Rutherford Cross Director, Hazel Wynn reflects on the recent roundtable event in the Female Leaders series which focused on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Scottish businesses.
Rutherford Cross, accompanied by its sister brand Livingston James, recently hosted its third Female Leaders event. This event series aims to bring together female leaders from the Scottish business community to network and discuss particular topics that the group faces.
Angus MacFadyen joined us to discuss the topic of AI and its impact on business at a strategic level. Angus is a business leader with twenty years of experience in building, leading and transforming businesses in the B2B technology space. He is currently Investment Director of Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC), an early-stage tech investor, and a Board Adviser to various high-growth businesses.
Our discussion initially focused on how AI has the power to be the most transformative technology we will see in our lifetime. It is a continual hot topic, gaining momentum and being discussed in the media, households and workplaces. Attendees agreed that although AI can often be viewed in a negative light due to a lack of awareness or understanding of the topic, it has significant benefits for our daily lives and in the workplace. Everyone in the room had it firmly on their agendas as an area they needed to better understand and utilise correctly in their working lives. Evidently, this is a vast topic that we could have spent many hours discussing!
Some of the key talking points included:
- Is AI a superpower or should it be seen as more of a tool that can help develop people’s skills and expertise, as well as help businesses become more efficient?
- What are people’s perceptions of AI and are some biases driven by what they see in the media?
- Will AI likely replace certain roles in the future, or could it further develop people’s skills and experience in order to generate new jobs?
- Has the current Education Curriculum adapted enough to help prepare the next generation (degrees / accreditations etc.)?
- How do you build AI into your company culture to ensure success; is automation the way forward?
- How do you ensure safety and security in your business when utilising new AI-powered tools?
Overall, it was a truly interesting evening where we only scratched the surface of this massive topic; but the overall message from Angus was that AI could have significant benefits within your business when used correctly.
An idea generated from the event involved identifying areas in your company where you require improvement / transformation- and you will then most likely find the solution will come from AI.
For more details on our next Female Leaders event, please reach out to Hazel Wynn or Sophie Randles: [email protected] / [email protected].
