“We don’t have just one specific AI team at Datacom, because that team would be the whole business,” says Lou Compagnone, Datacom’s Director of AI. “AI is woven into everything that we do. A big part of my role is bringing different threads together and making sure they all work together seamlessly.”
Effective artificial intelligence (AI) solutions bring together technology, creativity, great design and customer-centric thinking. In her role as Director of AI, Lou draws on a diverse range of skills and experience that spans UX, service design, strategy, futurism and even creative writing.
Lou joined Datacom over three years ago, initially leading the design and experience team and says it was a good foundation for the futures thinking that is so important in AI.
“I’ve moved away from individual touchpoints into thinking about ecosystems. The timeline has also zoomed out, so instead of thinking about a twelve-month timeline, it’s a ten-year timeline,” she says. “And I’ve accidentally become a tech nerd over last 20 years.”
The best part of working at Datacom, according to Lou, is collaborating with all the other experts who are equally passionate about the potential for AI to positively transform the way people work and live.
“There are so many smart people here across such a range of areas – all these incredible brains mean that I learn so much from everyone, every day. The cross-pollination of knowledge is what’s really exciting.”
Coordinating with teams across Datacom, and customers from a range of industries across Australia and New Zealand, gives Lou a unique perspective on how companies are approaching AI. Most are starting from scratch, asking Datacom how they can leverage AI to help improve their organisations. Some leaders are under pressure from their boards, who instruct them ‘transform the business through AI’, without any idea of where to start.
It’s easy to get excited about what the technology can do, Lou adds, but without some direction it’s like holding a hammer and looking at everything like it’s a nail.
“For example, we recently saw a tool for contact centres that changes the voices of unhappy customers to make them sound less angry. Is that actually solving the problem? Or would it be better to find the reason for people’s anger and resolve that? AI is only as good as the use case it solves.”
That’s where Lou and Datacom can step in, analysing a company’s functions and roles to identify where they can benefit from AI automation or optimisation, and on the flipside, helping organisations understand which AI opportunities that aren’t a good fit.
“My favourite thing is working with customers to find the right problems to solve,” she says. “It’s like looking out from a plane – we find the smoke signals, so we can parachute down to fight the fires.”
Datacom has developed a range of training and support for organisations that need help with their AI journey, including an AI academy, bootcamp-style workshops, an AI adoption coach and assessment tools and accelerators. AI solutions are also being rolled out by teams across the business, including data and governance compliance tools, data platforms and rapid innovation tools.
Another tool that Datacom has recently developed and brought to market is the Enterprise AI Assistant, which allows companies to leverage their organisational data and reap the benefits of AI within their own environment.
“While there has been a proliferation of AI tools over the past couple of years, there is a significant number of companies that do not want to use mainstream tools that sit outside their organisation or process their data offshore.”
“Our Enterprise AI Assistant has been developed in answer to what we are hearing from customers. Our customers have told us they are keen to leverage and use AI, but they are concerned about their data and where it is going. They also tell us they want flexibility, local ‘on the ground’ support and the ability to adopt a sovereign solution.”
Rather than sitting on the fence, Lou encourages organisations to make an AI plan – even if your organisation’s AI timeline is set in the future.
“Our latest AI research showed that 80% of organisations using AI had seen an improvement in productivity. AI is not something businesses should ignore.”
The takeaway message? Every organisation should have an AI strategy, whether they’re ready to leverage it or not. This provides organisations and their teams with greater confidence and a plan to help prepare for what’s coming at a time when everything is changing so quickly.
“You should keep across what’s changing and what it means for your business and your team,” she advises. “Do some future thinking – you don’t know what’s going to happen, but with a strategy you can consider possible, probable and preferred futures. That knowledge gives you agency in shaping your organisation.”
Lou says with a combination of strategy, future thinking, technical knowledge and experience, organisations can be ready for the next AI horizon.
“All of us within Datacom are deeply obsessed with AI and how it’s changing the world,” she says. “We live and breathe it, we’re always thinking about it. You can’t predict the future – but having the foresight gives you agency and prepares you to be resilient regardless of what happens.”
Getting AI right and ensuring it delivers positive benefits requires making decisions with people as the central focus.
“I want to innovate in a human-centred way. I've seen a lot of people talking about how they want to create an AI-driven future. I want to create a human-driven future that's supported by AI. A big part of what I want to do is help humans have agency in the direction this is going and shape the direction. Part of that is actually that you need to lean into it. You need to test the capabilities, and you need to start thinking with a longer horizon.”
One way Lou Compagnone likes to explain the future of AI is in three horizons, as identified by a report from the Institute for the Future:
We are living in the first horizon, where AI systems are augmenting our lives but have some key limitations. AI is doing some outstanding work, such as detecting cancers more accurately and efficiently than humans. On the flipside, it has also caused problems, such as when an Air Canada chatbot invented a refund policy.
“It’s hard for these AI systems to determine the truth in content,” explains Lou. “They don’t have ingenuity or creativity. They can’t reason in a human way. And they are prone to hallucinations. So we have to be really careful with them.”
At this stage, AI will be able to make better decisions, with fewer mistakes, allowing it to take on more managerial work. This horizon will include more physical AI in the form of robotics and autonomous vehicles, as well as more neurotech within our bodies.
“There will be an ecosystem of large language models and small language models,” she says. “AI will be a tool that operates almost like a hybrid workforce, completing role-specific tasks and augmenting complex functions.”
The third horizon is more nebulous and harder to forecast – but we know it will be transformative. While it may eliminate certain roles and industries, AI will also create new jobs, businesses, and entire industries.
“There are going to be fundamental shifts in organisations and industries,” Lou says. “Whereas the first two horizons are more about tasks, roles and workflows, horizon three will see shifts in operating models and industries.”
