Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting local communities and global society. AI tools such as ChatGPT and OpenAI among others, are likely to transform the way we live, work, and interact with each other. It will impact various economic sectors in the United States, across the Asia Pacific region, and elsewhere. From medicine to pharmaceutical products, entertainment, corporate banking, retailing, and commerce. In the field of pharmaceutical and medicine, AI could usher in a future of innovation in diagnosis and could reshape the field of patient treatment care. AI could help medical providers identify medical markers quicker and better. Nurses, doctors, and hospital administrators can improve the medical care chain. It could cut costs, improve outcomes, and make for a more productive and efficient healthcare delivery system. An AI tool such as IBM Watson can provide diagnosis and data analysis faster. AI machine learning algorithms can process large amounts of data quicker and make more accurate and targeted treatment possible, thus reducing medical costs along the medical value-added chain. Moreover, AI could also improve medical revenue generating systems for hospitals through the organization of medical records. It could process medical test results faster, and allows doctors and healthcare providers to have more autonomy and better workflow, and improve patient-doctor interactions and allow for nurses and doctors to spend more time with patients. Moreover, during medical surgery, physicians can rely on multidimensional imagery to guide and improve surgical procedures. Also with AI, charts and documents can be reviewed faster and in real time to deliver better treatments. Hospitals using electronic medical records could benefit significantly by using AI tools. Drug manufacturers can also benefit from data analytics so that they can bring drugs to market faster. The development of the COVID-19 vaccine by Johnson & Johnson was brought to market faster with the help of AI analytics. The National Science Foundation is cooperating with Cornell University School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to advance research on how to modify the polymer nanoparticles to make it possible to target cells in patients and bring about specific treatments with the help of nanomedicine solutions. Overall innovations in the healthcare delivery system and the pharmaceutical industries are very promising and will grow immensely with AI tools.
Beyond medicine, AI can help optimize supply chains across various sectors from engineering to manufacturing and services. This will result in cost saving and the reduction of down time. It could also improve customization to meet the needs of consumers and address demand variability.
AI is likely to improve quality controls and help with generating design algorithms for optimization. It will certainly help access data, improve innovation, and enhance technological growth and development in various economies from highly industrial countries to emerging economies. Moreover, AI could improve cyber security and improve responses to customers’ needs by helping to build faster software. It could also monitor various corporate transactions to customize personalized advice, and could make related transactions more efficient, and free members in the value-added chain to move toward skill enhancement and learning. Furthermore, AI could also help monitor changes in supply chain and logistics to ensure availability of certain products and allow for efficient replenishment of missing supplies. Finally, AI usage in virtual voice assistant programs could be used in various sectors from retailing to banking, and could increase employee productivity and enhance teamwork.
While AI could perform tasks better than humans, it should be stated that AI has the potential for misinformation and risks in the social, economic and political spheres. Moreover, AI tools could not protect individuals from what has been referred to in social discourse as “hallucinations.” AI tools produce “hallucinations” and misinformation that could be used by others as facts and not be considered as opinions, though opinions are not always facts. Thus, AI tools could create incorrect falsehoods.
AI technology is now in its early stages and growing fast and we should move to minimize its risks. Technological firms should not resist the demand from governments and other stakeholders to work together to mitigate and reduce the negative impact of AI tools. Rather, they should want the feedback and the input of all stakeholders and members of society in the early formative years of AI usage.
Some countries are now introducing both regulations and legislation to deal with AI’s potential risks and have moved to ban ChapGPT. Across OECD countries and elsewhere across the globe, there are social and cultural concerns about AI and the protection of individual privacy. In this regard governments, the corporate sector, and other societal stakeholders should come together to create guidelines and promote the safe usage and application of AI. Italy and the U.S. among other countries and governments are proposing policies to regulate AI to mitigate the possibility of misinformation and bias. The coordination between the private sectors and governments could help provide for sound and functional rules to capture the benefits of AI and reduce its risks. From such initial attempts informed policies can come about. Global discourse and cooperation of the various stakeholders at the local and higher level of governments could guide the process to reduce the risks of AI prior to its emerging and certainly growing worldwide usage. Bringing together transnational firms, governmental bodies, and societal stakeholders from across the globe at this early stage is in the best interest of all. The disruptive tools of AI could be immense and could lead us away from possible global cooperation and sustainability as a functioning global society. The time for global cooperation and coordination to regulate AI is now. For our future just arrived yesterday.
The Journal of Asia–Pacific Business has a seemingly very specific scope, but the region includes such a wonderful variety and our articles for this issue reflect that as well. Our articles for this issue are as follows: our first article, “Consumer Purpose: A Holistic Rethinking of Psychological Bonds,” by Dianne Welsh and Bonnie Canziani of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and their colleague Yuchin Hsieh of Saunders College of Business Rochester Institute of Technology. The second article, “Social Media Used for Academic Purposes in Vietnam and China: An Overview of Implementation and Futures,” by Daniel S. Helman of Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam. The third article is by Asra Jabbar of Lahore Garrison University and Rizwan Qaiser Danish of the University of Punjab entitled: “The Art of Juggling: Effects of Employee’s Polychronic Orientation on Service Recovery Performance and Extra-role Customer Service.” Our fourth article, “Exploring the Impact of Servitization on Chinese Manufacturing Firm Performance,” is a collaborative effort of Muhammad Ajmal of the University of Gujrat, Pakistan, Zeenat Islam, and Azmat Islam of the National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore. It is our hope that one or more of these articles will inspire and augment your research interest about the Asia–Pacific economies. We are as always, extremely grateful for our reviewers and referees without whom all of the scholars in our fields would be left adrift. Finally, we value our readers for their continued support of our efforts.