Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, one of the premier business schools in the country, recently hosted Sapience 2024, its two-day annual management conclave. The theme for this year’s conclave was ‘AI for ALL’.

The conclave featured six domain panels and 27 speakers at CXO, VP, and Director levels from companies such as Grant Thornton, Publicis Groupe India, Kimberly Clark, BNY Mellon, Samsung India HME, S&P Global Market Intelligence, Hero MotoCorp, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, BlackRock, Centrum Wealth, YES Bank, Bharti Realty etc. The panels offered valuable insights into AI’s transformative role in business, highlighting the need for continuous learning in an AI-driven world.

In his special address, Dr. Jones Mathew, Head, and Principal, Great Lakes, Gurgaon, said “Sapience is about the sharing of wisdom and best practices to bridge the industry-academia parallel pathways so that they can converge for the best outcomes for industry, individuals and society at large. Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon has been hosting Sapience for more than a decade now to bring the best minds and practitioners from industry to interact with future managers in our classrooms. The theme “AI for ALL” was carefully chosen as AI is indisputably the future of business and life in general. Businesses are embracing AI rapidly. However, there is the fear that AI is for the powerful. The theme was chosen to find the routes businesses have taken to make AI more inclusive to make AI our ally: instead of Humans versus AI, the approach should be Humans with AI. The two-day conclave sparked creative thoughts, fostered new thinking, and enabled new connections.”

Key takeaways from the discussions highlighted AI’s crucial role across various sectors. The Finance panel emphasized AI’s importance in risk mitigation and fraud detection while underscoring the need for human insight in data interpretation. In marketing, AI was recognized for its role in decision-making and product development, though it was stressed that human empathy remains essential. The analytics panel focused on AI’s rapid advancement and its time-saving capabilities while cautioning against over-reliance on AI.

In HR, the necessity of maintaining the human element and developing cognitive skills like critical thinking was highlighted. Additionally, the entrepreneurship panel acknowledged AI’s potential to drive innovation and problem-solving, emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence and an experimental mindset. Overall, the discussions advocated for a human-centric approach to AI, particularly in enhancing operational efficiency through pattern recognition and predictive modeling.