CIFFA Forwarder Magazine

31 THE FORWARDER | WINTER 2025 Moderator • John Berry – Vice President, IT, OEC Group Canada Speakers • Ahmad Ovais – Partner, Consulting, BDO Canada • Sherief Ibrahim – AI Business Solutions Leader, Microsoft • Jason Cigan – Partner, GTA, BDO Canada Panelists in this session talked about how to get started on an AI implementation, how to determine where to use it and how to deal with challenges that arise. Sherief Ibrahim started the session with a ‘wow’ statement: “Single individuals using AI are becoming as productive as entire office teams.” While that’s certainly exciting, it also has consequences, as the panel discussed later in the session. Moderator John Berry asked why companies should get up to speed with AI technologies. Ahmad Ovais addressed this, saying businesses can solve complicated problems using AI, something that benefits them pretty immediately. “Empowering people now to get comfortable with AI will go a long way to improving productivity and efficiency in your workplace setting,” he said. He noted that companies use their experience and knowledge to train AI, a key to success in optimizing the technology. The efficiency and quality improvements AI enables can ultimately promote company growth. In the shorter term, those improvements could provide a competitive edge against other firms that are not utilizing AI. The speakers agreed that Copilot is a good program to start with to get some experience in the world of AI. On the topic of data, Jason Cigan noted that the “output is only going to be as good as the inputs of data into it,” which is as true for AI as it has been for other, earlier technologies used in the industry. Data governance is an integral aspect of AI implementation. Poor data is just one possible pitfall to avoid. To dodge others, Ovais recommended working with an AI advisor. Training is also critical to being ready to use AI to ensure that employees know how to maintain security in their work with the technology. Inadequate training puts organizations at risk. “When you bring AI in, it will put a magnifying glass on any existing gaps in security,” said Ibrahim. Users “have to protect AI documents with data loss programs; we can train AI to also acknowledge confidential information,” he pointed out. To prevent errors – another potential pitfall – Ibrahim said: “We can’t be lazy, we have to use common sense. We have to double-check AI final products; if we haven’t trained them properly, errors can and will occur.” He added, however, that “the learning factor from mistakes is huge with AI.” He emphasized the importance of using the errors as “teachable moments for the AI” that will lead to better final products. Ahmad agreed. He noted that companies must be sure to assign people to double-check AI results. “Orchestration of all these moving parts is so important to guarantee your success with AI implementation,” he said. Looking 12 to 18 months out, Cigan sees agentic AI moving to the forefront. That will create opportunities for employees and AI to work closely together; it will empower people, he believes, not replace them. First steps? Cigan suggested looking at how AI could help improve processes. Ovais said: “Start your journey.” AI Integration Across the Supply Chain