CDTB Colloquium, “How AI, Machine Learning should be incorporated in Corporate Management”

The Colloquium organized by the Korea University Business School (Dean = Johngseok Bae) Center for Digital Transformation & Business (Center Director = Byungjo Kim, hereinafter CDTB), was held on August 5th(Fri) at the SUPEX HALL of LG-POSCO Building. The lecture, which was conducted both online and offline, was given by Park Dongyu, Partner of PwC Consulting, under the topic of " How AI, Machine Learning should be incorporated in Corporate Management."

 Partner Park Dongyu shared his personal history of studying Electrical Engineering during his undergraduate years, followed by studying Business at Graduate School, and having both experienced Korean and U.S. branches of consulting firms. He said, “I was able to approach problems in many aspects as I got my hands on many cases.” He added, “While I was in charge of Machine Learning at PwC Consulting, I felt that data analysts were divided into left and right brain types," and "I thought it was important to understand each analyst's tendency, so I chose the subtitle of this lecture as 'left-brain type data analysts and right-brain type data analysts'."

Partner Park said, "When analyzing data, Left-brain type consultants refer to prior data such as papers and focus on visualization through algorithms, while right-brain consultants interview people who will actually use the product in order to understand the whole industry." He then stressed, "I'm not saying that any analysis method is right, but I hope you think about where your strengths will be by looking at these two cases with errors."

 The first case was a request by an insurance company to establish a base for Target Marketing Promotion by analyzing the preference of insurance products by customers. In this case, the left-brain type consultant read papers on product recommendation algorithms and visualized them by applying similar logic, but the right-brain type consultant pushed ahead with modeling prioritizing customers and agents, starting with the question, "Which customer has a high probability of additional contracts?" In the second case, when asked by a gas company to simulate the optimal price of each gas station, the left-brain consultant tried to turn machine learning by collecting as much price difference data and sales data as possible, but the right-brain consultant started with essential questions such as "Does competition mean being at the side of the road?" Partner Park Dongkyu said, "It is important not to be buried in numbers, but to choose what you can understand and continue to rotate the simulation," adding, "In addition, we should never stop talking to sales workers on the site."

At the end of the lecture, Partner Park Dongkyu said, "Since each person has different strengths, we can't do everything well. So I hope you think a lot about what BA expertise is from today," adding, "During data analysis, you may miss something, so it’s necessary to have someone to ask the essential questions." After 20 minutes of lively Q&A session, the Colloquium ended.