Overcome the fear of messing up: Durham College AI Hub course for executives helps address barriers to businesses adopting AI

When it comes to adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), businesses have two fears: missing out and messing up.

To tackle that second fear—messing up— and ensure that businesses don’t miss out on the transformative power of AI, Durham College’s AI Hub has partnered with the Council of Canadian Innovators to launch the AI Guide Program. The innovative program is a six-week intensive executive development program for non-technical professionals in Canada’s business and innovation sectors, including leaders in HR, sales, operations and public affairs.

“One of the things that was coming up again and again with companies and individuals was this trepidation around adopting AI in a responsible way,” explains AI Hub Senior Manager Natalie Arthurs. “These sticky issues of governance, responsible AI ethics, how data is being used, those are the issues that a lot of non-technical leaders and executives grapple with and it’s creating an impediment to moving forward with AI.”

Dr. Priyamvada Tripathi, a DC faculty member who teaches AI and data analytics, is the lead instructor for the program. She explains the 90-minute online sessions will feature a series of industry guest speakers who will bring practical scenarios to the table.

“We’re getting real-world perspectives and the guest speakers have the experience of how AI is being implemented, what are the road blocks to adoption and how to balance all the concerns about AI with innovation,” said Tripathi.

That means the course will focus on practicalities and business concerns like key performance indicators and value generation.

“How do you balance all that, how do you remain ethical while not losing out on the race to adopt AI,” she said. “Especially for us Canadians, how do we stay competitive while maintaining our core values?”

The program targets non-technical leaders because in many cases they are the people making overarching decisions for businesses.

“We’re helping address the fear of messing up component here by giving people that literacy, by giving them hands-on, real-world case studies and session leaders who have been there, done that,” Arthurs adds.

The AI Guide Program runs between October 23 and November 27. Registration closes October 13.