The Human-Centred AI Revolution: Toju Duke's Framework for Responsible Business Transformation

Toju, you've been recognized as one of the top women in AI and have an impressive background spanning Google's Responsible AI program, founding multiple AI businesses, and authoring influential books. Can you start by telling us what drives your passion for AI transformation?

AI is such a fundamental technology, and I previously used to say it's a tool, but I've been corrected by a lot of people now. It used to be a tool, so it's not just a tool that we use at work, it's something that is almost overshadowing our everyday lives. It's covering both personal and business side of things. Thinking about AI and where it is today, comparing to where it was 5 years ago, and even fast, you know, backtrack even before 5 years ago, way back into the 1950s when the term was even coined by Alan Turing and his friends in Dartmouth University, and then fast forward into today and probably the next 5 to 10 years, it's taken such leaps and bounds that have gone beyond any forward thinkers or any futurists or any predictions, and it's going at such a very fast, rapid pace that of course sometimes it's a bit concerning, but it's really transforming lives, both positively and negatively. So it's a very important part of life now that has really been ingrained and integrated into everyday life, that it's not something that can be ignored. I got interested in AI about 5, 6 years ago when I could just see potential and the capabilities that it especially the potential to solve the world's top problems and global challenges. And I could just see that. And that's what got me into the field in the first place. And knowing that it still has that potential today to transform businesses, right, and drive, you know, customer satisfaction and loyalty and yield, you know, return on investment, improve productivity and efficiencies, and even help people on a personal level is quite exciting. But of course, on the flip side, it also has challenges. It still has a lot of teething problems that need to be addressed. And looking at it from an overall AI business transformation kind of scope or framework, it just helps put things in the right place so that we know how to actually work with this new system and this new revelation that has come to invade our lives, you know, very unprecedented and people were really not ready for it. But there's a way we can all navigate the system and yield positive results.

You've developed a comprehensive AI for strategic business transformation framework, which you touched on. Can you walk us through the core elements that make it unique?

Yeah, so it's something I've been thinking about recently is like, well known for responsible AI, I've been working on responsible AI, but at the same time, there's a lot of things around strategic business innovation that people have not really thought about. So the AI business transformation framework that I'm thinking of and that I've kind of like scoped out really focuses on a human-centered approach. And it's looking at, looking at it from a three-way system. So, you know, we're thinking about processes and automation, and we're also thinking about talent. So the human human side of things, and then the overlying layer underneath it should be responsible AI. So responsible AI feeded into automation and optimization, which ideally feeds into the talent. And talent covers, you know, the employees. We want to think about upskilling and reskilling, thinking about human intelligence and emotional intelligence versus AI and artificial intelligence, and the responsible AI elements that will help make a business, you know, stand out from competition, help build loyalty, and still help them adhere to existing regulations while retaining, you know, their customers, driving customer loyalty, and at the same time retaining the attrition rate or reducing the attrition rate of their employees and having some form of cultural change towards the workforce. So we're not leaving the workforce behind and just driving, you know, efficiency and business efficiency and operational efficiency and forgetting the people. Who are actually behind all of this. And just thinking about how we can bring in all the different functions together, right? From, you know, the tech functions to HR, to finance, and every other function that lies within an organization. Thinking about the overall cultural change, you know, the AI literacy programs that need to be driven across the organization, the feedback loops and processes where employees can actually feedback to, you know, the organization on the AI processes that they're working with, or even come up with new ideas that can drive further business efficiency and profitability across the organization. And all of that works with an underlying layer of responsible AI.

What kind of results can organizations expect to see when they implement this framework?

