In the inaugural Crossover Talks series - Fireside Chat "AI Fireside Chat: Dr. Chia-Yen Lee's Inspiration from Zero to Infinity," held on January 24, 2024, Dr. Chia-Yen Lee from the Department of Information Management at National Taiwan University took the lead in sharing his data science experiences from the past and served as a mentor guiding a profound discussion on the journey of digital transformation. This event not only invited Dr. Tuan Hsing-Chien, Honorary Chairman of Innolux Corporation, and Howard Hsieh, Secretary-General of the Taiwan Artificial Intelligence Association, but also top-tier enterprise VIPs from leading global semiconductor brands, wafer foundries, century-old conglomerates, and others to share their personal journeys and practical experiences in digital transformation.
Footprints Session: Dr. Chia-Yen Lee Shares Key Issues in Digital Transformation and Interdisciplinary Team Collaboration
In the footprints session, Dr. Lee delved into key issues in digital transformation. Drawing from the "Survey of Current Situation and Needs of Taiwan's Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Transformation," Dr. Lee highlighted the varying expectations of different industries regarding transformation. For instance, "micro-efficiency" businesses like electronic components prioritize the optimization of operational processes through large-scale management systems, while "high-efficiency" entities in the overall manufacturing sector emphasize leveraging data analytics platforms to enhance market performance. Most crucially, successful digital transformation entails not only improving internal efficiency but also substantively reflecting in profitability and performance, gaining recognition from the market and customers. Additionally, insights were shared from Forbes regarding the 12 reasons for digital transformation failures, including talent loss, slow decision-making processes, and risks associated with lacking control over external suppliers.
In the key interdisciplinary teams of digital transformation, emphasis is placed not only on communication between domains but also on establishing a unified execution language across departments and defining various data. This is to prevent potential language gaps between IT and digital transformation teams and other departments, which could lead to excessively high communication costs during the digitization process. This serves as the first common language that everyone must possess. The second language is that of a citizen data scientist consciousness, echoing the concept of talent development importance that Profer AI has long conveyed. When basic concepts are widely understood among company personnel, it accelerates the identification of suitable projects and progresses from single-point initiatives to broader initiatives, ultimately achieving the goal of advancing the entire populace in AI proficiency.
In-depth Discussion Session: Intensive Exchange and Tangible Sharing of Challenges and Insights in Digital Transformation
In the Depth Discussion session, participants explored the core challenges and success factors of digital transformation. The Honorary Chairman Dr. Tuan Hsing-Chien shared his years of experience in digital transformation: ''AI is like a calibrated ruler, used for diagnosis and prediction, and utilizes data to identify problems, thus knowing which direction to improve. Building models in digital transformation is not just a goal; it represents the beginning of transformation. Even if the modeling is not good, it still has diagnostic significance.'' In other words, inaccurate predictions may indicate issues within certain aspects of organizational management, such as the failure to collect certain key data internally. Chairman Tuan also emphasized a new definition for IT, redefining it as Information Management, highlighting the importance of the role of the CIO as the Chief Infrastructure Officer.
Howard Hsieh, Secretary-General of the Taiwan Artificial Intelligence Association mentioned: "Digital transformation is a nonstop progress; there is no stopping means success. Integration wins through a learning organization." He emphasized the key role of talent cultivation and conceptual shifts, highlighting the critical role of education and training in digital transformation.
In addition to the core challenges of digital transformation, success factors include transparency and the initiation of information-centric management, making digital transformation not just a project but a continuous process. It is recommended to seek external collaborative resources, with third-party vendors sharing successful experiences to persuade internal personnel. This enables responsible colleagues to easily utilize AI tools, understand that AI does not replace their work, and identify benchmark problems through AI to achieve quick wins. Subsequently, the promotion can extend from points to lines and even areas. Establishing a digital culture is a crucial aspect of driving digital transformation, and fostering seed learners through internal competitions, training courses, and other means is encouraged to promote digitization across the entire company.
AI is no longer a directive issued from the top-down but rather a grassroots movement propelled autonomously by members of the organization from the bottom-up. Having a foundational infrastructure for data governance, management only needs to provide the teams with the necessary data and technology, along with supplying applications required for members' daily tasks. Employees can then utilize no-code/low-code tools to further enable them to independently build applications, without depending on AI or IT teams. This accelerates AI deployment and efficiency, facilitating a comprehensive and widespread digital transformation.