENSION
19
Image: https://blog.cyberprosocial.com/2018/05/08/microsoft-wants-to-use-ai-to-help-people-with-disabilities/
Text: https://globalcxi.org/#vision
“Instead of thinking about machine intelligence in terms of humans vs. machines, we should consider the system that
integrates humans and machines—not artificial intelligence, but extended intelligence.”
Council on Extended Intelligence (IEEE Standards Association and the MIT Media Lab)
Seeing AI
20. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW CAN WE DESIGN AI FOR HUMANS?
20
21. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
3 PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING AI FOR
HUMANS
21
1. GO BEYOND GIMMICKS
2. FOCUS ON SERVICES
3. DON’T FORGET ETHICS
22. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
1. GO BEYOND GIMMICKS
22
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/technology/china-future-robot-waiters.html
“This is about as far as the nonhuman waiters can go at the Robot Magic Restaurant in Shanghai. After diners take
photos and videos, regular waiters step in to serve the food.”
Paul Mozur, Technology Reporter The New York Times
23. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
PROVIDE VALUE FOR BUSINESS
Image: https://datafloq.com/read/ai-impact-retail-examples-walmart-amazon/4553
Text: https://hbr.org/2018/07/most-of-ais-business-uses-will-be-in-two-areas
23
“Using AI to personalize promotions can lead to a 1-2% increase in incremental sales…In advanced
manufacturing…AI can improve forecasting accuracy by 10-20%. This translates into a potential 5% reduction in
inventory costs and revenue increases of 2-3%.”
Harvard Business Review
24. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
PROVIDE VALUE FOR EMPLOYEES
Text and Image: https://www.forbes.com/sites/insights-intelai/2018/07/17/software-for-hardware-how-artificial-intelligence-is-helping-lowes-customers/, https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/16/wal-mart-is-testing-an-ai-powered-robot.aspx
24
[LoweBot] “enables Lowe’s employees to devote their
attention to more complex, human problems, like
lending their expertise to a customer’s particular project,
perhaps a troublesome leaky roof.”
Gihad Jawhar, VP Digital Development, Lowes
"If you are running up and down the aisle and you want to
decide if we are out of Cheerios or not, a human doesn't do
that job very well, and they don't like it.”
Jeremy King, CTO Walmart
25. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
PROVIDE VALUE FOR END CONSUMERS
Image & Text: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-sephora-is-leveraging-ar-and-ai-to-transform-retail-and-help-customers-buy-cosmetics/
25
"Sephora Virtual Artist is a really good example of where there was a real customer need. It can be overwhelming
coming into our stores or shopping online, but this makes it easy to help you find your favorite shade and save you
time.” Mary Beth Laughton, Executive Vice President Sephora
26. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
PROVIDE VALUE FOR COMMUNITIES
Text & Image: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/asia/china-toilet-paper-theft.html
26
“Before entering restrooms in the park, visitors must now stare into a computer mounted on the wall for three seconds before
a machine dispenses a sheet of toilet paper, precisely two feet in length. If visitors require more, they are out of luck.”
Javier C. Hernández, The New York Times
Temple of Heaven Park, Beijing
27. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW? DEVELOP EXPERIENCE PILLARS
27
NIMBLE
AUTHENTIC
HOLISTIC
A N
H U M A N
USEFUL MEASURABLE AUTHENTIC NIMBLE
28. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW? MEASURE THE RIGHT THINGS
28
Text” https://www.forbes.com/insights-intelai/ai-issue-1/
40%
28%
21%
The most-cited business benefits
corporate leaders see from AI include:
Increased productivity
But don’t forget potential human
benefits, for example:
Reduced operating costs
Improved speed to market
Increased relevancy and timing of
messaging.; true personalization.
Help provided exactly when, where how it’s
needed.
Reduction of boring tasks, allowing for
increased creativity.
What is the human’s real goal? What do they want? Why?
29. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW? CONSIDER TECHNOLOGY AS AN
ENABLER
29
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/23/technology/robot-nurse-zora.html
“…technology—when used wisely—can enhance the patient experience, improve efficiency, promote autonomy,
personalise information and enable new value propositions. But in order to achieve this we must start with
understanding peoples’ needs and behaviours – and not just solely from the perspective of their care and treatment
program.” LiveWork
30. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
2. FOCUS ON SERVICES
30
Image: http://www.itv.com/news/2015-10-04/downton-abbey-star-jokes-about-doing-a-live-show/
Text: McKinsey, MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab, and Carnegie Mellon via https://www.techemergence.com/everyday-examples-of-ai/
“AI will shorten your commute… via self-driving cars that result in up to 90% fewer accidents, more efficient ride sharing
to reduce the number of cars on the road by up to 75%, and smart traffic lights that reduce wait times by 40% and overall
travel time by 26% .“ MIT Researchers
31. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI CAN IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE
Text: https://www.springwise.com/chinese-chatbot-uses-ai-provide-medical-diagnosis; http://research.baidu.com/baidus-melody-ai-powered-conversational-bot-doctors-patients/
Image: http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/11/baidu-launches-medical-assistant-chatbot-to-help-doctors-collect-patient-information
31
“companies will continue to explore the power of intelligent agents to add conversational interfaces to static self-service
content. They will anticipate needs by context, preferences, and prior queries and will deliver proactive alerts, relevant
offers, or content. They will additionally become smarter over time via embedded artificial intelligence.”
