How are firms using AI in the Channel Islands?

Businesses are going through "different stages" in their use of AI, said Digital Jersey

From automated notes of a visit to the doctor to filling out timesheets, Channel Island businesses have been looking into the opportunities and challenges presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how it is being used.

Digital Jersey said businesses in the island were going through "different stages" in their use of AI.

Tony Moretta, the organisation's chief executive, said some finance firms had developed specific tools to help employees do certain tasks faster.

"The research we've seen shows that gives you benefits of about 10% productivity," he said.

"But what's coming along and is starting to appear now is the ability to replace tasks completely to automate tasks and that starts to give you 50%, even 80% productivity improvements."

Tony Moretta, from Digital Jersey,

A PwC report in 2020 warned up to 30% of jobs were at risk from automation and AI across the Channel Islands between now and 2035, which is more than 35,000 jobs.

However, Mr Moretta said he believed the technology could "create virtual team members to work alongside real humans to give them the ability to work more, produce more".

"The risk is we don't adopt the technology, the risk is we don't give people the skills to use that technology," he said.

Katy Melhuish says AI doesn't have the ability to be compassionate or to understand situations

Katy Melhuish, from Guernsey PR agency Black Vanilla, said she had found AI had allowed the firm to focus on other areas.

"It's been really useful for us, whether that's streamlining our admin processes such as timesheets or using it for our PR activity.

"We can really invest our energy into where our skills lie."

She said she believed it should only be used as a "support tool".

"It's not there to replace," she said.

"I think especially from a PR and communications perspective, it always requires that human oversight.

"AI doesn't have the ability to be compassionate or to understand situations from an emotional perspective."

Guernsey's MSG are using a smart AI assistant, known as Heidi, to help doctors by taking notes during patient visits

In the health sector, doctors said they were using AI to allow them to spend more time with patients and less doing paperwork.

MSG, Guernsey's specialist medical care provider, said it was using an AI assistant to take notes in the background during patient visits.

It automatically creates documents, such as referral letters and patient summaries, which the doctor checks and signs off, it said.

Dr Michelle Le Cheminant said the technology would hopefully give the best experience to MSG's patients.

"When you've thought about any change within medicine, for example, you take the Dictaphone, the typewriter, we need to move forwards and this is part of that journey," she said.

"The main difference that patients will notice when they are in the clinic room is that we won't be having to produce a lot of handwritten notes, we won't be having to type a lot on the computer, so really the difference is that focus on the patient and that interaction."

Compliance chatbots

The Government of Jersey said AI was already embedded in some of its systems and it was evaluating further usage.

It said the island's Financial Services Commission was piloting AI tools such as "regulatory chatbots" to streamline compliance processes.

"These innovations reflect our broader ambition to position Jersey as a forward-thinking jurisdiction that embraces technology while maintaining robust governance," it said.

Alex Ruddy wants children in Jersey to be educated on the use of AI

Alex Ruddy, chairwoman of the Institute of Directors Jersey, said learning about the positives and negatives of AI was a community issue.

"Everybody recognises that things have massively changed in the past few years in terms of digital technology.

"I think everybody recognises that things have massively changed in the past few years in terms of digital technology, skills that are necessary to accommodate that."