Over recent years, we’ve seen more and more automation creeping into our lives. Think Telsa’s self-driving care, chatbots and smart assistants like Siri or Alexa.
AI, robotics and other forms of smart automation have the potential to boost the global GDP by $15tn by 2030. Companies are starting to implement AI practices across their organisation to simplify, streamline and enhance their operations.
So how will this affect our working lives? And is it for the best?
A report from PwC found that women workers could be more affected by automation over the next decade, but male jobs could be more at risk in the longer term. The report also found that by the mid-2030s, 44% of workers with low education were at risk of automation.
We catch up with Yoleidy Carvajal, Head of Strategic Marketing, Artificial Solutions. Yoleidy is a leading specialist in Conversational AI and is involved in driving inclusion and diversity initiatives within the company as part of the diversity committee and externally by involving partners, customers, and other professionals on the #AIAllies program – a network of leaders supporting women in tech.
Yoleidy takes us on an AI journey to find out how it’s transforming the workplace, what to expect from an AI interview and whether AI could rebel from humans.
hello everyone and thank you for tuning
in I am Kaylee Bateman the content
director at chican code and today we are
discussing artificial intelligence and
whether or not it is bias now over
recent years we’ve seen more and more
automation creeping into our lives AI
Robotics and other forms of smart
automation have the potential to boost
the global GDP by 15 trillion by 2030. a
recent report from PWC found that women
workers could be more affected by
automation over the next decade but male
jobs could be more at risk in the longer
term the report also found that by the
mid-2030s 44 of workers with low
education were at risk at automation so
how will AI affect our working lives and
is it for the best now thankfully we’ve
got gel lady Carvajal head of strategic
marketing at artificial solutions to
dive into this with us today welcome to
Lodi
thank you so much for having me Kaylee
and I’m super excited to be here today
chatting with you and as you say yeah my
name is still lady Carvajal and I’ve
been working in conversation I I for
almost 15 years
with artificial Solutions and yeah
during this time I had the opportunity
to meet and learn from so many great
women but at the same time recognize
that we could be many more in the in
this industry so nowadays I love to be
involved in any initiative that can
support increasing diversity or closing
the Gap in the industry and of course
inspiring younger generations to follow
our steps can I ask you a little bit
about your background and how you came
into Tech and also into this area or
obviously it’s quite Niche so what what
is your background there so I’m
originally from Venezuela but I’ve been
living in Spain for over 15 years and I
think I had a good influence from my
family
there is a lot I have three sisters and
one brother my dad was into math and he
was an economist my mom is really into
you know letters and he’s a lawyer so I
got a really a good mix between them and
so I never was really limited I think by
my family on you know this is how you
what you should be achieving I had a
great little figures which I think it’s
essential for women to have and that’s
something that I am very adamant to to
continue with my kids as well
but uh as soon as I I actually had a you
know a weird experience at school they
would give me a psychological test to
see you know what would be the best fit
fit for a career
and I the psychologist said well you
actually can you know go into any Fields
because it’s sort of balanced and that
didn’t help so I went first for you know
I need to study something because I’m
not sure myself what I want to do it’s I
think it’s a very hard decision to take
when you’re 16 18 years old so I’m just
gonna go into something that I know I
can work afterwards so I went into
business business management and I made
it took a minor in I.T because I said
you know business always going to be
there I.T always going to be their
Technologies it’s going to be in our
lives
so that’s going to at least give me a
job and I continue to specialize and
then went into marketing digital
marketing and I I was lucky enough to
land on a technology company and then
learn the whole conversation I had a
industry and I just fell in love with it
so that’s more or less my background but
yeah to summarize Role Models it’s it’s
you know like the most important thing I
think that we can live for for younger
Generations
yeah yes definitely
um and it’s that visibility isn’t it and
just knowing that those people are in um
or women are in Tech roles and what they
do and understanding what that role is
um and knowing you know it whether or
not it’s for you or not and being able
to see it
um and be it
um so our conversation today uh focuses
on artificial intelligence and there has
been a lot of back and forth
um over this conversation
um do you think it will lead to mass
unemployment or is that a myth
it this is always a controversial
subject but I think it’s nothing that we
haven’t heard before any technological
Advance has created some sort of a
crisis in terms of employment but I
think it also has created an opportunity
to rescue and to sort of shape and as we
evolve as a society for example when
machines were introduced to help with
agriculture people working the fields
lost their jobs but new jobs were
created to build and maintain those
machines at the same time with the
technology or the bid of AI that we do
conversation AI we’re helping business
automate processes which means that
sometimes the people that were working
on those processes will be affected but
we have a very good examples of clients
or of ours that have managed to reskill
those people so people that were working
for example in a call center and some of
them were not replaced but some of the
work that they were doing is covered now
