Artificial Intelligence (AI) is re-writing human enterprise at the speed of computation. A new qualification from UNE, the Graduate Certificate in AI Innovation, offers Tamworth businesses and other organisations a gateway into practical use of AI to revolutionise their operations.
UNE’s AI Grad. Cert. teaches participants how to assess the value of AI at an operational level, how to introduce AI applications into the workplace, and how to go about developing practical applications for the technology.
UNE's Director of Place Based Education and Research, Dr Melanie Fillios, says the 13 week course will provide Tamworth businesses and community with an opportunity to learn how to use AI to address their own unique business challenges.
"We encourage local businesses to support an employee to bring a project that can be addressed with AI," she says. "It's a double win: the business gains an in-house solution and the employee gains an important qualification."
While the course itself will be delivered online, it will include two short in-person "bootcamps" in Tamworth that will prepare participants to think and work in truly innovative ways.
The first AI Grad Cert held in Armidale late last year attracted participants from across the spectrum of employment – business owners, people working in a business, public servants, people out of work wanting to make an impact, people in not-for-profit organisations.
One of those participants was Bhavin Patel. The Tamworth-based Director of Operations at Holistic Recovery, a provider of NDIS services, Mr Patel says the course was “paradigm-changing”.
“I think generally we all went into the course with small problems, and as our understanding evolved we realised that AI could be used to address much bigger challenges than we had imagined," Mr Patel says.
As a result of the course, Holistic Resources has engaged a consultant to work through development of an AI bot specifically for use within the disability support sector.
The envisaged solution is in one sense a "productivity hack", Mr Patel observes, because it will enable people to move much faster through drudge work like responding to emails or company blog writing. But put together, a lot of productivity hacks being addressed by a technology that learns as it works can free up considerable time for people to focus on other aspects of the organisation.
Importantly, the planned bot will have to incorporate strict privacy measures to ensure the confidentiality of NDIS customers.
Mr Patel found the course format, which emphasises group learning and sharing of ideas, particularly valuable. "All of our cohort were professionals, from many different backgrounds, so everyone came at a problem from a different perspective."
Dr Wysel observed that people enrolled in the Armidale course expecting to focus on technology, but soon found themselves deeply engaged with questions relating to people and culture.
"We spent about half the time helping people understand the technology, its capability, and the various AI packages they can access. But it was the other four dimensions – effective communication, ethical governance, change management and innovation theory – they are what enable someone's bright spark idea to develop into real world organisational uplift."
"Everyone came for the tech but stayed for the people."
More information: https://www.unesri.com.au/aiinnovation
