Nima has reminded the industry that the foundation of successful deployment of AI technology is high-quality data.
Nima has issued a draft position paper on AI in response to the technology becoming an industry buzzword. In the paper, nima states: “AI may be the latest shiny ‘silver bullet’, but nima believes the successful future deployment and exploitation of AI (and any other digital innovations) will depend on establishing strong foundations: high-quality data managed through effective data governance structures, processes and standards.”
Nima’s paper notes: “Organisations, before they deploy and use AI solutions, will need to ensure that their underlying source data has the quality characteristics necessary to meet its intended purposes. Some organisations are already well advanced in this respect, with strong data governance structures, processes and standards for enterprise-wide information management. But there will be others that have yet to start creating these vital foundations, and still more who are plagued by ‘data debt’ as a result of not addressing their data foundations.
“Moreover, as organisations standardise their internal approaches, they will also need to incorporate future national industry standards and rules that will enable and govern inter-organisational sharing of high-quality data.”
AI can’t magically solve problems
Nima asserts that given the King’s Speech did not introduce a formal AI regulation bill, the industry should use “this brief hiatus to build sound data foundations for the future. AI tools need to be populated, ideally, with assured quality data of trusted provenance.”
Furthermore, nima warns: “Excitement about the latest digital buzzwords is to be welcomed – it means there is an active interest in digital transformation – but business leaders in the built and managed environment cannot just throw AI tools at a problem and hope it will be magically resolved. Doing so without paying attention to quality data will also increase the amount of computer processing involved, adding environmental and financial costs.”
Nima wants feedback on the draft position paper and plans to produce an updated version at its autumn virtual conference on 7 November.
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