"People are the ones who are eliminating jobs, not Artificial Intelligence”

Reporter: In your experience, what are the most common ethical or strategic challenges that companies face during digital transformation at all costs?

Liliana Acosta: For me, regarding digital transformation, the first challenge is understanding. We find that there is an essential, total difference between the paths we follow when talking about a strategic change in order to acquire computers or technology. Currently, the demand is focused on the technology necessary to operate new systems, which can completely change our mentality and organizational culture, especially since everything is related to digital and everything related to artificial intelligence is completely different from what we knew before. And this change represents, in fact, a radical difference. The second challenge at this moment is related to the fact that people do not think long-term. For example, it has become a habit for companies to think about short-term strategies, because the business environment emphasizes production and the creation of added value that also translates into making a profit. However, with the development of artificial intelligence, the strategy must be thought about in the long term, because the consequences of our decisions related to AI can quickly appear in the company's activity and can create difficult situations for the company. Entrepreneurs can spend a lot of money on an IT solution for their companies and later find that the solution is not sufficient or suitable for the respective business model.

Reporter: How can startups and small and medium-sized companies finance production to innovate quickly, while preserving the human decision-making factor in the current technological revolution?

Liliana Acosta: When you are a small or medium-sized company, I think it is necessary to focus on people, but not to neglect technology. We are always tempted to say that, due to the development of AI, new technologies, jobs are lost, but in reality it is not at all like that. People are the ones who eliminate jobs in companies. When you start a strategy based on artificial intelligence, you have to think: okay, this system can eliminate some jobs, but what do we do with that person? How can we move them to another role? That's what we have to think about all the time. It's not artificial intelligence that eliminates jobs, it's people who, through AI, eliminate jobs for other people.

Reporter: What is the role of digital education for employees in the face of cyber threats and what advice do you have for companies in implementing digital education?

Liliana Acosta: There are many people who trust technology too much. We need to be more discerning when it comes to technology, because technology is not neutral. Everything you do with new technology has a consequence. And, normally, people don't think about the final consequences. In the case of artificial intelligence, the consequences can be very big for communities, for people, for vulnerable groups. So we have to think carefully before we buy a system, before we give our data, before we start a strategy. We have to know what we don't want and what we want to do with that technology. People have too much trust in technology because they don't know what's behind it. They don't know what ChatGPT is or what's really behind this technology. So we have to educate people. First of all, we have to start with ethics from the design phase of a business or its scaling. Unfortunately, we have found that when purchasing new technologies, configuring new systems or networks, ethics is, like cybersecurity, always left at the end of the project. That's not right; I think we have to start with ethics. Every stage of a project must have ethics at its core. I think that is the most important thing: to have a consensus on what is moral or ethical in every step of the company's strategy.

• "Education or training of employees must start right from the first digitalization project of the company"

Reporter: How can artificial intelligence improve, and not replace, human judgment in the context of digital beliefs?

Liliana Acosta: Artificial Intelligence is much more productive than humans, and this is a sensitive topic in today's society. We can become more productive with the help of AI, for example in terms of creativity. Because a tool that you use now allows you to do in three minutes something that used to take three or four hours. But we must keep in mind that it is just a tool, a new technology. Because, if we do not take this aspect into account, AI creativity can lie to us, it can be biased, it can "hallucinate". We need to take the time to analyze what we have created and put our human touch on each product. It is not a question of replacing people with technology, but rather of thinking about how people can work with new technologies, how to make them stronger, more productive, through new technologies. From my point of view, this is a matter of philosophy and education, because otherwise everything is derided.

Reporter: When should education start?

Liliana Acosta: Right from the first digitalization project of the company. Because it is not the same to tell people: "ok, this is our strategy for the next two or three years, and you have to do this and that”. That is not education, that is imposition. Education means understanding the risks of technology, understanding the problems, understanding how you can go wrong. That is real education and it must exist from the beginning of the digitalization project.

Reporter: Unfortunately, the European Union member states spend billions of euros on digital transformation, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, without funding digital education and cybersecurity programs. For example, in Romania, very little money allocated through the PNRR for digitalization goes to digital education. What do you think should be done? Is it necessary for the European Commission to consult specialists in the future when they think about future programs or funds for digital transformation?

Liliana Acosta: I think that now we are living in a period in which everything you need is on the internet. For example, to participate in this event (ed. - Kaspersky Horizons, conference that took place in Madrid), I read several courses on cybersecurity to understand what we can discuss. So it is necessary to have a curiosity about the future. And curiosity about the future means looking for courses, information on the internet. Now, for example, IBM has many forums, Google has many trainings about data. We have the entire digital world at our disposal. And I think that companies now have a major role in educating employees. It is difficult, but it is the only way. From what I know, the European Commission has often consulted employers' associations, professional organizations and IT experts in making decisions and I think that this should continue, but I think that it is necessary for officials in Brussels to ensure that each EU member state accurately transposes into domestic law all the ethical principles contained in the European directives on DORA and NIS 2.

Reporter: Finally, what is your advice for SMEs, for the Union, for the future?

Liliana Acosta: I think we need to think before we act, because everything we do today can cost us a lot tomorrow.

Reporter: Thank you.