It's a whole spectrum, and I think it's really the results, the goals that any organization would like to have, right? You know, thinking about return on investment, thinking about customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, thinking about employee satisfaction, thinking about the operational gains and efficiency gains and productivity across employees, productivity across the organization, and Last but not the least, standing out from competition. That competitive edge will always keep you, you know, on the edge and, you know, ahead of the game above everything else. And also thinking about regulation, right? Because with AI now there's regulation coming up and being able to stay compliant to regulation. And I think, you know, just park on regulation a little bit. What I've observed is that a lot of organizations feel like with regulation, it just has to be very regimented. You just have to have a governance team and just work on it according to the regulation. Not necessarily. If you have the right responsible responsible AI frameworks and processes in place, it will fit in nicely into regulation without you needing to understand exactly what the EU AI Act says. For instance, they all cover the same principles that need to be covered for safe and trustworthy AI. And if you already implement that from the start or even in the middle, but thinking about making sure your responsible AI processes— and it's not just around privacy and compliance and risk assessment, but you're thinking about, you know, explainability and transparency and fairness, which is reduced biases, then it covers the overall spectrum. At the end of the day, the trust customers have in your brand, your brand reputation, and in your products will increase because right now the trust in AI is reducing and is reducing at a very fast and alarming rate, which means if you're actually driving AI in your products, your customers are probably getting a bit more wary and a bit more less loyal to your products now because you're another AI company. Company working with AI. And if you're able to show them some form of transparency and show them some form of responsibility in your processes, then you'll be able to retain your customers and even have new customers. At the same time, you're not losing your employees. And if you decide to reduce your workforce for whatever reason, including AI, you're still able to maintain the confidence that your employees have in your organization and the loyalty as well. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's a win-win situation, but there needs to be due diligence. In working with these sort of strategies.

So responsible AI is central to your approach. How does this differentiate your transformation framework from others in the market?

So I don't know if you noticed in the framework I mentioned, the AI transformation framework, which is quite similar to the digital transformation framework. I mean, the main difference is, is that we're including AI into automation. But the underlying layer that I mentioned is the responsible AI piece. And I think that's what's been missing in a lot of AI transformation processes that exist right now. The human element I feel is missing. And that's something that we seem to be getting carried away with. AI, of course, is not human. It's a product of, you know, human creativity and, um, and human powers. But at the end of the day, it's all— it's almost making us lose that focus on our humanity and that focus on the strengths that humans bring to the table, because it's actually automating work. And sometimes the results are much better than what humans can do. And I think that's where we need to take a step back and think about the human element in the overall processes. And it's not just about not displacing your human workforce and replacing them with AI. No, it's about the overall process and their approach towards bringing the humans in your organization along with your overall AI transformation process, thinking about how you upskill and reskill them and how you make sure that AI literacy is part and parcel of your overall AI strategy. That's the human element. Then thinking about the humans in your customers as well, right? When you're thinking about customer satisfaction and having a cookie and remarketing ads to them, it's about the human who's actually a part of your overall business goals, the people that you need to sell to. So that human element needs to be plugged into any AI business transformation process right now. And I do feel that that has really been missing. And this is where this particular approach that I've mentioned sets it apart.

You've authored two influential books on responsible AI. How do these support your transformation work?

The books are great. I mean, I wish I could just tell people, you know, don't ask me any questions, just get a copy of the book and read it, and that will, you know, break everything down. So with Responsible AI, it's a very— for me, it's a very clear-cut approach. It's, you know, it's looking at it with the 8 different principles that I talked about in my framework and seeing how you can actually implement them and mitigate any violations or risks or harms that you have identified in your AI models that you're either working with or the AI models that were built in your organization. The books break that down and they give a lot of clarity on the field of responsible AI in the first place. It's such a small field and the knowledge is not well known, you know, across the world. You don't hear a lot of people talking about responsibility in general, right? And you wouldn't hear a lot of people talking about responsible AI. And I think a lot of people are in the dark on that subject matter. But it's key. It's really, it should really be core part and parcel of any AI process. And if you don't care, then think about regulation. And if you don't care about regulation, then think about your brand reputation. And if you don't care about your brand reputation, think about your customers. Because at the end of the day, you know, having the right approach towards AI implementation is critical and thinking about it from a responsible AI point of view and applying the overall principles to it is critical. And the books break this down. So the very first book is like an introduction. It's almost like beginner level, you know, it's very easy. You do not need to be in any field, particular field, to understand it. You do not need to be tech savvy. Just care about yourself, really. I'm not even going to say care about the world because as long as you have access to the internet now, you know, you're liable to having some form of AI understanding and knowledge. And that the book just talks about it. There's so many real-life practical examples of, you know, how AI is beneficial, but at the same time how AI has messed up people's lives. And the second book takes it a bit further. So we look into AI governance and the regulations that are across the world, especially in the West. And then we break it out into how to actually investigate and detect any AI risks in your models or in your operations and how to actually mitigate them. So it's really the next level up. And for this book, you might need to be a bit tech savvy or just have a genuine curiosity on what to do. And if you want to take it a step further, then you'll be able to.

