34 01732 759725 do what right now, and we’re working very hard on driving that approach across the market from a visibility and a presence perspective.” So, what impact is this having on ANS’s customer relationship? Has AI changed customer conversations to any extent? “Yes, for sure, because this is not a sales pitch. This is a concerned discussion. I would say it has changed the relationship, because customers are looking to us for advice, and they have to trust us. As I said, there’s no expert in AI. Copilot was released a year ago to the public, so if an organisation says we are experts at rolling out Copilot, I would highly question that. The way I deal with my customers is to say ‘This is a collaboration. We’re going to work together and figure this out’. We show them what we have and what we’ve learned and then we say what is it you think you need? And then we go through a process of being able to challenge openly without causing trouble? It’s been really good for us, actually, and for the customers we’ve worked with too.” https://www.ans.co.uk/ have arrived with 20 years’ experience – someone did machine learning, someone did the creation of algorithms, somebody did something fancy with AI builder. We’re all still learning. So, what I’m saying to people now is no one is an absolute expert. People need to be ready to learn, to find their niche in AI and to recognise that this is here to stay.” What, then, is ANS doing to encourage this process and to attract AI talent into its ranks? “We’re incredibly involved in the Microsoft community space. I’m actually at events twice a month, roughly. It’s really important that we get and drive visibility. I have two sayings that I always bring to the table here, and they are be visible and be present. Arrive at these events, be there, be present, show your face, learn, get information. Because I believe that the best way to drive this is for people to pass information on. “I learn in public, and I tell our team to learn in public. And that’s been great for getting people really keen. We have a hive of buzzing people ready to do AI. We’re just trying to figure out who should valuable in the Nokia flip phone era – it’s not the phone, it’s the apps. That’s what made iPhones so popular and it’s the same with AI. Customers are still saying ‘we don’t see where this is going to be relevant’.” Huntingford himself, as Director of AI at ANS, picks people as his greatest challenge in developing AI capabilities. “People are the biggest challenge and I’ll tell you why. Number one, a lot of people think this AI thing is new – it’s not new, it’s been around for an extremely long time – and they have a very polarized response to it. It’s either amazing or it’s going to come and take over the world. So it’s about getting people to understand that this is really important. We’re at a very pivotal place in history right now, where we are either going to massively pass or have some problems. “The other thing on the people side is finding talent. Because AI is so new, where do we find all the AI-ers. I have only been in AI for two years. Before, I was a Power Platform person and before that I was a data and Dynamics person. None of these CAIOs, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officers, AI ...continued
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