Artificial intelligence is changing the world including the wine industry. What is AI, and what will it mean for wine businesses? Marc Allgrove gets the good oil from his brother.
How will artificial intelligence add value to your wine business? Will it reduce or add complexity? Is it something to embrace or fear? Getting your head around AI is more relevant now than ever as we collectively struggle to chart our way through the myriad challenges facing Australian wine. My brother, Ben Allgrove, was at the World Economic Forum at Davos. He is developing a reputation as one of the leading minds in the world when it comes to AI and the law, in particular. I asked him a few questions.
What is Davos? Why were you there – and what was the general mood?
I was at Davos representing my firm, Baker McKenzie, along with global chair Sunny Mann and our global head of M&S, Jannan Crozier. I am the chief innovation officer. The two big topics on the agenda were trade and geopolitical tensions – and AI. I was there to talk about the latter.
A basic understanding of AI suggests it automates the mundane, accelerates research and compiles reports, assignments and job applications, but what is it really?
AI is not one thing. It is a suite of technologies that, when applied to the right problem, can have an incredible impact across a wide spectrum and level of tasks. For example, deep learning is a technique that has enabled huge leaps in the medical understanding of protein folding. Frontier models (the class of techniques that include large language models like ChatGPT), have application across multiple industries – e.g. automating customer contact centres, changing the way creative industries create content, and allowing massive efficiency gains in professional services, such as law.
Reports suggest that after Trump, AI was the topic of most interest at Davos. Why is that?
AI was definitely a top two discussion topic. This is because the economic impact is real. The level of private capital being invested reflects a belief by business that this technology will in the near term reach a point where it will materially impact the economics of nearly every industry. An impact that will only be multiplied when quantum computing comes online too. While there is always a bit of hype when new tech lands, the wide consensus at Davos was that this is real and businesses that want to thrive into the future need to start leaning in now.
Your main business is the law. How is AI impacting the law?
Frontier models work with language. That is a lawyer’s stock and trade. We’re all being challenged now to figure how to redesign our workflows to take advantage of the power of these models, while at the same time ensuring we live up to our professional obligations to our clients. We are a long way off AI replacing end-to-end lawyer workflows, but we are already seeing the efficiency (and indeed quality) gains that can be achieved by applying this technology to what we do. Even more exciting, we are starting to see the advent of ‘AI first’ delivery models, in other words not just automating better what we do now, but starting from a blank sheet of paper and saying how should/could we provide this service given what this tech can do now and what it is on course to be able to do over the next couple of years.
Wine is an agricultural, creative and manufacturing industry, in desperate need to unlock efficiencies. Does AI have a role to play in wine?
Yes, the answer to that one is easy. The application of AI to the agricultural industry is a core opportunity, helping understand weather, economic and other patterns that underpin what the industry grows. Creatively, frontier models offer an opportunity to change how the industry markets itself. At Davos I saw a demonstration of an entire offline, TV and social marketing campaign (for clothing) conceived and executed in less than 10 minutes. Pre-AI this would have taken four to six weeks. And in the manufacturing space, again AI has application all across the production line. Perhaps most exciting is what the combination of AI and advanced robotics might do for tasks like harvesting and bottling.
The Australian wine industry is battling through some of the most challenging times in its history. What impact can AI have in supporting and reshaping it?
There have been relatively few examples of general-purpose technologies that transform whole economies – the railway, the personal computer, email, etc. AI is one of those. It changes the way the economy is structured. I am not an expert on the wine industry, but I am confident enough to say that the wine industry will not be immune. Those players that take advantage of this new technology and revisit how and what they do, will position themselves to succeed into the future. Those that do not, will be outcompeted. A mantra I tell our people often is – AI will not take your job, but a lawyer who uses AI will if you do not learn new skills.
What does an AI embracing economy and society look like?
Like every new technology, there will be positive and negative impacts. How we (as businesses and our politicians) manage (and balance) those impacts will determine the answer to that question. However, one thing is certain – the change is not optional.
This article was first published in WBM – Australia’s Wine Business Magazine. To subscribe to the beautiful printed magazine click here.