If you own or work for a company that uses AI tools, does the business have rules in place for their use? Such as who can use which tool, what information can go into it, who reviews the output before a customer or client sees it, and who remains accountable for the final decision. Our next guest says that companies need to learn how to use these technologies more effectively and responsibly. Mike Switzer interviews Darrell Davis, founder of Davis AI Governance in Columbia, SC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Switzer: Hello, and welcome to the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer. If you own or work for a company that uses AI tools, which that's probably everybody now, does the business have rules in place for their use, such as who can use which tool, what information can go into it, who reviews the output before a customer or client sees it, and who remains accountable for the final decision? Our next guest says that companies need to learn how to use these technologies more effectively and responsibly. Darrell Davis is founder of Davis AI Governance, and he joins us by phone from his office in Columbia, South Carolina. Darrell, welcome to the program.
Davis: Hey, Mike, thank you for having me.
Switzer: So tell us how you got into this business of AI governance.
Davis: Last year, I was kind of deciding what my next step in my career path would be. currently at University of South Carolina, where I do technology. I deal with people, workflow, things of that nature. So started looking into what AI was bringing. I kind of been keeping up with it earlier that year, seeing some things kind of moving fast along, and was wondering, kind of exactly, it's awesome to have it, but wondering if companies are thinking about, should we have it, why would we have it? What should we do with it? I could tell a lot of people were moving fast on it, but not really grasping the liabilities or things that might come up later on once it becomes enterprise wise or enabled or pushed out through workflows. So, I looked into governance. Wake Forest was actually having a professional grad school program for a master's which covers enablement, governance and things. So started that journey, decided to take it a step further, created Davis AI Governance to kind of help agencies, companies and things adopt the usage of AI, understand the governance of it, understand the liabilities and the data, things that could possibly potentially be problematic, hopefully help people move along, not run from it, but move along with it and succeed.
Switzer: All right, well, let's start with some rules here then, that you've learned that you feel would be appropriate for a business to employ when they're using AI.
Davis: So some rules are not really if AI is necessary, but, why would it be necessary for them, for us? So usually a business can ask, okay, what's our problem? That's usually step one. Do we have a problem? Do we have any time management issues? Do we have any people change management issues? Do we have any things that we could tighten up that could help workflow, help save a little bit of money? So starting there, asking, what do you lack? Or what could you need? Then you go into what Part of AI could benefit this. You know, what, what type of AI could we use? And then you kind of go step by step from there so that you kind of track not overusing or underusing what you do need or what you might not need. So kind of helps businesses not overspend or underestimate or under budget and to use it professionally, but also responsibly. So definitely you want to see your problem. Then you want to ask what problem could be solved by what product? And then you can go from there, ask the people what people would use the product, who would test it. So you kind of create a pipeline that gets you to the result, you know, to the end of what the AI would do for you.
Switzer: And so basically you're saying that a business should have an AI policy from beginning to end.
Davis: So that is correct to some degree. It should have some sort of governance or some sort of guardrails that can protect the business, the customers, the clients, things of that nature.
Switzer: Well, can you go ahead and share with us a few of these guardrails that you have seen that businesses need to put into place?
Davis: One of the things that I've come up with is kind of like a client journey. Basically it's a green, yellow, red model. So the green is data that the company actually has that's low risk perceived, just monitor it. The yellow is basically one that needs controls, test and limit it. So you do a pilot conda. And then the red obviously would be more so high risk. Stop, clarify, let's escalate that kind of model. Kind of starts the business off to see exactly where they're at. You know, it's kind of like an audit. Then you get the data back, you kind of pump it around, move it around, see exactly what problems do exist, what don't. Then you kind of give them back like an assessment and you can start from there to kind of build up. I think this tool will help in this department. I think this prompt or this GBT will help with this ecosystem. And you kind of just scale it from there. And clearly, you know, there'll be prices and things that vary and how large it can be. I would definitely say starting with that model of the data and the risk and what actually is being used if the company is already using AI, if they're using it responsibly, and then you scale it from there and that kind of gets the businesses to start brainstorming and realizing, okay, we did kind of rush into this, maybe we got in over ahead, maybe this could be problematic, or maybe we don't need any of this to begin with. So that's kind of like the starter step on the bottom. And then you build your guardrails around that data, whether it's sensitive or more so insensitive information.
Switzer: Well, Darrell, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Davis: Thank you for having me, Mike. It's an honor to be here.
Switzer: Darrell Davis is founder of Davis AI Governance in Columbia. We will have a link to his company posted at our webpage so you can learn more SouthCarolinaPublicRadio.org or you can hear us again wherever you find podcasts. With the South Carolina Business Review, this is Mike Switzer.
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