Strategic advice to leverage new technologies

Competing factors come into play to determine our tolerance to AI hallucination. This Advisor stresses that understanding context is crucial to making informed decisions about strategically adopting and implementing emerging technologies and provides key takeaways that can help us balance the potential value of the opportunity with our risk tolerance.

As this Advisor explores, GenAI looks promising for providing advanced AI edge computing capabilities in space. Although still in experimental stages, applications from Booz Allen Hamilton and the European Space Agency demonstrate the possibilities of integrating GenAI capabilities directly on spacecraft by facilitating natural language–based data retrieval and analysis, improved data transmission efficiency, and real-time decision-making.

As AI systems advance and produce increasingly sophisticated and innovative output, the question of how to treat this output under IP law becomes more pressing. The characteristics of some AI systems, including the self-improving nature of certain AI models and the difficulties associated with attributing their outputs to human creators, challenge the existing framework and necessitate a thorough rethinking of what rules will result in the greatest social value.

In this issue of Amplify, we delve into the ways organizations are developing analytical capabilities that lead to valuable insights and create business value. We also explore the shift from being a data-driven organization to a data-centric one. The latter places data science at its core; data is a primary, permanent asset used as the starting point to determine organizational action. As we explore this shift, it becomes evident that organizations that exploit analytics (and data in general) tend to view it as more than a means to an end — they harness it to create a data-centric culture, establish synergies within and across functions, and deepen relationships with myriad stakeholders.

Bill Schmarzo opens the issue with a thought-provoking article about how companies can unleash business value and economic innovation through AI. Drawing on the seminal work of Adam Smith, Schmarzo explains that “the essence of economics is the creation, consumption, and distribution of wealth — or value” as a baseline for economic innovation. The author brilliantly balances his extensive industry experience and published works to highlight cultural empowerment as a way to foster an inclusive environment to demonstrate value. He identifies 10 critical characteristics of cultural empowerment in the context of leveraging AI and generative AI (GenAI) for economic innovation. Schmarzo also offers the “Thinking Like a Data Scientist” methodology to help business leaders maximize AI to create new sources of customer, product, service, and operational value. The article concludes with an example of integrating GenAI with the methodology to create an economic innovation force multiplier.

Hossein Sahraei, Ramila Peiris, Luc Nguyen, and Olivier Moureau describe how global healthcare company Sanofi transitioned from reactive modes of data analytics (descriptive, diagnostic) to a proactive approach through prescriptive analytics. The authors, who are part of Sanofi's process data science team, provide a refreshing account of their experiences, challenges, and successes, beginning with an acknowledgment that digital transformation goes beyond adopting new technologies to fundamentally change how organizations operate, think, and innovate. They highlight the importance of developing a growth mindset, challenging established norms, and seeing uncertainty as a catalyst for innovation. The authors also explain how the organizational strategy prioritized practicality (an approach based on business needs and limitations), scalability (a framework that can be used in different areas with minimal effort), and sustainability (manageable execution, maintenance, and updates) in product design and deployment. The article reports on the economic value of empowering decision makers, along with benefits such as increased job satisfaction and helping workers maintain a healthy work-life balance.

This Advisor explores key technologies for more accurate tracking of space objects of all sizes, monitoring software that automates collision warnings, and technology that remotely removes objects in orbit. These include two systems that cause decaying orbits, one that uses a specialized satellite to push space objects and one that moves objects into a different orbit from Earth.

Daniel J. Rees, Roderick A. Thomas, Victoria Bates, and Gareth Davies examine the transformational impact that healthcare-related technologies (e.g., AI, wearable sensors, clinical and genetic data) have on the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. These technologies can potentially transform healthcare business processes, resulting in faster, more efficient decision-making, human-error reduction, and accelerated product development cycles that can lead to faster product launches. The authors gained insights from 48 senior managers in healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations to both identify best practices and understand the challenges related to using healthcare-related technologies and data-centric decision-making to deliver value to stakeholders. Best practices, such as governance (memorandum of understanding), incentives (monetary and nonmonetary), scalability, and collaboration between pharmaceutical makers and technology companies, are identified as key enablers. Such practices enable stakeholders to mitigate challenges like culture (trust, reputation, time, risk aversion), governance (contracts), and scalability. The article concludes with recommendations to ensure the right individuals choose tools and processes that can lead to successful partnerships and transformational initiatives for the benefit of patients, society, and the wider economy.