Since leaving my native Chile 20 years ago after completing my degree in Business Administration, I have lived and worked in multiple cities including London, Barcelona, Bergen, Stockholm, and Amsterdam. This experience shaped me on so many levels; not only have I developed a more cultural awareness and learned more about the importance of diversity, but I’ve also gained a global mindset, which I have applied every single day.
In 2019, after completing my studies on Hyper Island’s Business Developer program, I moved to Amsterdam to work as a Digital Transformation Designer at Digital Society School. I worked on an interesting project promoting innovation and digital transformation for the forensic mental healthcare facilities in the Netherlands, using new technologies related with AI. When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, I had to come back to Stockholm—leaving everything behind. The good news was that I’d heard about the new Hyper Island AI Business Consultant program. It was a perfect opportunity for me to dig deeper, train myself, and get more robust knowledge on the topics that I got so into when I was in Amsterdam.
I have no doubt that studying at Hyper Island will give you a competitive advantage. During my first stint at Hyper Island, I gained tons of tools and experiences to be able to understand team dynamics and how to manage processes, culture creation, and run a business idea. Combined with the new program, I’m finding myself bridging the gap between tech and business by using my knowledge of AI alongside my entrepreneur skills.
Studying at Hyper Island changed in how I embrace failure in a healthy way. After my time on the Business Developer program, I learned that failure is a critical element of success. Every failure brings you one step closer to success, as long as you learn from it.
It’s important to be a preventionist not an interventionist. By having a collaborative and empathetic approach, you can help people to develop the skills to navigate their lives, as well as save money, not spend it.
There are many questions that come from a fear of AI—a fear of the unknown so to speak.
That’s why we are here: to educate organizations towards Digital Transformation.
Hyper island has given us the tools to frame what the real problem is, and work with people who are the real value to the company. Through using an extended toolbox, we can work together with clients, run workshops, and use data to visualize, co-create, and come up with suitable AI solutions.
As AI business consultants, we are the bridge between the tech and business world. Unlike data scientists and engineers, AI business consultants have strong social skills with business acumen and the empathy to really understand the client. As an AI business consultant, I can focus on the business case before homing in on the data and technical side.
Regardless of a company’s size or type, they should understand the link between efficiency and profitability. If employees waste too much time with drawn-out processes or complicated tasks, it’ll be hard for the company to remain profitable and adapt to challenges. Fortunately, AI supports the need for effective business operations. There are major areas of industries such as healthcare and medical analysis, retail and shopping, manufacturing and production, virtual assistants, and security and surveillance, where AI is used today and playing an important role in helping humans to work with better performance and efficiency without the help of humans.
This emergency alarm has been sounded before, for example, when the cotton gin arrived, when electricity put candlemakers out of business, and when the Internet meant that everything started to be sold online. And each time, job growth has kept up with not only those changes but also with population growth. In my opinion, AI is usually perceived as a threat to employees, but many business managers and company owners are worried too. Management has to invest heavily in areas that AI doesn’t excel at, such as critical thinking, empathy, customer satisfaction, and creativity.
AI is all around us and is already making our lives easier every day. It’s increasingly being used to analyze human behavior so it can predict what users want and when they want it. AI assists in every area of our lives, whether we’re trying to read our emails, get driving directions, access music or movie recommendations, social media interaction, web searching, offline experiences, or as a healthcare assistant.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are promising to help transform next-generation workplaces by guiding, organizing, and automating work. It will improve staff efficiency and productivity. You may think you won’t benefit from or need to use AI or automation, but that is likely a silly thought. The best thing you can do is educate yourself on what they could mean for your particular industry.
If you expect to design and build an entire AI system, this is not your option. We are neither engineers nor data scientists and we do not pretend to be. Ethics and sustainability are crucial in our learning journey, so everything we do and have done so far at Hyper Island with clients and projects, is to encourage them to employ transparent AI where appropriate. This means their machines can explain exactly why a decision was made and that they’re aware about pros and cons of AI. Empathy means nothing without action.
There are many takeaways I could choose from my time at Hyper Island, but the main one would probably be the way I perceive openness and trust. Hyper Island has shaped me and has taught me how important openness and trust are to teamwork.
Trust is the foundation for any relationship. If you don’t trust your team, the relationship will be shaky and will eventually fail.
If you are already at Hyper Island, congrats, you’re on the right path! And if you fail halfway through, try again, and again, and again. The world outside the Hyper bubble can be very competitive, and sometimes a bit rough, but never give up! Oh, and did I say try again?
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Connect with our multi-talented protagonist, Francisco Palavecino
