Artificial intelligence has so many sides, especially for businesses and individuals. Deji Lana, the Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, SeamlessHR, in this interview with ADEYEMI ADEPETUN, gives insights on how AI can help at a time such as this.AI is a technological advancement that could potentially change the world, especially in Africa. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, which means humans are trying to build our cognitive and reasoning abilities into machines and allow them to make decisions. It is not a new technology; it has been around for about a decade, but it has advanced because there is data, power, and technological infrastructure to support it. It has birthed multiple applications and innovations. Nigeria, and by extension, Africa, has always been behind in technological innovation, which can be attributed to economic, political, and historical factors.
AI, on the other hand, is rapidly advancing. There is generative AI, LLMs, which are working based on several infrastructures like the cloud, internet, and electricity, which is still a problem in some parts of Africa, and these systems are necessary for AI to flourish in this part of the world.
We are mainly positioned as consumers instead of contributors and innovators of the revolution. Our perspective and position on that need to change very fast. People use LLMs for many things, such as Microsoft bags, Open AI, Chat GPT, etc. Data processed on these systems were retrieved from other parts of the world, but data in Africa is not readily available. Our internet is not populated, data needs to be cleaned up, and infrastructure is lacking. We can take it one step at a time, making Nigeria and Africa follow the revolution and be able to generate some ideas, applications and advancements in this AI technology.Generative AI is an aspect of AI. Artificial Intelligence is a very broad term and includes so many things, including predictive AI, machine learning and others. Generative AI is an aspect of AI, which uses unsupervised learning where AI works on large language models. There’s a consortium of information and data that is available on the internet. Generative AI has gone into data for years and years to create different language models so that humans can interact with it and get a response from it. For example, you can ask AI to write emails and draft a presentation like Chat GPT and other customised applications in different languages. The models can also translate from one language to another without a translator and the accuracy level is high. It can also generate images, videos and so many more.
AI is expensive because you must create a data warehouse to train data, and it is very cumbersome. With generative AI, the models have been outsourced, all you need to do is to have prompt engineers who can create different prompts for you. Then, you can integrate AI into your applications like mobile phones. There is also medical GPT, where you can ask medical questions and get accurate answers.
Given the current economic situation in the country, particularly the forex scarcity, what role do you think AI and technology could play in tackling the current challenges? There’s a lot. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are a rail upon which many applications and technology can be built and leveraged in different sectors: mining, agriculture, education, finance, and insurance. For example, in some parts of Nigeria, motorised equipment has been built on AI to determine when and how the produce should be harvested. Before, we had machines and ploughs, but now, intelligence can be integrated into these machines, so we don’t need to control them manually.
Overall leveraging AI and local SaaS can make businesses more efficient and help them manage costs diligently. This will allow them to save money and reduce losses because they will be paying for these solutions in Naira. Once you invest money into these local solutions, you save a lot and with these savings, you can increase your bottom line and allow you to unlock new possibilities for your company. And we have many of these software services localized in the country. I don’t believe that there is any solution any major corporation needs that cannot be built locally.The biggest challenge to AI adoption is illiteracy. When people don’t know something, it is very easy to form myths, rumours and wrong perceptions about it. The most popular myth about AI is that it is believed to take people’s jobs and wipe people out, which is not true. If education is not properly done, that is, the introduction of use, control, and policies to ensure that it is well mitigated, people might avoid artificial intelligence.
Another challenge is privacy. People are concerned about the data that they share with the machines not being safe and stored properly. With the right regulatory bodies working on privacy control, Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data online can be controlled and protected. I think the greatest challenge is education, when people are not aware of the capability of something, it will hinder its adoption.I think it’s a false narrative that AI will take jobs, and a lot of people say that. I recently read a book by Martin Ford, The Rise of Robots, which was about AI. The primary theme of the book was the advancement of technology and how it would lead to massive job loss. A few years later, he wrote another book, The Rules of AI, addressing his former view that AI leading to job loss would not be the case. He wrote about the rules of machines and how AI is one of the biggest advancements in the world. The only reason why AI would snatch our job from us is if we don’t try to understand AI and use it to improve our skills. I strongly believe AI would make humans more intelligent and smarter because we now have massive data and information at our fingertips to make better decisions. AI might cut some jobs for those who refuse to harness the strength of AI to deliver better results at what they do. At SeamlessHR, AI is embedded across our policies and processes as one of our pillars. Every unit, from Marketing to Sales, People and Culture, Customer Success, and Engineering, is being trained on the use of AI, its benefits, risks, and policies. We are making sure that every employee is using AI in their day-to-day operations to improve output and processes. It is a journey, we are learning every day, and we also ensure we are using it responsibly with the help of the Information Security unit.
Product-wise, we experimented a lot last year, jumping on the AI trend and embedding it into our products. I won’t announce them just yet, but we are building to include analytics, policies and insights for HR leaders as they use our products. There are many data points on the system because employees use the system for various functions, and this data can be converted into predictive and prescriptive insights for business leaders. I think it’s too early for AI to be legislated in Nigeria. However, policymakers should get involved early to study the trend. Legislating AI might limit innovation because its capabilities are still being unveiled. If policymakers are involved in the process, they can create laws, policies, and guidelines for its use. Let innovation rule first, but policymakers should be highly involved in the process.