HEALTH SPECIAL AI
LEFT Mohamed Elmasry, CEO of Tactful AI
A machine will always lack the human capacity to know everything, and be limited by the information you give it"
COULD AI ENSLAVE HUMANS? “It’s very difficult to build something that’s completely flawless,” says Tactful AI’s CEO Mohamed Elmasry, when I ask him if there’ll ever be an artificial intelligence that can rule the world. And after “15 to 20 years” working in the industry, he should know. “No one was calling it AI when I started,” he recalls. “We were talking about things like neural networks. The first projects I worked on were about controlling motors or small power stations, trying to get them to think like humans so they’d know when to speed up or slow down.” This kind of relatively rudimentary task is a long way from the all- conquering computers depicted in films like Terminator and The Matrix , and despite the hype, Mohamed
of different software, a new type of programming. With the current technologies, I can’t see a path to that. “For an AI to work properly you have to put in a lot of effort to train it, and because of this it’s good for specific processes. But a machine will always lack the human capacity to know everything, and be limited by the information you give it – an AI can’t build something by itself. The standard of machine-to-machine communication you would need doesn’t exist, either.” Though his background is in hardware and Internet of Things (IoT) systems, Mohamed’s day-to-day work at Tactful is now software focused. The company has built an AI system which helps businesses improve their engagement with clients. “We’re trying to transform customer care,” he says. “We work with engagement teams to provide them with relevant information while they’re dealing with customers. Our platform uses natural language
processing to follow what’s happening in a conversation between the end user and the customer care team, and provides specific pieces of relevant information. So if someone is asking for a phone upgrade, for example, the system will check their account for previous contracts and upgrades they’re eligible for and provide the agent with the information they need to advise the customer. “This helps the company offer a more efficient and personalised service, and improves customer satisfaction and engagement.” Tactful started life in 2016 as an IoT business, but pivoted to its current product last year after Mohamed and his co-founders spotted a gap in the market. Its product is already in the hands of customers around the world, and last month the company agreed a deal with two major hotels in Saudi Arabia, Makkah Clock Royal Tower and Raffles Makkah Palace, which will use Tactful systems to help their guests. tactful.ai
expects this kind of general AI to remain firmly in the realm of science fiction.
“You would need a lot of changes in the way computers work,” he says. “Different hardware, layers and layers
11
ISSUE 04
cambridgecatalyst.co.uk
Powered by FlippingBook