New Zealand corporate companies should be at the forefront and not fall behind the global development of artificial intelligence (AI), believes one expert.
According to New Zealand AI company Soul Machines, jumping on the AI bandwagon is a big challenge, but also an opportunity for Kiwi firms.
“It will be fundamental to the competitiveness of our big industries going forward and currently there is not a lot of evidence that our corporates are experimenting and innovating at this point,” Soul Machine chief business officer Greg Cross said.
Soul Machines creates AI human avatars, which are said to be emotionally responsive. The Auckland-based company currently has eight digital humans and is working on about 20 more in the next 12 months.
Cross claims these avatars will level up online customer servicesgi. The firm’s digital human avatars have central nervous systems that can be mapped to show how they respond.
“Kiwis are going to be spending more and more time interacting with these digital human-like creations,” he explained. “AI is the next industrial revolution and Kiwi businesses have to act quickly to survive it. Companies at the leading edge of artificial intelligence are few and far between in New Zealand.”
Cross is one of the 20 speakers at AI-Day, the biggest AI event to be held in New Zealand organized by New Zealand AI and AI Forum NZ. The event will be held in Auckland on March 28. Other speakers include Microsoft’s Steve Guggenheimer, IBM’s Adam Cutler and Amazon’s Alayna Van Dervort.