Forrester Research
32. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI CAN EASE INTERACTIONS
Text: https://www.springwise.com/chinese-chatbot-uses-ai-provide-medical-diagnosis; http://research.baidu.com/baidus-melody-ai-powered-conversational-bot-doctors-patients/
Image: http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/11/baidu-launches-medical-assistant-chatbot-to-help-doctors-collect-patient-information
32
“With Melody, our goal is to provide
patients with an online experience that
is close to a human conversation. We
believe this natural type of interaction
will help patients feel more comfortable
with their doctors and result in a more
beneficial patient-doctor relationship.
As Melody has more conversations, it
will also learn and keep getting
better…This is just the start of a much
larger, AI-driven transformation of the
healthcare industry.”
Baidu Research
33. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI CAN INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND AVOID
BIAS
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/ai-job-recruiting-tools-offered-by-hirevue-mya-other-start-ups.html
33
"The A.I. gives each video a score based on more than 250,000 data points, including audio, tonality and speech
patterns, the importance of which can be customized for the client's need…Unilever has improved the diversity of its
talent pool by 16 percent since partnering with HireVue.”
Kevin Parker, CEO HireVue
34. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1450781303/bonjour-smart-alarm-clock-with-artificial-intellig, https://www.getvi.com, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/partnership-future-how-humans-ai-can-work-together-solve-nadella, http://www.cataliahealth.com/how-it-works, http://www.bernie.ai, http://www.neimanmarcus.com/NM/SnapFindShop
HOW? WHAT CAN IMPROVE THE DAY TO DAY?
34
35. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW? CREATE A HOLISTIC STORY
35
Image: https://uxpressia.com/blog/create-service-blueprint-uxpressia,
36. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW? REMEMBER THE HUMAN CONNECTION
36
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/23/technology/robot-nurse-zora.html
When Zora arrived at this nursing facility an hour outside Paris, a strange thing began happening: Many patients
developed an emotional attachment, treating it like a baby, holding and cooing, giving it kisses on the head.
37. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
3. DON’T FORGET ETHICS
37
http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/robotics.htmll, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/partnership-future-how-humans-ai-can-work-together-solve-nadella
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/technology/new-research-center-to-explore-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence.html
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/whitehouse_files/microsites/ostp/NSTC/preparing_for_the_future_of_ai.pdf
“First, robots should never harm a human being
through action or inaction. Second, they must obey
human orders. Third, they must protect themselves.
Each law cannot conflict with the other.” - Isaac
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics
“What we’d like to see is a trusted third party, perhaps a
regulatory or supervisory body, that would have the power
to scrutinise and audit algorithms, so they could go in and
see whether the system is actually transparent and fair.”
- Research team at the Alan Turing Institute in London
and the University of Oxford
"It's a dangerous moral ground are we walking into,
making systems that are reminiscent of humanity and
then treating them in a way that is inhumane." - Illah
Nourbakhsh, Professor of Robotics at Carnegie
Mellon University “Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM
and Microsoft created a
partnership to help establish
ethical guidelines for the design
and deployment of A.I. systems.”
New York Times
“A.I. must maximize efficiencies without destroying the
dignity of people: It should preserve cultural
commitments, empowering diversity. We need broader,
deeper, and more diverse engagement of populations in
the design of these systems.”
- Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
38. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI WATCHES US…
38
Image: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html
Text: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/how-frightened-should-we-be-of-ai
“…facial-recognition technology underpins China’s ‘sharp eyes’ program, which collects surveillance footage from
some fifty-five cities…By 2020, the system will render a score for each of its 1.4 billion citizens, based on their
observed behavior, down to how carefully they cross the street.” Tad Friend, The New Yorker
39. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
JUDGES US…
39
Image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWWsW1w-Bvo
Text: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/opinion/facial-analysis-technology-bias.html
“…white men were identified correctly 99% of the time while women with dark skin were identified incorrectly 34% of
the time…A.I. systems are shaped by the priorities and prejudices — conscious and unconscious — of the people
who design them.” Joy Buolamwini, MIT Media Lab Researcher
40. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
LEARNS FROM US
40
Image: https://www.wnyc.org/story/deep-learning-racism, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/24/tay-microsofts-ai-chatbot-gets-a-crash-course-in-racism-from-twitter
Text: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/13/ai-programs-exhibit-racist-and-sexist-biases-research-reveals
“the coded gaze is a "reflection of the priorities, the preferences, and also sometimes the prejudices of those who
have the power to shape technology,” Joy Buolamwini - Algorithmic Justice League Founder
41. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW? REMEMBER IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY
41
https://bgr.com/2017/04/15/ai-biases-racism-sexism/
Full study: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6334/183.full
Image: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/even-artificial-intelligence-can-acquire-biases-against-race-and-gender
“Not only does training an
artificial brain create biases, but
those leanings reinforce many
societal issues regarding race
and gender that plague
humanity today…The trained AI
had a habit of
associating typically caucasian-
sounding names with other
things that it considered to be
“pleasant,” rather than African-
American names. The AI also
shied away from pairing female
pronouns with mathematics, and
instead often associated them
with artistic terms.”
42. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
HOW? BE INCLUSIVE
42
https://youtu.be/162VzSzzoPs
43. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
AI IS US
Text: https://ai100.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/ai_100_report_0831fnl.pdf
43
“As we invent more species of AI, we will be forced to surrender more of what is
supposedly unique about humans. We’ll spend the next decade—indeed, perhaps the
next century—in a permanent identity crisis, constantly asking ourselves what humans
are for…The greatest benefit of the arrival of artificial intelligence is that AIs will help
define humanity. We need AIs to tell us who we are.”
Kevin Kelly, Founding Executive Editor of Wired
44. Designing AI for Humans - Samantha Starmer
starmer@gmail.com
THANK YOU
44
http://www.flickr.com/photos/baking_in_pearls/3960662314
starmer@gmail.com, @samanthastarmer
Hinweis der Redaktion
Everything is moving so quickly and continuing to change.
Truly choose your own adventure
It will change medicine. I broke my navicular bone last year. They shoot horses who break that bone. My recovery took well over a year and I will never be the runner I used to be because of a misdiagnosed xray. AI will make that a thing of the past.
AI will change education. We talk about personalized education and helping people who are more visual, tactile or aural learners – what about teaching aids that can learn what types of learning are most effective for each of us at what point and with what subjects?
And it will change war.
UPDATE: DARPA responded to a request from Fusion that “brain-neural interfaces” have not yet been implanted in soldiers, though test devices have been implanted in the brains of volunteers already undergoing brain surgery. We’ve changed the headline to reflect that implantation of chips in soldiers’ brains has not happened yet.
It’s also hard to know how we should feel about AI when big names such as these predict dire or scary results.
According to many, this is what is about to happen. Oh shit is right. We think we have seen amazing increases to the speed of computing and general technology progress over the last 20 years? Many experts say we haven’t seen anything yet.
Now what? What can we do to prepare?
I believe it is critical, as ideally with all technology - to design and create from a human centered perspective. It is often so tempting to use technology as a bright shiny solution. But we first need to understand the problem or opportunity. As Steve Jobs said, we have to start with the customer experience and work back towards the technology.
One important way to be customer centered is to focus on helping humans. For example, with AI we can help those who have sight challenges to ‘see’ and understand the world around them, including recognizing loved ones before they even speak.
And remember that we need to keep training machine learning driven AI systems. An example is this Seeing AI tool that is still trying to figure out my correct age. You can download it for free from the app store and try it yourself.
And the humans that we help should ideally be all consumers who could benefit from AI.
This means we have to think beyond some of the most talked about potential impacts of AI. Right now there is a lot of fear that one of the first huge impacts of more readily available and advanced AI will be automation that takes away jobs. But there are a number of experts who believe that jobs will change and grow for the better.
Thinking beyond automation we can come up with ways that AI can augment our human capabilities, such as this hospital robot who can deliver lunches to specific rooms so that the nurses don’t have to run around and potentially limit their ability to help their patients.
AI, whether in robot or some other form, can become one of our most important collaborators. Here at a company in California, robotic painters are working alongside human workers, sanding and painting cabinets. Despite early fears from employees, the human workers have grown to embrace the "cobots" -- collaborative robots who are helping them get the job done.
AI can amplify our human skills and intelligence, serve as a tool that makes us more successful and effective. There are AI platforms available today that connects surf rescue first responders with multiple live data views from drones, using video analysis to
help responders better tell if the murky shape in the water is a shark or a piece of driftwood. They can detect someone who has got into difficulties while swimming.
In fact, there is an increasing movement to change the name of AI to EI - not artificial intelligence but extended intelligence. This is another example from the Microsoft App Seeing AI where AI can translate handwritten text to an audio version.
Now that we’ve discussed where AI might help us humans, you hopefully have a better sense of why designing human centered AI experiences is important. We’ll spend the rest of the talk about how you can do that.
