Entrepreneurs mixed on AI use in business

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained ground during the past few years, with companies, governments, and academia looking into the technology.

Several generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E, became known to most if not all.

In a panel discussion entitled “Entrepreneurs from the Future” moderated by Dr. Sara Al Madani at the AIBC Eurasia happening in Dubai, three entrepreneurs weigh in on the use of technology in their businesses.

Richard Fitzgerald, Founder and CEO of Augustus Media, said his company is using AI in servicing its audience, however, he sees the need to understand the technology more.

“I’m totally excited about it [AI]. I think it’s hugely disruptive. But also, I think that we have to understand this,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald’s firm, Augustus Media, is a ‘new media’ company, with Lovin Dubai, Lovin Saudi, and Smashi TV. 

Meanwhile, Stefano Fallah, Founder & CEO of Podeo, an audio-tech company based in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, believed AI is part of a grander vision he has for his company.

“[We] started aggregating content from across the web [and we] realised that there are 4 million podcasts globally, less than 500 were in Arabic,” Fallah said. “So, the natural progression [for us] was obviously to start work with creators and give them the tools that they need to start shedding the light and really enable them to share their voices.”

But, not everyone is open to using AI technology.

Jade Sen, Founder & CEO of MRJADE Holding, a multi-business company, said he doesn’t see anything good about the technology.

“For me, [AI] is not good for the world. You cannot see what is real, what [is] not real,” Sen said. “I work with myself, not AI.”

Some businesses put in a budget for AI use

For a media company like Fitzgerald’s, survival is about adapting to the technology as well even though it costs more at the moment.

“We’re putting extra budgets into our software costs each year to let our young content creators, humans, use the expensive AI software so we’re pumping out more content faster,” Fitzgerald said.

“We’re embracing it, but yeah, it’s hugely frightening,” he admitted.

AI as a tool for business

As for Fallah, he detailed that his firm will continue to utilise generative AI for faster content generation.

“We have so many plans for audio and sound [generative] AI. We have so many plans for linguistic adaptation from a content perspective,” Fallah said. 

“So, all of that is definitely going to help us get to our vision quicker. And, really sort of navigate the waters and based on learnings, based on innovation, based on all the different factors that come into play.”