With all the AI hype in the market, how do you help organizations separate substance from speculation?

I think it goes back to the overall AI business transformation sort of framework and how you communicate this to the different organizations and to the overall ecosystem, including your customers. We know now that, you know, in the AI gold rush, some people are claiming to be running AI and they're not. We've heard about an organization who has gone bankrupt now because they, you know, they claimed that they were actually building and using AI agents, but then in the background they actually had, you know, developers in India working real time, building, writing the code. And that's not the first organization I've heard of. That's just one of the first that has actually gone bankrupt. So I think the truth and the honesty is quite important, but communication on what's actually happening, which is something that's usually quite missing. You know, people try to like conceal information for different reasons, but having the right, you know, communication around, you know, your, your plans, your roadmap, your product roadmap, plans you have to integrate AI into your organization and how you're going to work with your customers to help them adopt these processes. And understand the overall workflow. I was at an event recently and, you know, after the, after the talk, someone came up to me and, and the VP of the organization and just said, look, I'm still, I'm still at a loss on where to start. I do not know how to create a workflow with AI. There's just too much information out there. And I did tell the VP of the organization, you need to work with your customers, right? You need to be able to have a help center, have tutorials and break it down. You are the one building these AI tools for your customers. They need to know what to do. They need to be able to see the end-to-end combination of the end-to-end workflow, right, on what they need to do and how they need to do it for their small businesses. And you need to help them. And they're totally aware of that. It's something they're working on. But I think with all the, all the overall things that people need to work on, some things get deprioritized. It's one thing to be trying products at your customers and say it's using AI. It's another thing to bring them along to help them actually understand what AI is using and how they can use it to enable their businesses. And I think working with that mindset of of wanting to help your customers and not just take money out of them. It's quite important. And I think approaching it with this sort of approach, or, you know, this sort of strategy, will really make your business stand out. And it should just prove your credibility, especially in this, in these current times where everyone now is, uh, is working on AI and we're having the AI gold rush.

You've also launched educational initiatives. How does this support organizational transformation?

It's a great thing for me because then there's additional resources that people can lean on just to, you know, implement overall processes that really make the organization stand out. So we've got the books there, and that's there for everyone to use. It's available, accessible, very cheap in my opinion. And then we have the courses, which is even cheaper than the books because it's an overall course and it just breaks everything down. So if you don't want to read a book, which will probably take you a longer time to complete, a course that's just over an hour. The courses are available breaking out, you know, the responsible AI pieces, but then the AI business transformation certification course will soon be released as well. That can give people more collateral content to be able to break out and work with these processes. And I keep on emphasizing AI literacy is a must, whether the EU AI Act says it or not. We are in a new technological revolution that we have never seen before. No one knows what's happening, and AI is now part and parcel of our lives. So the onus is on organizations and individuals to equip themselves with the right knowledge to need. To navigate the overall AI, you know, wild, wild storm, right? And part of it is equipping yourself for the courses. And responsible AI, I'll keep on emphasizing, is a very important skill set or knowledge to have in the overall AI, you know, processes and AI revolution, because it would just give you the right knowledge and the soft skills that sets you apart from the robots. Because right now it almost sounds like we're all gonna start sounding the same if we're all using ChatGPT. Claude to write our collateral and to speak, they're all going to end up sounding the same. And who sounds like the same across the world? It's robots. So having these sort of soft skills and this knowledge that is not really, you know, around hard skills or around skills that you need to just execute, but it's really around the emotional intelligence, critical thinking skills that really AI can never provide, gives you that extra edge that you need to work in your workplace and just to even make decisions for your life overall.