IPCG alert: companies advance in AI, but are not prepared

O vice President of IPCG states, in statements to Lusa, that large Portuguese companies are more advanced in the adoption of AI, but this does not mean that administrations are prepared to assess its value and risks.

The preparation of the board of directors for the challenges of regulation and artificial intelligence (IA) and its impact will be under discussion today at the conference of the Portuguese Institute of Corporate Governance (IPCG) under the theme “Competitivity, Innovation and Regulation in Europe” at the CCB in Lisbon.

Asked whether the administrations of Portuguese companies are prepared, José Costa Pinto states that the preparation is unequal.

“ Large companies are more advanced in the adoption of artificial intelligence, but using these tools does not in itself mean that the administration is prepared to assess its value and risks (...). The decisive step is to move from punctual use to business integration. An administration should be able to identify where the AI can reduce costs, improve customer service or support an investment decision, and verify that these results are being achieved,” says the person responsible.

“It is not necessary for all administrators to be experts in technology,” he adds.

Thus, it says that the main challenge of AI in Portuguese companies is in the skills and ability to change the way of working.

Access to tools has become easier, but its use continues the vice president of IPCG, “it takes time, training and organized information, resources that are scarce in many SMEs”.

“ It would start with a specific problem for an SME, such as time spent preparing budgets or responding to customer requests. From there, it is important to test a solution, to form who will use it and measure if the work was effectively better ", exemplifies.

In this sense, he says that “saving time in a task is useful”, but that “this gain only comes to business if it allows you to respond to more customers, reduce costs or free people for higher value work. Buying licenses without changing processes hardly produces this result.”.

With regard to the higher risk, it indicates that it is relying on an answer without verifying it.

“A tool can present wrong information with a very convincing language” and “if that information comes into a financial report, a commercial proposal or a decision on a worker, error can have serious consequences,” he warns.

In his opinion, the administration “must know what tools are used, what information is delivered to them and who validates the results”.

“ Introducing customer data or confidential documents into a tool without knowing the conditions of use is a concrete risk”, he stresses.

“ It is necessary to define who can authorize each use, what decisions require human review and who can suspend the system when problems arise. Supervision only exists if there is someone with competence and authority to intervene ", adds.

Asked about how Portugal compares with other countries in Europe, José Costa Pinto says that, in the corporate adoption of AI, the country is below the European average.

“ Distance is particularly important in small and medium-sized enterprises, although the large ones also have a way to go”, he adds.

Progress in corporate governance is important, “but it does not allow to conclude” if there is already preparation for this transformation.

“Having governance rules and knowing how to supervise the use of AI are capabilities that have to be worked together,” he says, arguing that the challenge is to bring SMEs “applied training, technical support and solutions appropriate to their size.”.

As for the main board for Portuguese companies to be more competitive, the vice president of IPCG says that this goes by bringing the AI to the management agenda and starting with a concrete need for business.

“ Choose an application with verifiable results, assign a person responsible and set a time limit to evaluate the investment”, points out, which includes training costs, integration and verification of results, in addition to the price of the tool.

“ An apparently inexpensive solution can come out expensive if you force yourself to correct work or expose sensitive information. Then extend what you show value. Competitiveness is measured by the ability to produce better, better serve customers and decide with more information” and with these results that the administration should evaluate the use of AI, he concludes.