We can solve the greatest challenges of our time using technology and people

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to amplify and enhance people's ability to the point where they will be able to solve the most perplexing problems facing society today. But that potential won't be realised if leaders in organisations don't demystify AI for their teams and create a world of understanding around the impact and value that technology presents to a modern workforce. This is the view of Paul Shanahan, Cloud & Enterprise Business Group lead with Microsoft Ireland. "There is apprehension around AI and its introduction to the workplace," he says. "On the one hand we have new generations coming into the workforce who have grown up in a society where intelligent technology is widely used and accepted. On the other, we have older generations within the workforce who started working before smartphones and maybe even PCs weren't in common use. For that older cohort it would be very easy to imagine AI as something from the future, something unattainable in today's workplace."