'A way to leapfrog': AWS executive says regulated industries moving fastest on AI
BNN Bloomberg
As a wave of companies rush to embed artificial intelligence into their operations, Matt Wood has noticed the technology's fastest adopters are businesses more typically described as slow to change.
The speedy adopters span regulated industries like health care, life sciences, financial services, insurance and manufacturing — a shock even for someone as plugged into the world of AI as Wood, Amazon Web Services' global vice-president of AI products.
"If you'd have told me a year and a half ago that 160-year-old life insurance companies were going to be in the vanguard of artificial intelligence usage, I probably would have been a bit surprised, but that's turning out to be the case," Wood said, referencing Sun Life Financial Inc. in an interview, fresh off a visit to Toronto for the Collision tech conference.
His observation turns age-old assumptions about innovation and who is open to embracing technology upside down. It comes as nearly every sector is grappling with advances in AI and considering how the technology can increase productivity and profitability.
