Gail Evans: Hi, I'm Gail Evans. I'm the Chief Digital
Officer for Mercer. AI is very, very interesting, it's a
buzzword everywhere. But I think it means a few things for
Mercer. One, you know, you have to identify the data that
makes sense, because AI without data is a non starter.
So what we've done is we've created a data platform and
started the journey to identify data monetization. What is
the outcome we are trying to achieve with the data?
Unknown: So and from there, we can build an algorithmic
economy from the data. So how have we done that a couple
ways. One, we started with business intelligence and we've
created algorithms for client retention, and product
predictors. So that we know from our client intelligence
that you have X number of products, what is the likelihood
of the next product you would purchase?
In addition, we've looked at unstructured data. And we've
partnered with a third party to start to collect data from
unstructured documents and apply AI to that data. So we're
looking for real use cases, real user journeys that we can
apply AI to, to deliver the value. We have a few measures in
place. We're looking at client retention for our algorithm.
So we want to predict the clients that are at risk and the
revenue associated with those clients. And so we track that
for that algorithm. But also AI includes process automation.
You can definitely track the workforce, the digital
colleagues, the digital workforce associated with applying
AI plus automation to a task. So there's many different ways
that we've looked to drive metrics. And all of what we do,
we try to tie it back to some business metric. Because at
the end of the day, we want to drive revenue, we want to
meet the business objectives. And that's what's most
important.
You know, technology is an aside, a drive by. It has to be a
part of the mainstream with your business partners. On the
technical side, I think there's a training. AI, getting the
talent you need, being able to think differently. You want
to apply AI? You need a subject matter expert. It doesn't
just drop in. You have to be with a subject matter expert.
They begin to think differently. How do you apply an
algorithm? How do you create an algorithm? What is an
algorithm in some cases? And so there's a learning process.
And also stimulating that passion to want to apply this new
technology to deliver business value. It is passion it is
new talent. But it's also being able to create a community
of folks.
Gail Evans: So one community at a time. The breaks come in,
because some of your business partners want immediate
return. And so with an algorithm, for example, you got to
have a control case, and then you apply the treatment. And
it's a fine tuning that happens over time. And so you may
not get the immediate benefit, but you want them to stay for
the journey. And so sometimes, they decide they're not
getting enough value and they'd like to move on to something
different. So it takes some convincing that no, we need to
stay the course, but the benefit will come. It's so
important because as a technologist, I speak a different
language. Either you have to find a way to speak about
technology through their lens. And, so what I've done in the
past and today is learn the business, try to apply their
terminology to a very complex set of technologies