Robert Lake of Focal Point Coaching to be Featured on Close Up Radio

APEX, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES, July 23, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- AI has been in the news lately and it sounds exciting. But how do you know if AI is right for your business? Robert Lake of Focal Point Coaching can help. With over 30 years of experience working in data science, natural programming language, Bayesian belief networks, and AI, he understands not only the history of AI, but the future as well.

“The big problem we have today is that we don’t understand what’s being presented to us and we have a very young generation that’s grown up using IT and some of the AI tools. This generation is using these tools unquestionably without really understanding how simple these tools actually are. Most people using AI have not been trained concerning the data they’re using. And the data can be extremely misleading. When we rewind it back to the 1990s and Bayesian belief networks, those networks are very fragile. When we build models to predict something, say whether a person will pay back a loan, the answers are dependent on the data being used. One model could say a person will pay back a loan, while the same model with different data will say, no, that person will not pay back the loan. The answers we’re getting from AI do not come down to the person—they come down to the data being used and how the model or network was trained,” explains Robert.

He continues, “There are many levers underneath AI, the way it transacts, the way it’s built. If you don’t give it the right data, and enough of it, for it to be able to make an effective statistical decision truly, you’re going to limit decisions within the limit of the data being used. Unfortunately, these limits are not documented or shared with the consumers. For example, you want to take a urine sample and ask AI for the best medicine to cure a particular ailment. In a perfect world, the answer should come up with the best medicine for the person, for example, some form of pain killer. But without the right data and quantity of data, AI cannot do what a doctor does: looking at the person’s entire life—what else is going on? Does this person have allergies? What other drugs is this person taking? That holistic component says because the person has these allergies and you’re taking this other medicine, painkillers are not the best choice. This is the problem with AI and why it is causing many trust issues—AI is extremely fickle.”

So, how can business leaders know the profits of AI outweigh trust issues? “I always tell leaders that while I am the first person to tell them not to use AI, I’m the second person to tell them when and how it’s right to use it. I work with clients who are asking, ‘Is AI the right solution for us?’ instead of ‘How do we implement AI now?’”

Constant pressure to generate profits often means shortcuts. “I’ve been around industries enough to know that pressure to produce often requires putting a little band-aid over a broken car. Too many business leaders fail to look at business fundamentals because there’s something wrong with the business. But they’ll implement a new system, hoping it’s a short-term silver bullet. Without considering the basic business fundamentals, all systems fail. My job is to help business leaders raise awareness of their fundamentals by asking questions such as ‘What is your business doing?’ and ‘Are your business fundamentals in the right place?’ When they’re not in the right place, ‘What can be done to get them into the right place?’ Once a business is stable, it can take on advanced technologies, advanced thinking, whatever piece of software, or perhaps something else,” explains Robert.

Using AI just for the sake of using AI is a costly mistake. “Once the business fundamentals are in place, we can discuss where a leader wants them to be and what to do next. Only then can we potentially use AI as a strategy to help uncover more cost-effective ways to accomplish long-term goals. No amount of AI or technology, no matter how big of a business methodology, will ever help a leader overcome faulty fundamentals,” shares Robert.

The recent news about McDonald’s dropping AI is a prime example. “McDonald’s failed to look at the big picture. They didn’t ask, ‘What are we trying to compensate for?’ and ‘What is our main business operation?’ We know what their goal is: To feed people with a reasonably priced meal. With automation, what was it that they were hoping to get that they couldn’t get with a human?” asks Robert. “They failed to ask if customers would prefer going to a wall and pressing buttons to get a package of food, and what would happen when mistakes were made. Mistakes happen, even with technology. Looking holistically at the entire business is vital for any technology to succeed.”

To get a free Business Growth Score for your business, visit Robert’s website at https://businessgrowth-robertlake.scoreapp.com/.

Close Up Radio will feature Robert Lake in an interview with Doug Llewelyn on Thursday, July 25th at 10am EST.

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio

If you have any questions for our guest, please call (347) 996-3389

For more information about Robert Lake, please visit https://robertlake.focalpointcoaching.com/

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
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