Leeds Data Leadership roundtable

We were delighted to recently host our 2nd Data Leadership Roundtable in Leeds lead by Managing consultant Richard James and Data & BI specialist consultant Callum Stephens.  

It was a great to bring together a range of SME’s and Data leaders from across Yorkshire to discuss some real hot topics in not only the technology sector but wider community.

The roundtable focused on data ethics and the emergence of AI, with these conversations being very timely given the real light that has been placed on AI since the release of Chat GPT and generative AI.

We opened up the event with a quote that really struck home with the leaders given the responsibility they will have to take moving forward; “Ethics is the compass that guides artificial intelligence towards responsible and beneficial outcomes. Without ethical considerations, AI becomes a tool of chaos and harm.” By Sri Amit Ray, Ethical AI Systems: Frameworks, Principles, and Advanced.

As was agreed during the event, Data Leaders are really seen as the compass that will guide the progression of AI. With key role responsibilities developing to ensure leaders are doing enough to voice any potential concerns, empowerment being a recurring theme. Leaders also raised the importance of not letting the chance to earn more money or even save in areas take the lead and dictate strategies.  

Overall two key takeaways were as follows;

-          How we have to place trust on people making the right decisions with AI development.

-          How important it is consider and mitigate the risk of bias when it comes to AI.

What was clear from the roundtable discussion is that the leaders all understood the potential and positive impact AI can have especially to help drive efficiencies, however all recognised how crucial it is to get the right foundations in place.

We would like to extend our thanks to all who attended the event and we look forward to hosting future discussions.

If you are interested in getting involved in any future events, please reach out to the team at Harvey Nash Leeds or directly with Richard James and Callum Stephens.