How Decision Intelligence is Transforming the Way of Doing Business

Decision Intelligence is something which becomes a game-changing aspect for any business. Here is an exclusive interview with Atul Sharma – Co-founder & CTO, Peak, in which you may learn some key trends in this domain. Atul founded Decision Intelligence company Peak in 2015 with Richard Potter and David Leitch. He has played a pivotal role in shaping Peak's Decision Intelligence platform. 

Edited excerpts:

Faiz Askari: How is decision intelligence revolutionizing the way companies make decisions?

Atul Sharma: Decision Intelligence (DI) will instigate the same kind of change in businesses as the internet did, and electricity before that. It will fundamentally change how we run our businesses. 

Companies are producing more data than ever before and we’ve got very good at modeling it, reading it in dashboards, and reporting on it. But most of us are looking at historical data and using that to inform future decisions. 

It’s an approach that’s worked for us since before the last recession, but we’re living in a different world now. Changing consumer behaviour, supply chain distribution, and market volatility; all make it increasingly difficult to identify trends. Our dashboards showing historical data aren’t as useful to us as they once were – what happened three months ago has no correlation anymore with what might happen in three months’ time. 

That’s where artificial intelligence and DI come in. Artificial intelligence can analyse far more data than we can and it can do it in real-time. With more data available, it can add a predictive layer, so we’re no longer analysing historical data manually but instead have real-time access to a set of probabilistic outcomes i.e., predictions on what might happen next. 

Decision Intelligence takes this one step further. It is the application of AI to decision-making and provides businesses with tools to turn that predictive insight into actions – decisions. 

Perhaps the biggest change long-term will be for leaders and decision-makers themselves. As we move toward a world where Decision Intelligence is standard, then business leaders will need to move from a less deterministic management style to a more probabilistic approach. Instead of questioning the experience of the team making a recommendation, they’ll instead need to ask questions in the context of the predictive analytics they’re receiving, “If the model thinks that highly unlikely, why are you recommending this?” 

What is the scope of decision intelligence in India?

The scope of Decision Intelligence in India is huge. Peak’s recent State of AI report showed that Indian businesses are more advanced than the UK and US when it comes to adopting AI. Indian enterprises typically reached maturity behind their peers in Europe and the US, which means our businesses tend to be digital-first. We have modern tech stacks and aren’t burdened by legacy tech that needs to be retrofitted to facilitate AI deployment. Because of this, India could lead the world when it comes to the adoption of Decision Intelligence. 

How is AI powering decision intelligence?

Decision Intelligence is a type of AI, it’s the commercial application of AI to commercial decision-making. Machine learning models analyse huge amounts of data to determine patterns and identify likely future scenarios, and then there’s an intelligence layer sitting on top of that that uses those insights to recommend actions.

Are companies in India receptive to adopting such advanced technologies?

Yes! Peak is working with a range of Indian companies in sectors including manufacturing, financial services, and real estate. 

We’ve found that Indian companies have a huge appetite and ambition when it comes to AI. Indian businesses also typically have an advantage – they run on newer technologies, are data literate, and have access to some of the best engineering and data science talent in the world. 

Commercial AI is still in its infancy. The majority of businesses – even those investing heavily in AI – still haven’t successfully deployed it. For Indian businesses that are now starting their AI journey and can skip a step to do that with Decision Intelligence, it’s a really exciting time. Since DI can be implemented relatively quickly and delivers against a business need, there’s every possibility that Indian businesses that adopt it now could catch up to or even eclipse the ‘early adopters of AI that have been focusing on outdated applications and struggling to deploy it. 

PLease share your observati8on on the future of decision intelligence in India?

As AI matures, more businesses will start to understand that insight from their data could be leveraged to a huge competitive advantage. These companies will stop looking at AI as a supportive technology that can be used to track and deliver on targets, and instead, apply it to decision making. As they start outperforming the market, we’ll see even more changes at a business level as others move to follow their example. 

The next few years will be exciting for the Decision Intelligence category as the technology moves into mainstream adoption. DI will change how we run our business.