Colleague AI has to wait

The late physicist Stephen Hawkins has described the visions about the possible effects of artificial intelligence as ‚the worst event‘ in the history of civilization. So far, the topic of artificial intelligence, in which a working environment with robots that one day will be more intelligent than humans, has not yet arrived. At the moment, the idea of such a scenario is fascinating but worrying for many.

Regardless of any horror scenarios, this ’non-human intelligence‘ also offers many new opportunities and possibilities in most areas of our lives. Artificial intelligence is not a current trend or hype, it is more of an industrial revolution. Renowned technology giants such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon or IBM invest billions of euros in this intelligence. If these developments were not promising, significantly lower investments would be made.

AI is still in its infancy and still needs many development cycles before the colleague ‚robot‘ can move in everywhere. The problem is not the infrastructure, it already exists to a large extent. There is a lack of know-how and human capital. The technology is developed faster and more advanced than the required specialists and managers have ‚grown back‘. According to a representative survey by Bitkoms, many specialists and managers with an IT background are still missing.

"There is currently a shortage of around 55,000 IT specialists in Germany. Whoever has vacancies for computer scientists or engineers competes with a large number of companies for the same candidates – and start-ups generally cannot pay the salaries offered by established companies", says Bitkom President Achim Berg.

It is not only the lack of IT specialists that is currently stalling technical developments in the field of AI. Many companies lack visionaries and strategists who are able to plan and implement the new technologies in an entrepreneurial direction right up to the end. But visionaries do not fall from the sky, they are rare and must be ‚identified‘. The best IT specialists are not necessarily successful without an existing vision. The same applies to suitable managers, this market is also empty. In order to achieve entrepreneurial success, it is essential to have a qualified leader on board who is able to take visionaries on board and give them the freedom they need to plan and implement ideas right to the end. IT specialists also need a ‚chief‘ to take the necessary steps to business success with AI. These many puzzle pieces are essential to have more than just an entrepreneurial idea with AI.

Authors:
Martin Krill has been working for Hager Unternehmensberatung for more than fifteen years and was made a managing partner in 2004. He fills top sales and management positions in the technology industry as well as a number of other sectors.