According to her, artificial intelligence technology has permeated every industry and area of existence, with immense benefits.
Awosika , the Independent Non-Executive Director, Access Bank Plc, gave the advice while delivering a keynote address at the opening of the 14th University of Lagos Annual Research Conference and Fair.
The International Conference of the Humanities and Science has the theme: “Automation and Artificial Intelligence; Opportunities for 21st Research and Development”.
According to Awosika, Automation and Artificial intelligence have come to stay and make better the lives of the citizenry.
She said that engineers and researchers faced challenges ranging from sharp growth in demand in emerging countries, to market fragmentation driven by consumers’ taste for customisation.
According to her, budget constraints also required engineering teams to improve their productivity and efficiency.
“This is even as limits on the number of designs that can be considered and optimised against process capabilities restrict the predictability of product performance.
“Artificial Intelligence-powered technologies can help deliver more efficient designs than previously achievable by eliminating waste in the design process.
“ Innovation can also be brought to the market faster as these artificial intelligence facilitates lower process cycle times and increase focus on real-time negotiations and other interactions,’’ she said.
Awosika said that artificial intelligence would not make people lose their jobs.
According to her, on the contrary, job tasks that are more unstructured and involved managing people are harder to be replaced by artificial intelligence.
She said that with the job replacements and displacements generated by artificial intelligence, future job market and required skill sets would be significantly different from now.
Awosika added that higher education would be impacted by artificial intelligence in many ways but basically in the area curricula and enrolment.
Accordng to her, artificial intelligence will have a sweeping impact on curriculum in higher education since its strength is its speed, accuracy and consistency and will be used to teach subjects such as mathematics, science and engineering.
She said that some universities were already offering Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning courses to computer science students and business students.
“These persons will one day be business managers and executives who need to understand the capabilities, limitations and implications of artificial intelligence in the business world,’’ she said.
She said that multiple studies indicated that jobs that involved routine tasks and structures were easier to automate and would be replaced by artificial intelligence soon.
Awosika noted that universities were already exploring artificial intelligence applications that could improve student retention.
She said that some schools were already testing advanced analytics and machine learning to identify students in trouble and offer them support.
According to her, Civitas Learning and Salesforce collaborate on a service for universities that identifies and engages with students at risk of quitting.
She noted that the Salesforce tools used machine learning to recommend engagement strategies to optimise retention and graduation rates.
“The University of Lagos can be a leading light in driving artificial intelligence and automation to solve the rather unique problems in Africa by African institutions.
“ We in Access Bank, in our strive to be the world’s most respected African Bank, will be delighted to partner with the university,’’ she said.
In his address, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof.OluwatoyinOgundipe, said that the research conference and fair had become customary, noting that researchers from within and outside the university converged at the conference to share works and seek best possible solutions to challenges.
According to him, the core understanding that research is important and the realisation that government or universities alone cannot fund research, there was need for more collaboration with industries.
He said that several research grants had been won by the university and more submissions made to organisations such as the European Commission.
“In a bid to entrench our research driven hub, not just in Nigeria, the university of Lagos recently won the Ministry of Steel and Solid Minerals Research and Development Award.
“As part of efforts to enhance our research visibility, we have collaborated with organisations such as Vitafoam Nigeria, and this has led to the donation of a Polyurethane Laboratory worth over N20 million to enhance research in nanotechnology and materials.
“We also received equipment worth 200,000 dollars from the U.S. to support research in the Central Research Laboratory, among many others,’’ he said.
The vice chancellor said that although many argued that new technologies such as the artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics might take away jobs and increase unemployment, it was believed that the the fair would create superior arguments that would change the perception.
He lauded the efforts of the students who had been uniquely involved in research and innovation implementations.
According to him, this would enable them to acquire skills as problem solvers as well as make the desired impact on their future careers.
The three-day conference would also have in exhibition, a zero emission car, a solar refrigerator and other research products developed by a groups of students of the university.
The research fair is in collaboration with Access Bank Plc, Vitafoam, Union Bank Plc and other key industry players.
