AI Takes Center Stage at the 2024 NY AI Summit, Marking Mainstream Adoption
The 2024 AI Summit in New York, held each December, once again brought together industry leaders to discuss and showcase the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). This year's event drew over 4,000 participants and featured more than 200 speakers from leading organizations.
One of the key topics at the summit was the balancing act between innovation and responsibility in the financial sector, with Amy Jean Doherty, Chief Information Officer at The World Bank, leading the discussion. Matthew Fraser, Chief Technology Officer for the City of New York, also spoke about AI integration within the city's operations and initiatives aimed at enhancing public services through AI.
Ritika Gunnar, General Manager of Product Management for Data & AI at IBM, addressed the role of generative AI in transforming enterprise data into strategic assets. She provided insights into leveraging AI to drive productivity and innovation within organizations.
Matthew Fraser emphasized the city's commitment to technological innovation during his keynote, highlighting the city's AI projects that are well along the way and in operational use across all industries.
The summit also placed a significant focus on the healthcare sector's adoption of AI. Though not detailed in the summit-specific reports, broader AI trends include AI-assisted drug discovery, predictive maintenance in healthcare devices, and digital health personalization.
Nitin Mittal, Principal, Analytics & Cognitive Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP, spoke about how AI is becoming the "Fuel, The Fabric and The Future of Business." He discussed AI agents and agentic architectures, data platform innovation, networking improvements, and personalization as the leading trends in AI.
Suman Giri, Vice President & Global Head of Commercial Data Science and Analytics Solutions at Pfizer, discussed the transition from AI experimentation to full-scale production in life sciences, focusing on strategies for overcoming challenges in deploying AI solutions effectively.
Diane Hu, Senior Director of Engineering for Recommendations & Personalization at Etsy, shared how the company leverages AI to curate and personalize the shopping experience. AI chatbots and virtual assistants are also automating customer interactions in retail and e-commerce, improving service efficiency and engagement.
The summit emphasized the maturation of AI from research to pragmatic, scalable enterprise solutions across industries, with agentic AI, data platform innovation, networking improvements, and personalization leading the way. The importance of ecosystems, partner frameworks, and human-AI collaboration was also strongly highlighted.
Jim Rowan, Principal and Head of AI at Deloitte Consulting, and Kunal Madhok, EVP and Head of Data, Analytics & AI at Wells Fargo, explored generative AI trends shaping the next three years. The summit also included sessions on design and human-AI interaction.
AI-ready networks with intelligent NICs (network interface cards) and DPUs (data processing units) were highlighted as simplifying management and ensuring low-latency performance for data flows critical to AI agents. Partnerships with semiconductor companies focus on supporting heterogeneous accelerators for optimal AI compute.
Quantum AI is emerging as a growth area with applications in financial modeling, risk assessment, and drug discovery, positioning it as a significant future enabler for AI capabilities including the pursuit of artificial general intelligence.
In summary, the 2024 AI Summit in New York showcased AI projects in operational use across various industries, indicating that AI is already in use and shaping industries. The event underscored the importance of a balanced approach to AI, combining innovation with responsibility and human expertise, to unlock its full potential.
[1] Accenture. (2024). Accenture AI Agent Framework. Retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/us-en/services/ai-intelligence/ai-agent-framework
[2] Deloitte. (2024). State of AI in 2024: Key Trends and Applications. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/state-of-ai-2024.html
[3] IBM. (2024). IBM AI-Integrated Data Platforms. Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/cloud/data/ai-integrated-data-platforms
[4] Gartner. (2024). Predicts 2024: Generative AI and Personalization Will Drive Revenue Growth. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/predicts-2024-generative-ai-and-personalization-will-drive-revenue-growth
[5] Deloitte. (2024). AI-Ready Networks: Simplifying AI Management. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/ai-ready-networks.html
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a significant focus at the 2024 AI Summit in New York, where Ritika Gunnar, General Manager of Product Management for Data & AI at IBM, discussed the role of Generative AI in transforming enterprise data into strategic assets, emphasizing its potential to drive productivity and innovation within organizations. Furthermore, the summit highlighted AI-ready networks with intelligent NICs (network interface cards) and DPUs (data processing units) as technologies that simplify management and ensure low-latency performance for data flows critical to AI agents, underscoring their importance in advancing AI capabilities.
