STEPHEN Price has indicated that the telecoms firm Flow will be integrating more of the artificial intelligence (AI) technology in its systems and processes in the next few months.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer during Tech Beach Retreat in Montego Bay, St James last week, Price, vice-president and general manager Cable and Wireless Business and Flow Jamaica, said the company has work taking place right now and should be ready for the roll-out in the first or second quarter of 2024.

According to Price, the company will be making a deliberate foray into the new technology and will be using it to augment a number of areas within the entity, especially customer experiences and relations.

“We are not just dipping our toes in the water, we are going full fledge into AI use in terms of customer experience, in terms of bots and their responses to customer care queries — AI that helps you to understand customers’ moods during calls so you understand how to treat with them and those kind of things,” said Price.

He told the Observer that AI will also be utilised in the systems the company uses in its delivery service to consumers.

“We will be using AI to proactively monitor our network in terms of understanding various issues that they are having for customers out there and really just monitoring all the metrics of the network.”

Price said the company has been proactive in its approach so far in getting team members up to pace with the technology it wants to implement.

“Just weeks ago we went to Panama where we brought all our customer experience and network practitioners to really go into a sort of incubator lab with many of the first-stage companies, especially involving AI in that space, to see how we are going to use AI to transform us.

“I think the key thing is understanding where you want to get to, and I think we have a very lined-up vision around that,” added Price as he pointed that Flow has been using aspects of AI technology already in its service delivery.

“There are some elements of AI that we already use in terms of our WhatsApp communication with customers in terms of how we speak with them. Some interactions are being done by AI and bots, and so we have started that in the space,” the Flow boss highlighted.

He said with the planned integration of the technology, more people will be needed to do aspects of the work — and that will mean equipping individuals with the skills.

“In our space we want to develop people to do prompt engineering and develop those kinds of prompts for AI within our own business,” said Price.

However, he noted that the skill sets required for full implementation may not be at the level required on a broad scale in Jamaica.

“I think the key thing is, we now need a lot more talent and we need to start to reskill and retrain our Jamaican workforce in order to really anticipate and embrace AI,” said Price as he declared that Flow and C&W Business will do their part in continuing the digital revolution and seeking to remain on top reagrding this, going forward.

“Everything is going digital — TV [is] going digital with the streaming, banking, payments — it’s inevitable. The faster we embrace it, the faster we are ahead of the curve, and the faster we are able to lead the Caribbean,” declared Price.