but an automated two have been reskilled
and now they are developing the
solutions and maintaining the solutions
and you know what to like the employee
from the employees point of view that’s
also a much more satisfying job than
just answering the phone every you know
every every day and repeating the same
answers and which can be done by a
machine and I think customers are also
uh thankful for that because they can
just do everything faster whenever they
need it instead of just having to to be
limited by the schedule of alcohol
Center for example
yeah yeah you’re absolutely right I’m in
the sense that every time there is some
sort of Technology advancement and it
does cause a storm energy people do
worry
um not just about their jobs but how
things are going to change nobody likes
change it doesn’t have to just be
technology in the next sector but the
tech sector moves so fast as well as I
think it’s keeping up with all the
advancements
um uh causing a storm every time that
something happens and how is AI
transforming the workplace
I was you know I would love to say that
yeah it’s transforming it completely but
as you say technology moves so fast that
is really it like we are not fully aware
of all the transformation and how easy
technology is making our lives
um we use technology every day that may
have ai embedded on it without even
realizing it and for us it’s you know
it’s sort of a black box that we use it
it works we don’t you know like the
regular
your user won’t even try to think about
who it’s what’s behind the the curtain
it’s just that is it working is it not
working so they might not think of AI of
helping the their lives in there but it
to me AI it in businesses is all around
efficiency it’s about making everything
that we do more efficient to work uh
with less and do more
a for in our case you know like
customers are getting a consistent
experience
they don’t have to go and like no matter
what channel they pick they will still
get the same experience hopefully and
that will make them a happier and more
loyal to your brand employees can rely
on AI to create a central repository so
they are happy because they don’t need
to be training very
um often and they can always have the
most up-to-date information and then
businesses can do more with less so they
are also happy to implement these
Solutions if they’re making their
customers happier their employee is
happy it’s you know it’s a no-brainer
almost
yes yes because it is as you mentioned
about efficiency rather than
um a threat I think it is
um but when you you know shine a light
on it in in that way
um it definitely uh it definitely has a
lot of positives attached to it
um can you give us some examples of how
companies use AI within their hiring
process
yes we actually have a client in the US
it’s called grade three and it’s a 24 is
seven healthcare staffing agency that
offer Staffing Solutions to healthcare
facilities
they work on 12 states in the US and
have been operating for over 20 years
and the way that they’re using
conversational AI is to support
candidates through the job application
and interview process
so it’s not it it’s not that they’re
using AI to interview when to interview
them that it’s a just you know as an
extra support case they have any
questions regarding roles regarding how
does it work when I’m Gonna Get You know
a yes or no on whether my application
has been accepted and so on so it’s
always it’s almost like an extra
employee that’s always there trying to
provide support for the applicant and
the goal is to automate and reduce
disengagement on increase the customer
experience in the recruitment process so
if someone has a question that they
might not know how to continue or when
they’re filling out an application form
the the bot can provide that information
to them and if the bot wasn’t there they
probably would just shut it down and say
okay I’ll try to get back to them
tomorrow or something like that so by
the by the if the solution is there then
they have a source of information
available at any time and that is proven
to be really helpful
another example that I I just thought of
is a Google has a tool to practice for
interviews so I mean I’m I’m a fan of
Google in in some instances and for some
products is some other I’m not so much
of a fan especially when we get about
privacy and all that but it you know
having the ability to to have a free
tool that you can use to practice for
interviews and you ask sample questions
to evaluate your answer and identifies
report Improvement I think it’s awesome
you can never have enough practice so
that’s another way that AI can be used
on recruitment
so in theory then if companies are using
um AI for recruitment it should remove
any bias there you know if there’s
anything
um I remember hearing a great story
about an orchestra uh that every time
that they recruited for somebody
um they found that it was very male
dominated so they uh when they recruited
people for the orchestra they decided to
start doing this behind a curtain and
getting people to remove their shoes so
you couldn’t hear if it was a lady
walking in in heels and once they did
that they found actually the orchestra
suddenly became you know 50 50 gender
split and even though those people might
not have realized that they were doing
it on purpose there was some kind of
um unconscious bias going there going on
there
um but if companies are using AI surely
that that has been removed or or is it I
would love to say that there is a way to
remove bias 100 but at the end of the
day a solution even if he has machine
learning it’s programmed by a human and
we as humans our brains are designed to
organize information we receive through
our Senses Into boxes or tags and that
information it’s a
based on the our own experience and as
everything you can evolve it can change
as we learn more and we become you know
more educated but we will always have an
opinion on subjects
so I I believe you know like the best
way to decrease bias is actually to
bring diversity into the into the
