BUSINESS INSIGHT
way to catch up is to visit the Bristol Robotics Laboratory’s website (
www.brl.ac.uk) and explore the business engagement section (
www.brl.ac.uk/businessengagement.aspx) in particular.
Filling skills gaps You will be fascinated, and also heartened, by the great work that is going on with schools and young people. As productivity is such a challenge for the UK, the accessibility of STEM teaching to fill the skills gap is essential and something we at Relocate are driving. Professor Melhuish pointed out that businesses had the
opportunity to consider a set of technologies they could adapt to exploit opportunities. He emphasised that finding engineering talent was critical, and that we needed to address the issue, not only for the industries of today but also for the companies our grandchildren would work in. That prompted the question, what are we doing about the
companies of tomorrow? Universities, staff and students can create their own companies, but there is the issue of support and stability when they need to scale up. Professor Melhuish’s view was that enough was not being done to support potential. Such companies can walk away and join Google instead of staying and scaling up in the UK. In response, BAE Systems’ Chris Allam explained that the
company was investing a huge amount in education, including £60 million in a skills academy. The extent of BAE Systems’ commitment to the next generation of scientists and engineers is demonstrated on its website (
www.baesystems.com/en-uk/ our-company/education). “In the UK, we have fewer start-ups in automation and
robotics than almost any other country, and yet better education. We work with SMEs on education,” Chris Allam said. “We need more people doing that, because the results are amazing.”
Data and security Chris Melhuish, responding to a question about artificial intelligence, explained that there were indeed many “different flavours” of artificial intelligence. IBM’s Watson (an artificially intelligent computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language) digests huge volumes of data, but it is a statistical computation, which is a different approach. The concept of ‘deep learning’ is at
a different level. Yes, you need data, Professor Melhuish confirmed, and “any company not using data is doomed to failure. The problem with that is it exposes you to risks with security. It is not just all about automation.” Once you start helping robots work
with humans, those products will be vulnerable to security risk. Chris Allam confirmed that the threat was real, and that cybersecurity was at the top of the corporate agenda, and therefore businesses had to act responsibly. “Data is the future of all our businesses,” he said. Sky News’s Tom Cheshire asked whether regulation could help the
high-tech industries. “Beyond safety, regulation isn’t really appropriate,” Professor Melhuish said, while Deloitte UK senior partner and chief executive David Sproul added, “The customer will eventually impact what is successful and what fails. We need to go through that to get to the next phase. “It’s easy to get concerned about the social impact, but that’s
progress. We’re far better to embrace it and make sure we have the best ethics possible than try to make sure it doesn’t happen.” ABB’s Ian Funnell pointed out that robotics were intended
not to replace humans but to work effectively alongside them. “The YuMi robot is designed to work in collaboration with a human being, with the robot doing a set of probably more repetitive tasks. It’s useful in production processes, where it’s quicker than a human.” “It’s easy to paint a dystopian future,” said John Lewis’s Tom
Athron. “But humans and machinery will always be better than humans or machinery. “The safest way to manage data is just not to have any. That
can’t be the answer. The challenge is to find a balance between not using the data at all and unlocking its value. Use it to put ideas in customers’ minds that ref lect their needs,” he suggested.
SHOWCASE INNOVATION ACROSS YOUR ORGANISATION BY ENTERING THE RELOCATE AWARDS 2017
SEE PAGE 50.
For more highlights from the CBI Annual Conference 2016, visit
relocateglobal.com
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