The Convergence Of Technology With Business And Humanity: Albert Meige, Director Of Blue Shift With Dinis Guarda

Dr. Albert Meige is the current Director Of Blue Shift, Part Of Arthur D. Little, who has been professionally exploring the impact of technology on business, society, and humans for 20 years. Dinis interviews Albert to discuss the convergence of accelerated technological advancements, and the trajectory of this advancement in the latest episode of his YouTube podcast. The episode is live now on YouTube, selected podcast directories, openbusinesscouncil.org and citieabc.com.

There is a consensus that humanity “is actually closer than we originally thought to true Generative AI. We may reach in the coming years to an AI which is better than you, on a broad spectrum of tasks, but this is very different from having a Sentient AI” . This is how Albert Meige, Director of Blue Shift, Part of Arthur D. Little, sees the evolution of AI in the coming years. A bold statement he made in the latest interview by Dinis Guarda in the new episode of his YouTube podcast series. Both experts go on to discuss the rapid advancements of technology and the complexities it brings to societies and human communities.

Throughout the interview, the topics went around some of the shifting paradigms in the human societies and businesses being brought by the accelerated pace of technological advancements.

The confluence of AI and 4IR tech with humanity: A macroscopic view

Albert highlighted the complexities that arise due to the confluence of tech revolution in our societies. Talking about the profound societal shifts driven by technology, he says that automation and artificial intelligence are reshaping industries, with the potential to disrupt traditional employment patterns.

The ongoing technological revolution has ushered in a wave of complexities that affect nearly every facet of our lives. What is cutting-edge today may be outdated in a matter of months, if not weeks. This places immense pressure on individuals and organizations to continuously update their skills, devices, and systems to stay competitive and relevant. The resulting “digital divide” can exacerbate inequalities, as those who struggle to keep up may find themselves left behind in an increasingly tech-driven world.

Giving an example of food development, he explains that with the rapid rate of emerging technologies creates a gap between development and adoption that widens with time.

“Executives are not only facing the complexity of the situation, where technology has interwoven different dimensions of business and industries, it has increasing the difficulties in decision making, and timely formulation of strategies”, he told Dinis.

He also talks about the amplification of biases that arises due to an accelerated velocity of developments in research and development.

“There are biases at the organizational level and this is difficult to change. This lag prevents a company from maturing very quickly. The acceleration due to Generative AI in the last 2-3 years especially with large language models is scary, because executives are just applying it for text generation or the chatbots.

Whereas in reality, ChatGPT is just the tip of the huge AI iceberg. This tech is actually becoming the orchestrator of all digital systems: knowledge, craft, ontologies, and 4IR ecosystems”, he said.

How to deal with disruptions and challenges with tech revolution?

Albert explained the pattern of disruptions due to innovation and technology, by sharing the lessons from previous industrial revolutions.

“It starts with scientific discoveries. Based on this, comes the second phase where you build technological bricks and then at some point there is a general adoption of these technological bricks by entrepreneurs, developers, and individuals. This is where you get disruptions at business and societal levels”, he said.

However, he also mentioned the difference between the previous industrial revolution and the current digital revolution. “There was a century between the first steam engine and when the whole industry was transformed, which means the systems had time to adapt.”

He also explained that today, the technological revolution is much faster. AI is not just affecting the blue collars, but also the white collars. Therefore, all the businesses with knowledge and intelligence will be impacted.

Dealing with disruptions and challenges in the age of technological revolution requires a strategic and adaptable approach. He advises that continuous adaptations and learning might help through these complexities.

“Yes, some jobs and tasks are going to disappear because they are going to be automatized, but what we see in the history, it tells us that it’s not the end of the world, because as the repetitive tasks are automatized, we can as humans, then focus on other tasks that add value”, he says positively.