development of these Solutions so that
the teams need to be diverse they need
to have people from different
backgrounds different points of views
because that at the end of the day will
become part of the solution and make it
you know more diverse which is what
we’re trying to do
as you were saying you know like the
orchestra example
um by removing the visual they only have
to rely on their ears and just
categorizes like is this you know from
my experience is this good is this bad
but the most
systems they are very logical so they
will look very specific specific
patterns and they don’t take into
account you know like empathy or Charm
or stuff like that that really makes a
difference when you’re trying to hire
someone and and at the end of the day
that person is going to be talking and
working with other humans they’re not
going to be working with an AI so they
need to feed into the team yeah and
whether you can relate with somebody and
and you know you’re told to show your
personality aren’t you in an interview
um and it’s not always about the skills
that you know but whether or not that
the person that’s interviewing you
thinks you know will you fit in with our
company culture
um which obviously is you might not be
able to show
um in an interview if it’s just dumper
AR perhaps of the first initial
screening phase
um to get you through to to talk to um a
human
um you mentioned about uh companies are
not actually
um using robots to you know into
interview somebody I take it it’s not
you would get to you know through to a
certain stage of your interview and
suddenly you are
um your interview is conducted by a
robot I take it that is not what happens
it could be I mean I I you know like as
as I was saying technology goes so fast
companies are trying different things it
might be that in some ways companies are
using AI to do some sort of like a first
filter
to because they are getting like an a
huge amount of applicants and they need
to sort of focus on the ones that it
might be the most fit for the position
so if they’re doing that I think it
could be a good tool but they are also
risking
um
losing some good candidates that
might not be as comfortable as talking
to an AI solution as an interview if if
that’s the case or even you know like
nowadays you do a CV and some of the CVS
get scanned and basically run through an
AI to identify okay based on the CV
these are the you know like the closest
Feed to what your offer is so in that
case you sort of have to think like a
robot if if that’s the case of the
company that you’re trying to apply for
focus on the keywords and try to mimic
the language of the company that will
also help because they’re just basically
trying to get a match so if you get your
CV to close as much as you can
um to the offer that they’re putting out
there then it makes it easier for the
system to identify you as a match
I’m not a fan of that because I I think
you know the human component it’s still
very important and even if I’m you know
a part of a computer company that works
on AI that uh we not everything needs to
be automated and that’s something that
we always say that as much as we you
know this is our business and we want to
help businesses not everything needs to
be automated we need to pick our our
battles and what we want to focus on yes
yes and those things that are automated
and as we mentioned already you know
interview processes they are created by
humans as you touched upon earlier and
so surely you know some of our biases
are they can they’re guarantee creep in
um how can we resolve that how can we
make sure that that doesn’t happen
one thing that uh we have we’re doing
internally we don’t use um
AI for recruitment but we have a
committee and like a diversity committee
inside the company so we
come together look at the offers and try
to figure out you know what’s the best
language and to to be using how do we
identify and these uh meetings we have
very regularly and then evaluate the
performance of our job offers and
whether they’re attracting more male or
female
um applicants to that and it’s a you
know it’s a never-ending work and
especially in this industry that’s very
technical and some of the technical
roles are very challenging for us to try
to bring more females for example
but if you really you know are
passionate about this you are trying to
find a way as soon as you’re working on
it I think that’s the best that you can
do
so that’s that’s at least how we
approach it inside our company yeah yeah
you were touching on a little bit there
about um diversity and ensuring that
there is a diversity that’s working on
it and but could AI help improve
diversity and inclusion within the tech
sector as a whole or do you think it’s
you know just one element of of
um something that needs to be you know
quite a lot needs to be done within the
tech sector to to improve diversity and
inclusion so do you think that’s just
one part I don’t think AI by itself can
do that but people working with it
within technology and in the technology
industry can use their position to
improve diversity and inclusion so I
think it’s a top-down company decision
but also a personal one uh you know you
have a commitment as a company to work
on diversity manifestos and to try to do
initiatives of that but also as a you
know as a female working in this
industry I can decide to get involved in
other initiatives outside my company if
I truly believe that so if you if it’s
something that you know you’re aware of
you believe in it and you think you can
make a difference then it does I think
much more valuable than what AI can do
AI it’s you know it’s usually for most
businesses unless they’re making money
out of it it’s a it’s really hard for
them to say okay no we’re going to be
just doing this for the good of it so I
think it comes down to humans much more
than machines yes yeah I agree and um
what trends do you see in the future for
AI where do you see it going
uh I think it you know like one of the
areas that has the largest potential is
not so much
um not not Explorer but tap into it is
