The CIO & IT Leadership Conference, put on by the Puerto Rico IT Cluster (PRITC) for the sixth year in a row, once again put on display the role of IT as a driver of innovation and economic development across the island.
I had the privilege of leading two key sessions: one on the practical implementations of AI; and another on leveraging and unlocking the potential of data. Luis, one of our software architects here at Wovenware, also participated in a panel on transforming applications to a microservices architecture. Across all discussions during the conference one thing was clear: AI and other transformative technologies are changing both business and society for the better, in ways that were unimaginable even a few short years ago.
While it would be impossible to cover the many facets of Artificial Intelligence and its opportunities and challenges in a short period of time, I did try to touch on the key ones. In terms of the practical implementations of AI, I shared with attendees a broad description of what AI is today, pragmatic AI; and what it will become one day, pure AI.
I also provided the basics of building an AI model, and shared the key ways that AI will be used: to hyper-personalized the customer experience; to augment human intelligence; and to automate intelligence. If attendees remember only one thing I hope they remember that while AI is the future, it never can replace human intelligence, only augment it – but together, they can make a great team.
As part of my session on unlocking your data potential, the key takeaway was that data and analytics will become the most critical factor in determining competitive differentiation. Data really is the lifeblood of a company, capable of helping them predict future outcomes, make better business decisions and identify where problems or opportunities may exist in their businesses. As I mentioned during the presentation, becoming an insights-driven company requires that you focus on strategy, people, processes, technology and data.
There was so much discussed during the CIO & IT Leadership Conference this year that it would be impossible to sum it all up. What was clear, however, is that technology will continue to play an increasingly large role in the future of Puerto Rico, and that enthusiasm, expertise and innovation abounds – and we’re only getting started.
