Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/1194327
www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 11 Ai DefenCe MEANER to perceive their environments and subse- quently use the collected sensory data to make cognitive decisions. These systems fall along a broad spectrum that is based on their predictive power as well as the com- plexity of the problem they are aiming to solve. On the more elementary end of the scale, AI systems may be hardwired, hu- man-in-the-loop variants that do not learn from their interactions and simply advise humans in making decisions by using de- terministic, rules-based predictions. On the opposite and more advanced end, AI sys- tems may be fully autonomous and adap- tive to their environments, acting without any human intervention and actively learn- ing from their actions. As these systems tend toward the latter type and make use of more sophisticated machine-learning tech- niques, they begin to realize the potential of not only automating but also improving conventional human decision-making pro- cesses. Irrespective of predictive power or prob- lem complexity, though, AI systems are not single solutions and therefore must be cu- rated to address specific business priorities and requirements. For defence organiza- tions that operate with traditional back- office functions, this means there are many opportunities to deploy AI solutions at scale across a wide variety of business applica- tions. From intelligent agents and chatbots deployed within finance or HR functions to connected military supply chains driven by data collected from the Internet of Things (IoT), AI has the power to enhance how both public and private-sector companies within the defence industry do business. While by no means exhaustive, the fol- lowing list of defence-related business use cases is intended to offer a glimpse into the potential benefits and impact that may be derived when AI is adopted to complement the human workforce in more administra- tive roles. Human resources is an area ripe for trans- formation with AI. The primary opportuni- ties centre around intelligently automating time-consuming tasks related to recruit- ment, resource deployment and workforce management. For instance, recruit screen- ing and service-eligibility reviews for mili- tary personnel are tasks that can easily be automated by using AI in conjunction with technologies such as Robotic Process Auto- mation (RPA). Other AI-enabled solutions include optimizing local and global resource deployment for military personnel using mission analytics, managing copious human capital inquiries using chatbots and coordi- nating individual and team schedules using virtual assistants. It is worth mentioning