In brief:

• Mohan Nair challenges the belief that only a select few are innovators, asserting that AI can empower everyone to innovate.
• AI transforms human data into machine-readable formats, allowing machines to assist with analytical tasks, freeing humans for insight-driven endeavors.
• In healthcare, AI can address burnout and gaps in patient care, but the compassion of skilled professionals remains irreplaceable, emphasizing the partnership between AI and human innovation.

Did AI kill innovation?

Artificial Intelligence is making its way into more and more use cases (and more and more headlines) across every industry. Customer service chatbots. Medical imaging analysis. Drug discovery and development. Self-driving cars. With all the promise (and all the hype), will AI overshadow human ingenuity? If AI is everywhere– is there still room for innovators in this digital age?

Our most recent GDS Group Healthcare Summit kicked off with a keynote exploring AI and its relationship to innovation. The good news? AI can be used to bring out the inner innovator in all of us!

Here are six key themes we took away from Mohan Nair, the author, transformation expert, and former global Chief Innovation Officer who addressed our audience of healthcare and life science industry executives.

Anyone can be an innovator

Mohan Nair spends a lot of time thinking and writing about innovation. With a background in computer science and AI and multiple executive leadership roles under his belt, Nair is now focused on transformation and innovation within organizations. And he firmly challenges the notion that innovation is the exclusive domain of a select few. Instead, he highlights the ways AI serves as an augmentation tool, “to uplift executives who don’t believe they’re innovators to become innovators.” And for those who already consider themselves innovators, AI serves as a catalyst to elevate their capabilities.

Humans are becoming the data

Nair delves into some profound transformations AI is sparking. Previously, humans created data.

“We are becoming the data ourselves. Our thoughts, our writings, our enablements, even our impressions, are becoming the source data for machines that are thinking beyond us.”

So, is this a bad thing? Becoming the source material for machines? This is actually ok, asserts Nair. Let the machines do some of the work, and we can save ourselves for innovation.

AI is for analysis, humans are for insight

AI is not a rival, but rather an ally to human creativity. Nair’s perspective underscores the distinction between analytical tasks and insight-driven endeavors. While machines excel at processing intricate data sets, human ingenuity remains paramount in generating profound insights. He says, “dealing with complexity can be left to machines if it’s analytical. But dealing with insight, and the ability to see beyond the clouds, is up to you. And that is a practiced art.”

The evolution of ‘status’ mindset to ‘innovatory’ mindset

Embracing technologies like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and beyond, requires a pivotal mindset shift, Nair asserts. Leaders today must transition from a status quo-oriented mindset to one that embraces innovation as a guiding principle. He describes a bold evolution that entails “challenging the process. Not just preserving it. You have to make history.”

Mohan taking a question from the audience at our GDS Healthcare Digital Summit.

AI can help healthcare burnout

In the healthcare sector, AI’s potential for transformative impact is especially pronounced. Nair shared some research he’d been involved in, which found that amongst overburdened nurses and doctors, “40% will quit in the next 3 to 4 years because of the factors associated with burnout.”

Machines can help here, says Nair. “Especially in remote regions where the availability of nurses is now becoming a national crisis.” He says AI is helping diagnose patients, helping patients understand their diagnoses, and addressing critical gaps in healthcare delivery.

But Nair also makes a crucial assertion: while AI can augment medical processes and patient interactions, the intrinsic compassion that emanates from skilled healthcare professionals remains irreplaceable. “AI will not replace the compassion that’s created with competence. It will not.”

It’s not either/or

In conclusion, we can say that it’s not about ‘either/or.’ That is, we don’t have to look through a lens of ‘either humans or machines.’ Instead, we can view this digital age as a ‘both/and’ landscape, where both AI and human innovation are partners in progress.

And far from overshadowing human ingenuity, emerging technologies can be a catalyst for our limitless potential. The digital era beckons us to celebrate our roles as creators, transforming our world through innovation powered by AI while cherishing the irreplaceable spark of human insight and compassion.

Looking for ways to accelerate your sales cycles, engage in industry conversations, and achieve better outcomes? Look no further than our digital summits – our unique 3-day digital event experiences that bring together senior executives and solution providers.

Our recent Healthcare North America digital summit had Mohan as a speaker and ended with an impressive average content attendance of 93% and meeting completion rate of 126% against target.

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