With AI emerging as an increasing priority for organizations across all industries, it is critical for business and technology leaders to ensure AI is adding transformational value.
That was the central theme in a recent conversation SAS CTO Bryan Harris had with streaming news channel Ticker. Harris shared his perspective on how organizations can approach AI with a growth mindset. He outlined several takeaways worth considering as adoption accelerates across industries.
You can watch Harris’ full interview in the video above or explore the key takeaways below.
1. Agentic AI forces leaders to rethink business models
Harris believes there are three phases: personal ROI, process ROI and business ROI. The first phase involves individuals experiencing personal productivity gains with AI, which is already happening. The second phase involves using these productivity gains to reimagine and improve business processes. The final phase involves driving tangible business metrics and outcomes. SAS is committed to doing this in a way that uniquely balances human centricity with unparalleled governance.
2. Empowerment, not cost-cutting, creates better outcomes
There are two schools of thought right now: leveraging AI to cut costs and leveraging AI to discover new revenue. Harris says leaders should prioritize a growth mindset by investing in employees. When we empower people with AI, instead of displacing them to cut costs, we free up their time to work on higher-value problems, drive revenue growth and gain a competitive advantage for the business.
3. Governments and industry share responsibility for safe implementation
Organizations and governments worldwide are actively working to ensure that people can use AI safely. Harris pointed to the role governments can play in incentivizing responsible innovation, whether that means improving access to health care, strengthening financial markets or widening access to capital. Technology companies, meanwhile, are responsible for building AI systems that are explainable, fair and transparent.
4. SAS prioritizes AI investment and innovation
SAS has been making waves on several fronts:
- Quantum AI: SAS R&D is building hybrid architectures between traditional computing and quantum computers to tackle problems that were previously unsolvable.
- Digital twins: Another innovation, announced at SAS Innovate Orlando in May, is our work with digital twins, where we are combining the power of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine with our world-class AI to enable complex systems to be seen, understood and optimized.
- Agentic AI: Equally as important is the continuing maturity of agentic AI. We are creating production-ready intelligent agents that are already driving billions of dollars of decisions for some of the largest companies in the world.
Throughout the conversation, Harris emphasized that SAS’ role is not just about advancing technology, but also about ensuring it remains explainable, governed and compliant with emerging regulations.
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