Innovative Solution Partners CEO and co-founder Mariyah Saifuddin was one of three panelists on a recent panel sponsored by the Great Lakes Women’s Business Council and Lear Corp.
The event was part of a daylong execWE event, “The Future of AI is Now: Unleashing the Power of Business!”
The panel, “WBE Businesses Leveraging AI for Growth,” was the final event of the day. It featured two other local women business owners — Ann Teschendorf of Covalent Resource Group and Priscilla Archangel of Archangel & Associates — in addition to Saifuddin, and focused on how businesses are integrating AI into their operations. The panel was moderated by Marlo Rencher, president of The Detroit Economic Growth Corp.’s Detroit Means Business.
The panelists talked about how they have used AI so far, emphasizing their learnings and the instances when AI provides business value. For example, an AI generated performance improvement plan form may match that created by an HR associate.
But, Archangel pointed out, AI cannot provide the additional coaching and insights that may help that employee improve. So there’s an “emotional intelligence” side of things that requires human perspective.
Also of note is the concern about “giving away” intellectual property when using AI to generate business documents.
AI provides time-saving results but it can’t replace experience, the panelists said. A business plan generated by AI cannot easily take into consideration the “creator’s” personality, style, passions and values.
Also part of the discussion: bias in AI, and how women business owners can leverage AI in their businesses.
“AI has become integral to everything we and every other IT-related business does,” said Saifuddin post-panel. “That’s not new. We have been incorporating elements of AI into our work for more than a decade. But with the emergence of AI as an ‘everyday tool,’ our use of it has come to the forefront.
“The panel was a great opportunity to talk about how AI has not only transformed the business landscape but also has changed how every one of us talks about it with our clients.”
The AI event was keynoted by Princess Castleberry of Castleberry Global, who spoke about the intersection of women in business and the possibilities of
