11 Deploying Artificial Intelligence ^Top 7 Key Pitfalls to Avoid W e’ve identified seven key AI pitfalls, along with the ways that companies are addressing and, even better, sidestepping them altogether. Three key areas that decision-makers need to actively address are managing stakeholder perceptions, prioritizing incremental improvements while keeping transformative innovations in mind, and evaluating value propositions and risks before implementation. pitfall #1: thinking robots will replace humans rather than augment human abilities. AI systems (and in fact, almost all new technologies) increase productivity and sometimes replace labor. However, AI cannot completely eliminate hu- mans. Henn-na Hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, had 243 robots serving customers until the machines’ inflexibility, and need for humans to help when they’d often get stuck, made the labor-cost-saving proposition infeasible.18 Leverage AI to first assist employees instead of replacing them; then, as a logical next step, encourage and motivate employees to engage with the new technology, making way for “human-machine” collaboration.19 Many manu- al-labor-heavy firms are having AI work alongside humans instead of replacing them, such as Radial in e-commerce and Mercedes in production factories.20 18 Alastair Gale and Takashi Mochizuki, “Robot Hotel Loses Love for Robots,” Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/robot-hotel-loses-love-for-robots-11547484628. 19 H. James Wilson and Paul R. Daugherty, “Creating the Symbiotic AI Workforce of the Future,” MIT Sloan Man- agement Review: Frontiers, October 21, 2019, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/creating-the-symbiotic-ai-work- force-of-the-future/. 20 Radial, “Radial Opens New Fulfillment Center in Locust Grove, Georgia” PRNewswire, October 6, 2020, https:// www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/radial-opens-new-fulfillment-center-in-locust-grove-georgia-announces- full-time-hiring-needs-and-plans-to-hire-more-than-1-000-seasonal-fulfillment-jobs-to-support-upcoming-holi- day-rush-301145960.html. Tim Denman and Jamie Grill-Goodman, “The AI-Driven Supply Chain: Seamlessly Meeting Complex Demand,” Radial, https://www.radial.com/sites/default/files/AI-Supply-Chain.pdf.