AI in Action: Real-World Applications and Its Impact

By Stephanie Forrest, Founder and CEO of TFD

Recently I had the opportunity to attend Fortune’s first AI Brainstorm Summit which took place in London over the space of two days. Here at TFD, we spend a lot of time understanding possible applications of technologies and what the story is that we’re trying to communicate. Use cases and storytelling, or explaining the importance of AI across multiple industries, were key topics of the Fortune event.

The event covered a lot of ground – it was an amazing opportunity to understand the important considerations in terms of ‘building an audit trail’ around AI and having ‘humans in the loop’ as opposed to ‘human over the loop’ (an expression that I wasn’t familiar with). I also learnt interesting facts around the insatiable demand for power that AI requires, especially for large language models (LLMs) and that searching for information using AI takes 15% more compute power than a Google search. Wow.

What was also striking, however, was how fundamentally AI is already transforming industries and how it is already being used for numerous applications across a vast array of industries from sports to politics to cybersecurity.

It was the use cases that truly struck me and that made it very clear to me just how important AI will continue to be in the foreseeable future. So much so that we really all do need to learn at least the basics of how to use it. AI education therefore needs to be compulsory.

A handful of the use cases that were covered include:

The potential for AI in healthcare to enable clinicians to work more closely with patients for better outcomes. AI healthcare startup, Kheiron Medical Technologies, is using AI to transform cancer diagnostics. 70% of breast cancer cases are currently missed and it takes two doctors to check mammograms. AI can not only increase the likelihood of finding breast cancer earlier on, but it also reduces the pressure on clinical resources, so more time can be spent with patients.

Media & Entertainment: A very different example of AI in action came from the Creative Artists Agency. Reacting to the challenge of artists’ material being used to train AI without their permission or fair compensation, they have introduced a digital vault for an artist’s own digital double. This protects the rights and earning power of musicians, athletes, politicians and actors, for example, and provides them with potential additional revenue streams and even opportunities to connect virtually with fans after their death.

Political advocacy: A few months ago, I’d heard a radio interview with Hope Sogni, an AI manifestation of the first female FIFA president, but on one of the panels, Maggie Murphy from Lewes FC explained how the idea for Hope Sogni came about and how she was used to advocate for a female FIFA president using insights and training from a number of senior women in football. Hope Sogni is a fascinating example of another application of AI to drive debate and to potentially change perceptions.

We also heard from startups like Synthesia (who are using AI to develop videos from text prompts for instructional and training videos) and ElevenLabs (who are using generative AI to convert text to natural-sounding AI voices in any language) that demonstrated just how sophisticated AI audio and video already is today and how powerful it can be in sharing information and messages using local language or, audio impersonating specific voices.

The ability to communicate and connect almost instantly with truly global audiences presents great opportunities for many businesses, but also highlights the ease and speed at which misinformation can spread.

In a world of cyber threats like “CEO Fraud,” to lobbying and advocacy driven by AI generated characters, from new revenue streams to deploying the resources AI can unlock, organisations need to re-think all aspects of their business. They must embrace the opportunities while being vigilant to the risks.

What’s for sure is that we all need to pay more attention to the implications of AI and to making sure that we don’t get left behind. In our next post on AI we will be considering what this all means for the board and what questions need to be asked at board level in any industry. Watch this space.