Artificial Intelligence when blended with Anthro Intelligence, sharpens decision-making at strategic, tactical and operational dimensions
By B Sambamurthy
The world we live in has never been in such disruptive churn and flux both for good and bad. It is not technology that stands between good and bad, success and failure. But it is the social and cultural dimension of technology. Artificial Intelligence (AI) demonstrates what is technically feasible in terms of efficiency, speed, convenience, productivity, etc.
But these technologies, including AI, would fail policies and businesses if technologies are treated as extraneous to human conduct and socioeconomic and cultural construct, ie, Anthropology Intelligence (multifaceted study of humankind).
Despite the deployment of best technologies like AI, we have seen economic forecasts fail, political pollsters get it wrong, financial models flounder, tech innovations harm, consumer surveys mislead and so on. Many attribute these setbacks to tunnel vision dished out by technology, ignoring ground realities (Anthro Intelligence). Let us look at some huge successes and failures.
Long and Short of AI
Long on Artificial Intelligence (Data Science and ML) and short on Anthropology Intelligence:
Mighty tech mobile companies like Nokia and BlackBerry have bitten the dust not because their technology tools are wrong but because they got their Anthro Vision – scientific studies about people’s cultural attitudes towards the adoption of screen-based and virtual keyboard, disastrously wrong.
The global financial crisis (2008), which wrecked the financial system and drove several countries into prolonged recession, is another colossal failure of economic and financial modelling. These powerful institutions with their highly sophisticated and scientific risk management systems could not see just below their nose and they blame some coloured bird for their woes. Technology failed to capture human frailties like greed and fear.
Despite the availability of massive volume and variety of data and powerful computing factories, macroeconomic models to forecast and understand the nature and level of inflation have failed miserably. Most central banks around the world dismissed the inflation threat as transitory, whereas in reality it proved to be sticky and elevated, pushing several million people into poverty and on the margins. Even many a Nobel laureate got it wrong. Millions of middle and vulnerable sections have to pay for these failures.
Similar is the case with policies aimed at mitigating Covid-19, which has ravaged lives and economies globally. Many globally renowned scientists ordained that a lockdown for 21 days would break the contagion cycle. The scientific model went horribly wrong.
There is a common thread in all these failures, i.e., their overreliance on big data and scientific models to the neglect of the behaviour of humans (Anthro Intelligence) to new opportunities and challenges. Science – whether data, management, health, or tech – was not blended with the culture of the population they are supposed to serve. There is no substitute for observing and engaging with people on the ground in their own socio-cultural, political and economic setting.
The idea is not to run down renowned scientists, economists and tech experts but to drive home the point that the tools they used may not be wrong but incomplete. What makes the models and tools complete? It is Anthro Intelligence. I would call this AI behind other AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Anthro-driven Successes
The huge success of tech behemoths like Facebook (Meta), Google, Amazon, Apple, Flipkart, WhatsApp, Instagram and other social media and e-commerce platforms is largely attributed to the blend of science and cultural context. These successes demonstrate that tech is not just an autonomous technical object but also a complex social system. Anthropology helped redesign and reshape tech systems as socio-tech systems for serving people well. Research by academicians like Prof Bryan and many other scholars amply demonstrate it.
Listen to Social Silence
It is relatively easy to listen and read through the noise but needs special skills to listen to silence and more so social silence. For the eyes and ears of the Anthro intelligent, silence is deafening. For example, silence in a house full of kids on a holiday, silence in a sports stadium full of boisterous spectators, silence in communities on surveys ranging from social, economic, finance, politics may not be construed as nothingness. They may extract powerful insights about silence. The ability and skills to listen to the silence in surveys and polls are critical for success.
Decision-making
Anthro intelligence or lack of it makes a difference between success and failure. When one talks of Anthropology, bones, skulls and skeletons etc, spring to mind immediately. But, here it is about the study of humans in their cultural, social, economic context and their relevance to decision-making. Human welfare, needs, experiences and sustainability are key to business or public policy success.
Gillian Tett, in her award-winning book ‘Anthro Vision’ presents in great detail as to “how Anthropology can explain business and life”. She argues that Anthropology is an intellectual framework that enables decision-makers to see round the corner, spot what is hidden in plain sight. This framework when blended with scientific insights helps businesses and societies grapple with challenges.
She elaborates on three core principles of the anthropology mindset. Firstly, in this era of global contagion, we need to cultivate empathy for strangers and value diversity. The contagion is not limited to the spread of diseases alone but also extends to good and bad in trade, finance, travel, communications and social attitudes. Many central banks have complained of monetary policy contagion from the developed world to emerging economies. Our understanding of others and ourselves has not kept pace with a high degree of interconnections.
The second principle dwells on listening to someone else’s view, however strange. It makes it easier to see oneself as well. This helps in making the strange familiar and familiar strange. Thirdly, see the blind spots in others as well as yourself.
Anthro Intelligence does not supplant big data analytics but only supplements with “thick data” (quality) and provides micro connections. (Clifford Geertz).
Culture Officers
In order to tap and leverage Anthro Intelligence, some of the businesses, particularly big tech, have on board Chief Cultural Officer. Anthro experts report to the C-suite. Be it a product launch or use case appropriateness, Anthro plays an important role.
Anthro Intelligence, though not explicitly stated, played a key role in the success of UPI and the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS). This is an important component of Digital India.
Jack Dorsey, cofounder of Twitter, said if “he could invent social media all over again, he would start by hiring social scientists alongside computer scientists. That might make our twenty-first century digital landscape quite different and better”.
Artificial Intelligence when blended with Anthro Intelligence sharpens decision- making at strategic, tactical and operational dimensions. As such it deserves to be on the board’s agenda. Be it finance, economics, commerce, technology, healthcare, or policymaking domains, AI AI will deliver exponential and hugely impactful and enduring results.
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