I’ll share 3 principles for creating AI experiences that go beyond the buzz and provide real value for the consumers of those experiences.
The first is a big one, and directly ties to putting humans first vs. the technology. Go beyond gimmicks. AI is full of gimmicks right now. And gimmicks can be fun for a one off marketing stunt, but they generally aren’t customer centered. Take this example of the robot magic restaurant. The robots are really only there to enable selfies - they don’t yet have the sophistication to serve anyone food or to put the waiters out of a job.
To ensure that you are going beyond a gimmick and that you aren’t trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, start by focusing on what the value to the business or organization might be. There are lots of areas where AI can add direct bottom line value - just be sure that you map out those KPIs and then really think about what the right solution for growth will be. It may be something that is AI enabled - it may not be.
Also consider value to employees. While I’ve made a little fun of robots thus far in this presentation, these two in store robots are allowing sales associates to spend more time at the customer facing work. It’s a great example of potentially more creative and valuable - therefore higher paid - work growing because AI is helping with some of the grunt work.
Of course, adding value for end consumers is my personal passion. The beauty brand Sephora has done amazing innovative digital and AI work that both gets them extensive positive press AND serves customers. I believe this kind of customer facing AI innovation is currently under utilized and that there is a ton of opportunity for your organizations to think about creative ways you can leverage AI for consumers to drive revenue and increase satisfaction vs. just focusing on the value of AI for productivity or managing big data.
And let’s not forget the potential for AI to provide value to citizens and communities overall. Initiative like smart cities, AI enabling legal systems to work faster are amazing opportunities. This example is good for a bit of a laugh, but actually has been generally positively received. We have all experienced the trauma of finding a restroom when in need and the toilet paper is missing.
So how can we design our AI experiences to avoid gimmicks? An excellent tool to keep everyone centered and focused on the right goals is to develop experience pillars. These can be used for all of our customer experiences, or you could build off of any existing customer experience vision and strategy and create AI specific pillars. This is one general example of AI Experience Pillars that could work for a number of different types of industries and organizations - B2C or B2B. Feel free to borrow these and tailor to your own company.
And then make sure you are measuring the right things. The business KPIs on the left are from a recent Forbes survey of 300-plus executives, but don’t neglect customer goals. You will be most successful if you take the time to develop specific, measurable data points that put the customer in the center, such as whether you are providing help or service exactly where, when and how it’s needed.
Next, it is valuable to focus on services AI can provide to humans, vs. just thinking about the products and technology itself. AI is already providing services that can benefit our daily lives, and keeping a service mindset in the forefront is central to ensuring that your AI experiences stay customer centered and are truly adding value to your customers, whoever they may be.
An obvious example of AI and customer service benefit is the chatbot. When done well, they save humans time, can provide us proactive direction and can automate tasks that we may not want to handle ourselves such as paying bills, managing our savings or look up recipes.
A likely even more valuable service that chat bots can provide is easing interactions with what can be a scary and fraught with emotion conversation – health. I know I would be much more likely to tell Melody than a human doctor that I smoked a couple cigarettes last year and that I sometimes like more than a glass of wine a night.
And consider AI services that can not only help our productivity, but can help ensure we are making fair decisions without bias. HireVue and similar AI interviewing software not only helps manage the initial candidate screen, but has been shown to help increase diversity in recruiting and hiring.
Get up and act out your life, your needs. where could AI benefit your day to day?
We can’t have a set of pillars for designing AI without talking about ethics. This is obviously a critical topic that is still very much in its infancy. I do think that at minimum, if we follow our customer centered principles, that will keep us a step ahead from an ethical standpoint. I’m very pleased that such large and innovative technology companies are actually partnering to help establish ethical guidelines.
But AI technology is already starting to raise ethical concerns. With China arguably being the current leader in AI development and innovation, they are already seeing existing tools that would give many of us cause for concern. With millions of cameras and billions of lines of code, China is arguably building a high-tech authoritarian future.
And AI judges us. A number of very concerning studies like the one quoted here from Joy Buolamwini from MIT show significant bias from AI systems, particular from a gender and racial perspective.
GENDER SHADES
When I was a college student using A.I.-powered facial detection software for a coding project, the robot I programmed couldn’t detect my dark-skinned face. I had to borrow my white roommate’s face to finish the assignment. Later, working on another project as a graduate student at the M.I.T. Media Lab, I resorted to wearing a white mask to have my presence recognized
The thing is, AI learns from us. Including our potential biases and prejudices. We are the ones building AI systems, we are the ones teaching AI systems how to get better. Often our own unconscious biases can easily be designed into any design or strategy we create. Biases impacting AI systems is even more threatening, because of how the AI programs learn from us.
How do we solve potential bias from being built into our human instigated creations, interactions, marketing or experiences? The best starting point is to be inclusive.
AI is not a separate thing from us. In order for AI to work, we have to program it.