Plan ahead for responsible AI adoption, says Veson Nautical’s CTO
Any company planning to incorporate AI into its operations should start with a clear plan and set of objectives, Ben Thurecht, chief technology officer at maritime freight management solution provider Veson Nautical, advises in this podcast
With 87% of its workforce using AI on a regular basis and the technology embedded into its products, Veson Nautical is well positioned to comment on the benefits the technology can bring. In this podcast, Ben Thurecht advises on how teams can take a responsible approach to AI adoption, balancing innovation with good governance. He discusses how Veson has leveraged feedback loops to improve AI outputs, as well as how AI can be used as both offense and defence against cybersecurity threats
VESON Nautical chief technology officer Ben Thurecht is proud of the proportion of staff using AI — 87% at the time of recording this podcast — higher than most companies. In this podcast, he describes how internal feedback loops have encouraged consistent AI adoption with quality results.
But Thurecht’s theme is “responsible” AI adoption, a notion he explains in this episode, and he goes on to offer some practical advice to organisations wanting to start their own AI journey, recommending they create an AI committee and name AI champions.
He explains how those roles will guide progress towards meeting AI-related KPIs but warns that without what he calls guardrails for developing a strategy, there is a possibility of anarchy, rather than a systematic approach to AI adoption.
To avoid this risk, Thurecht advises a “systems thinking” approach to implementing AI that involves reviewing how a company’s processes operate. He gives an example of a process at Veson Nautical that has been changed as a result of applying AI.
Asked whether companies should be concerned by recent news about AI tools escaping from their testing environments and attacking real companies, Thurecht acknowledges the scale of the security threat, noting that humans cannot match the speed of AI systems on their responses.
He says that “the intersection of cyber and AI benefits both participants in that equation” and describes how those threats can be defended using AI. In particular, he stresses the importance for organisations of identifying vulnerabilities in their systems and mentions Veson Nautical’s own investments for this purpose.
Another concern he considers in this podcast is the effect of AI on jobs and recognises that “the AI revolution is going to have a major impact”, both on the nature of work in an AI-enabled organisation and on employment levels.
He describes two relationships between people and AI systems, identifying them as either “human in the loop” or “human on the loop” scenarios. The examples he mentions suggest that a significant benefit will be to free people from repetitive and labour-intensive tasks, making them more creative in, for example, decision making.
Doing nothing in response to AI is not an option, Thurecht concludes. “AI is going to fundamentally change the maritime industry, and we really have to prepare our organisations.”