Firms urged to tap AI to solve problems, not for the sake of it

Technology has to be used in tandem with creative and innovative thinking when solving problems, says Mr Li Hongyi, who is known for being part of the team that created the Parking.sg app.
Technology has to be used in tandem with creative and innovative thinking when solving problems, says Mr Li Hongyi, who is known for being part of the team that created the Parking.sg app. PHOTO: JOSEPH CHUA

Technology like artificial intelligence (AI) should not be used for the sake of it, but rather in tandem with creative and innovative thinking when solving problems.

This was the message of Mr Li Hongyi, deputy director for data science and AI at the Government Technology Agency, in a sharing session on the future needs of a digital economy and smart nation.

Mr Li, the 31-year-old son of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said: "A lot of technological innovation is not so much about using high technology for the sake of saying you can use AI or not.

"In the end, technology is just a tool and what you're trying to do is figure out the easiest way you can get around (the problems)."

Mr Li was speaking yesterday at a conference on Industry 4.0 and getting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ready for the future.

It was organised by the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and Human Capital Singapore, an education and training centre for human resources here.

Mr Li is known for being part of the team that created the Parking.sg app, which allows motorists to pay for parking electronically and forms part of Singapore's Smart Nation drive.

He talked about his experience developing the app, which he said started out from an observation that motorists were using too many "annoying" parking coupons, which often led to people rushing appointments so they did not overrun the time they had paid for parking.

His team took time to develop the app, testing it in just one carpark, allowing developers to identify and solve problems.

He warned of the dangers of trying to do too much at the start, and advised app developers to start small as projects have a higher tendency to "die" if they get too big too quickly.

Mr Li said: "I've seen lots of really, really big apps and big companies which are doing terrible jobs and are unable to improve themselves, but that's never been the problem of somebody doing something small.

"You can add on more complexities later, you can go bigger later. But you need to do something well first."

Several other speakers gave speeches and took part in panel discussions - held at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel - including National Trades Union Congress deputy secretary-general Koh Poh Koon, who took part in a discussion about digitising SMEs.

Dr Koh, who is also Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, advised SMEs to not be "distracted" by government grants for digitisation efforts and instead set out their objectives for going digital first.

He said: "You don't go to see a doctor and ask 'What medicine can you give me', right? The doctor will ask you 'Where is the pain?' first."

The chief cloud architect of Alibaba International, Dr Derek Wang, also gave a talk on Alibaba's experience on helping SMEs to expand their businesses to China.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 14, 2019, with the headline Firms urged to tap AI to solve problems, not for the sake of it. Subscribe