AI for Business 18/9/25

Our season commenced  with a talk on "AI Impact on Society, Business, and Employment," with Dr Tim Bashford as our guest speaker.

In the talk, Tim cut through the "overhype" surrounding generative AI to reveal the truly groundbreaking, yet often overlooked, advancements in fields like healthcare. By drawing parallels with past industrial revolutions, Tim contextualised the unprecedented pace of change AI is driving in technology and the labour market. While this shift will be swift and disruptive, the ultimate outlook is more positive than negative.

He confronted the future of work head-on, acknowledging the inevitable job losses while highlighting the new opportunities emerging in their place. This new landscape demands a shift in focus from "lifetime skills" to enduring soft skills such as communication and teamwork, which will be essential for navigating a more agile employment landscape. This evolution is mirrored in education, where generative AI is forcing a necessary rethink of assessment methods. Instead of banning these tools, he argued for embracing them to challenge students with more complex problems, better preparing them for the modern workplace.

Beyond the workplace, Tim explored the profound societal implications, questioning whether the productivity gains from AI could finally challenge the traditional 9-to-5 workweek and allow us to redefine our relationship with work. However, this progress is underpinned by a critical discussion on AI ethics. Using real-world examples from healthcare and recruitment, he exposed the inherent biases in current models and stressed the urgent need for robust ethical governance and human oversight.

Finally, Tim highlighted how AI is levelling the playing field, empowering small businesses with tools for customer service and marketing that enable them to compete with multinational corporations like never before. Several interesting examples of how AI is making a practical difference including use in tendering processes were discussed.