Corporates must implement ‘AGI 2030’ strategies now if they want to capitalize on the opportunities the emerging technology offers, says Viral Tripathi, Global CIO at Ascendion, a US-based international provider of digital engineering services.
This intervention comes after many firms were wrongfooted by the appearance of GenAI with 73% of business leaders saying their firm was ill-equipped in terms of time, resources and expertise for GenAI.
Failed AI transformation projects are estimated to cost up to $2 trillion globally by 2026.
AGI, defined by Sam Altman’s OpenAI as ‘AI systems that are generally smarter than humans’, is the next evolution of Gen AI.
For Tripathi, it’s not a question of if AGI will come in the future – it’s a question of when.
Tripathi believes that if firms want to avoid being similarly blindsided and instead be best placed to capitalize on the opportunities that AGI will bring, then they need to be preparing now. CIOs need to be ready to break down and rebuild entire systems and company operations – and they can achieve this through increased R&D, internal simulations and consultations, safety and ethical committees and building multidisciplinary teams.
Tripathi said: “Generative AI has caught some firms off-guard, but it’s also presented an enormous opportunity for prepared and agile CIOs to drive value and carve out new growth opportunities. AGI will amplify both of these trends tenfold.
“The firms who thrive in the AGI era will have the most innovative CIOs at the helm. They’ll be preparing now, laying the foundations for their firms to withstand the initial shockwaves generated by AGI’s emergence and then to adapt their systems and drive value in the brave new world.”
Tripathi is arguing that CIOs that try to build AGI into their existing processes will inevitably flounder – they need to be prepared to completely upend their existing processes and rebuild systems from the ground up in a comprehensive ‘AGI 2030’ strategy.
He said: “At the forefront of any CIO’s mind should be an ‘AGI 2030’ roadmap. This has to include comprehensive, wholesale changes in every aspect of a company’s operations. It’s not enough to tinker and tweak – CIOs must partner with business stakeholders and drive change to reimagine the entire journey.
“Companies need to reallocate investment towards R&D, advancing their understanding and capabilities across machine learning algorithms, natural language processing and computer vision. They can run internal simulations, modeling how these previously siloed technologies will integrate and interact, forming more advanced cognitive functions.
“CIOs should also establish ethical guidelines and safety protocols for AGI’s use in their company. They need to engage stakeholders and form ethics and safety committees to start building out robust guidelines to steer their firm through the AGI era. This isn’t window-dressing – clear and tangible guardrails will give customers certainty and employees security – both of which will directly feed into performance.
“Finally, CIOs have to invest in recruiting and training the top AI talent of tomorrow. The best CIOs will be building relationships with universities and building internal development programs. AGI will not be confined to one specific field, so these teams must be multidisciplinary – it’s not enough to just hire data scientists and engineers. The best teams will have neuroscientists, cognitive behaviorists, ethicists and business analysts, in addition to the traditional cloud, data and developer roles.
“With these foundations in place, CIOs will have best positioned their firm to drive growth and capitalize on the enormous opportunities that AGI will bring.”
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