Shell, Halliburton, Unibap AB execs share real-world AI strategies

In a session on “Intelligent Enterprise,” one speaker mentioned that AI has brought more insights to business, but it needs to be easier. “Software needs to be easy and we have to make that happen at the starting point if we’re going to bring business processes to the next level,” said Marcell Vollmer, CIO of Celonis, a provider of enterprise acceleration performance software whose customer list includes Airbus, Siemens, Uber and Vodafone.

Compared to where things are headed, Vollmer said the intelligence of AI systems in the enterprise today is quite limited. Customers want actionable insights. “In the future, it will be so simple that you simply ask the right question to the system or even to a bot to help you automate a process,” Vollmer said.

Melissa Boxer, vice president of adaptive intelligence at Oracle, also warned that not every problem requires complex AI strategies. “We all want to think our businesses are unique, but there are also common challenges in some areas where a pre-built solution is appropriate,” she said. “Save your data scientists for the things you think are truly unique to your business.”