Data inside and data analysis with the
expansion and the inclusion of social
media
everyone in in the world has a voice and
can potentially reach anyone else in the
world so just tapping into that from a
business point of view
can help you figure out Trends can help
you on really understand what you know
the problems with your products are
where you need to be offering clients
and when and so on so that part it’s you
know part of what we do and we just take
it from this when the system and the
person are having a conversation all
that data uh we provide to our
businesses as well to our clients and
then they can get insights from that but
in a larger scale I think there is so
much that customers and clients are
saying out there and business haven’t
really taken the job to just listen to
people there are sometimes who are very
put our set on our ways and we just need
to start listening to clients and people
at the end people more yes yeah and if
AI is um very much data analytics data
and Analysis if if you’re looking to go
into a career in AI is that something
you know a skill that perhaps if you
already do that and you’re thinking
about moving into a different area
um is that something that you know our
listeners might be considering a career
in artificial intelligence
um do the two connect there or are there
any other skills that you think would be
valuable for our listeners I think I am
you know like I see nowadays because I
have two small children that a
countries and and society as a whole
it’s recognizing more than the need for
them to start early so they get you know
like robotic classes which we didn’t at
that time but I I would suggest to you
know like women that are trying to get
into technology to think that
even if we didn’t have technology
company you’re going to need accountants
you’re going to need you know Finance
people you’re going to need lawyers so
don’t limit yourself to only technical
roles because there is still a place for
Women Within technology companies
outside the products Department
that said a you know I I don’t think at
the beginning of your journey or your
career you know for sure what you want
to do with your life because that was my
experience at least
so just try try text you know test out
there are so many tools right now that
you can that can help you learn how to
code that can help you you know like for
example build a chatbot that you can
just try and see if you like it don’t
limit yourself that’s my suggestion I
think um we don’t need to put any more
limits in for ourselves the world will
do a lot of that for us so we don’t need
to do it ourselves yes yeah so you don’t
have to be technical to go into AI
because it sounds incredibly technical
but as you just mentioned there there
are lots of roles within an AI company
where you could have yourself working on
projects and to do with artificial
intelligence but you’re not necessarily
the technical person okay because it
sounds incredibly daunting to say you
know what your job is and you know where
you work well I have to say you know
like within our industry there is a role
which is conversational design liner and
those are the people of course there is
a technical component and that’s how
products seemed you know put in the
platform together in the interface so
you can build these Solutions but the
conversational designers actually look
at you know language in most of them
their background is in linguistics it’s
not on technical it’s not they are not
developers they look at you know how we
use phrases how we use verbs
how you know a conversation needs to be
evolving and they map out these
conversations that because we use
language everywhere every day for us
it’s just easy to talk but when you’re
trying to teach a system how to talk
then then you realize how hard it is and
how amazing our brains are for just
doing it like that so it’s a again it’s
they are linguists that maybe at the
beginning of their career they wouldn’t
expect to end up in a technical role at
a conversational AI company
so that’s another example that we can
use yeah there and there must be so many
roles that we haven’t even thought of or
probably can’t even exist yet but as you
just mentioned one there
um going into speech and communication
and and Linguistics I mean that’s
something that um I hadn’t even thought
about I think with AI you tend to go
straight to the port of robots
um and robots I saw you know taking over
is is also the the image that we always
get with artificial intelligence is that
is that something that you hear quite a
lot about robots rebelling against
society as much as they love is science
fiction I don’t think that will happen a
bad you know it’s always about how you
use the technology and every you know
hey for for better for Words technology
can be used for good but you know
because can we also use on bad in
I think as I was saying before these
solutions they need to be programmed by
a developer someone has to see it behind
them thought about how they’re going to
behave how they’re going to be evolving
and what is their objective so unless
someone out there is trying to create a
solution that will take over the war
I wouldn’t be worried and even if that
happens I’m sure you know we can get a
great group of women to counteract that
and yes because we women know that
that’s not the way confrontation is not
the way so I’m sure we’ll be able to to
tackle that if that happens
yes yes and I I highly doubt that we’re
anywhere near there but it’s always a
question that we we need to ask if we’re
going to be chatting about artificial
intelligence
um but we are
um almost out of time and the
conversation has gone incredibly fast
today so thank you so much for joining
us it’s been an absolute pleasure to
chat with you today
thank you so much for having me and
thank you for creating this space for
for women to share their experience I
think it’s awesome
thank you thank you very much and um for
everybody listening as always uh thank
you for joining us and we hope to see
you again next time
