Texas Christian University senior computer science majors Madhavam Shahi and Kavish Soningra knew they had a great idea: An artificial intelligence-powered tool designed to assist students with academic and research tasks.
Normally, it would take months, if not years, to develop. With the use of AI for much of the software development, they had the program up and running in four-and-a-half months. Along the way, the duo created a company called FasterFlow.
“In this age of AI, development has become much easier as compared to architecting and distribution,” said Shahi. “We wanted to get a product out with the features users wanted and then focus on distribution.”
It is not just startups that are reaping the benefits of AI. Fort Worth-area businesses are embracing the technology to save workers time and focus on their most important work.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines and Google have partnered on an AI-based forecasting tool to help prevent contrails, those white lines behind an airplane that, according to some research, causes up to 2% of the earth’s warming. According to Google, the new AI-based forecasting tools can be integrated with standard airline flight planning software to reduce contrail formation by 62%.
Joseph DeWoody, CEO of Valor, a tech-enabled professional services company that provides oil and gas asset management services, believes the world is just seeing the tip of the iceberg as to how AI will impact the world.
If You Go …
Candid Conversation: AI — the good, the bad and the future?
When: 7:30-9 a.m. Thursday, April 2
Where: Second floor of the Nick and Lou Martin University Center at Texas Wesleyan University, 3165 E. Rosedale St.
Who:
Kelly Baggett, innovation coordinator at the city of Fort Worth
Reuben Burch, vice provost of research at Texas Christian University
Carlo Capua, senior principal at Rainwater Charitable Foundation
Adam Powell, CEO and president of the United Way of Tarrant County
We’re collecting questions for the panel. Please send yours to hello@fortworthreport.org.
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He believes it will completely change office work that depends on human-driven workflows and tedious tasks like emails and spreadsheets.
“AI flips that model,” he said. “The future office will be system-driven, where humans design, supervise and improve processes rather than executing every step.”
DeWoody foresees substantive changes in the handling of the energy industry’s massive amounts of data.
“The real opportunity isn’t just in the field; it’s in asset management and the back office,” he said. “AI enables real-time automation and validation of revenue, expenses and ownership; automated detection of missed payments; and continuous monitoring of regulatory and operational activity.”
Workforce impacts
The new world of AI promises to create new opportunities for businesses large and small. At the same time, it will likely provide challenges for workers not prepared for that shift.
As the AI-driven shift impacts the workforce, DeWoody believes the most valuable employees won’t be doing the most manual work.
“They’ll be the ones designing workflows, evaluating outputs and asking better questions of systems,” he said.
A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas study found a correlation of employment declines and AI, but that impact was so far limited to younger workers, particularly those who have not been in the workforce previously.
What professions will be impacted by AI?
Least AI exposure: Cashiers; janitors and building cleaners; laborers; and freight, stock and material movers.
Moderate AI exposure: Driver/sales workers and truck drivers; retail salespersons; elementary and middle school teachers.
Most AI exposure: First-line supervisors of retail sales workers; secretaries and administrative assistants; customer service representatives.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
In a recent post, Grace Atkins, a policy adviser with nonpartisan public policy group Texas 2036, compared the current moment to past technology advances: AI is changing how people work, not whether they work.
“In many cases, AI tools augment human capabilities and make workers more productive rather than simply replacing them,” she wrote.
Using AI
Jordan Johnson certainly believes in the productivity aspects of AI.
The longtime commercial real estate broker founded Pecos Automations, an AI-driven automation platform he believes can revolutionize brokerage operations — and expand into other industries as well.
“It can level the playing field for smaller brokerages, allowing them to, among other things, provide high-quality, 24-hour service much like a large brokerage,” he said.
He is also focusing on several vertical business sectors that he believes can take advantage of the technology.
Pecos Automations has already built prototypes for several industries that offer dashboards with a myriad of data in real time, Johnson notes.
“The first one I’m focusing on is food and beverage because I have a lot of familiarity with that industry,” he said.
Johnson has built a dashboard that allows managers to see, in real time, the trouble spots in a restaurant from the beef prices to the number of employees who are out sick.
“It can even show you how bad weather might impact sales in the future based on weather forecasts,” he said. “It’s extremely powerful because you can take actions immediately versus having to respond after the fact.”
Nonprofits are also looking to take advantage of AI’s capabilities.
Ken Shetter, president of One Safe Place, a domestic abuse resource center at 1100 Hemphill St., is working to localize a national project using AI.
For three years, Shetter worked with Alliance for Hope International on an AI chat bot as a first step in making contact with abuse victims.
“I was very skeptical at first,” he said. “Then I got to test it and understand the guardrails they put in place and see the inside of how it worked and how successful it was, and how survivors were utilizing it.”
Most people seeking help for domestic abuse first come to the internet seeking resources and answers long before they make a phone call or walk in the door of a shelter, Shetter said.
The chat bot tool allows them to interact with AI, start a dialogue and access resources.
After working on the national project, Shetter asked about creating a localized implementation of the technology.
“So that’s what we’re doing,” he said.
Southlake-based RobotLab sells robots to perform a variety of business tasks. The company’s Fort Worth franchisee, Paulo Orosz, said the addition of AI to its line of robots increases their functionality.
“Before we could sell a cleaning robot for your floor and it would do that,” he said. “With AI, we can have a robot programmed not just to clean, but to find a spot that needs extra cleaning and focus on that. It takes it to a higher level.”
Pecos Automation’s Johnson expects to see more innovative projects resulting from AI because the technology is changing rapidly.
“Nobody knows what is around the corner,” he said.
Do you have something for the Bob on Business column? Email Bob Francis, business editor for the Fort Worth Report, at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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