NZ companies badly need talent & training to ride the AI wave.

Artificial intelligence may be the “transformative technology of our generation” – but its true potential will never be fully realised unless people know how to use it effectively and responsibly.

That’s the opinion of AWS NZ Head of Enterprise Industry Sales, Haren Samarasekera, who says there’s a pressing need to get workforces up to speed if the promise of AI – now making its presence felt and changing how we work – is to become practical reality.

“New Zealand has the opportunity to position itself as a leader in AI adoption and put responsible AI at the core of business strategy,” he says. “We’re seeing the potential for AI to handle challenging issues while augmenting and increasing productivity in an untold manner of ways – but only if people engage, explore and experiment. That’s where the direct benefits start emerging.

“Realising the full potential of AI is not possible without a solid foundation. At AWS, responsibility and innovation must go hand-in-hand if we are to build the necessary trust in AI and harness the power of these transformative technologies for public good.

“From the outset, AWS has prioritised responsible AI innovation by embedding safety, fairness, robustness, security, and privacy into our development processes and educating our employees. To date, we have developed over 70 internal and external offerings, tools, and mechanisms that support responsible AI, published or funded over 500 research papers, studies, and scientific blogs on responsible AI, and delivered tens of thousands of hours of responsible AI training to our Amazon employees.

“We now need to make deep investments to ensure New Zealand has the right skills and education.”

This is highlighted in the April 2024 Accelerating AI Skills report commissioned by AWS, which polled 500 ‘digitally enabled’ New Zealand organisations. While demonstrating widespread enthusiasm for AI’s impact, with some 90 per cent of respondents expecting to use AI-related tools and solutions by 2028, and 92 per cent expecting generative AI to benefit employers and workers, there’s a looming challenge.

Forward-looking companies are already on the hunt for AI-skilled talent, but 70 per cent can’t find the people they need. There’s also a ‘training awareness’ shortcoming. That essentially means employers – 79 per cent of them – don’t know how to appropriately upskill their people.

“AI has transformative potential, allowing people time to focus on more complex challenges,” says Samarasekera, “and those who embrace AI sooner will gain the advantages first.”

Bridging the gap is mission-critical. In a nation where productivity is low by OECD standards, the incentive couldn’t be clearer to employers, many of whom believe adopting and integrating AI into their operations could boost output by 49 per cent. Workers are on board, too, anticipating task completion up to 46 per cent more efficiently.

This begs the question of where and how those gains are to be made. Samarasekera provides examples: “OneNZ is using AI to boost contact centre efficiency. AI helps agents by improving access to information, resulting in a 10 per cent rise in customer satisfaction.

“Clearhead is using it to get effective mental health support to people who need it – and there’s agribusinesses using AI for quality control more effective than the human eye.”

Across New Zealand, Samarasekera says organisations of every kind have similar opportunities to accelerate their growth and innovation.

“Different businesses will look at and have different use cases,” he says. “AI isn’t a one-size solution that fits all; instead, there are commonalities in terms of where it can and does add value.

“Generally, it’s task automation, driving workflows, enhancing communications, and doing the repetitive things that take up our time.”

It comes down to human capability. Unless people know what, where, how, and why AI can help, the benefits for businesses could prove elusive. What’s more, Samarasekera stresses, those ‘at the coalface’ are often best placed to appreciate where AI can be applied – which is why he champions broadly targeted AI training and education.

As for the trickle-down effects of an AI skilled workforce, Samarasekera points back to the clear incentives outlined in the Accelerating AI Skills report: if individuals can earn more, and organisations can increase productivity, dollars and cents follow.

“Being equipped with AI skills and expertise offers the potential to earn more,” he says. “There’s motivation for businesses which value these skills and will pay for them, and there’s motivation for individuals to get out there and upskill as preparation for the future of work.”

Responsible use of AI technologies is, and will continue to be, the key to fostering innovation, he adds – “ensuring we provide our customers with tools, resources, and training to develop and use AI responsibly is paramount for AWS. We offer courses specifically focused on responsible AI, such as our Introduction to Responsible AI course, so businesses can build a solid foundation of knowledge, and innovate with confidence.”

Employers in New Zealand have begun to implement some forms of support for responsible development and use of AI – the most common being training of workers (71 per cent), followed by training of leadership (54 per cent).

The establishment of an organisational set of guidelines for the ethical and responsible use of AI comes next (50 per cent). In its role as both a developer and deployer of AI tools and services, AWS is focused on building AI solutions with responsibility in mind at each stage of AI’s development process, but for responsible use of AI to carry into the workplace, businesses also need to put in place the right frameworks.

“Any business adopting or experimenting with AI in New Zealand must establish clear governance to define, implement and enforce responsible practices. Prioritising education to demystify AI, and build and use it responsibly, is critical for AI success.”

In the internet age, access to education and training has never been easier. AWS provides nearly 600 free training courses, including many in AI and Generative AI catering to all experience levels on its AWS Skills Builder platform. New Zealand is also part of a global goal to provide free AI skills training to 2 million people by 2025.

Samarasekera says education and training should be about how AI can augment and improve human capability, rather than standing by and letting it augment you: “Bear in mind that all technology is created and applied for human benefit. A human-centric approach to AI will help ensure New Zealand is set up for ongoing success.”

For more information: aws.amazon.com/machine-learning/responsible-ai/