AI lets small Jamaican firms match big international rivals on quality, forum hears

KINGSTON, Jamaica. Artificial intelligence is giving small and medium-sized businesses in Jamaica the chance to improve the quality and efficiency of their operations and compete with larger international companies, a business leader has said.

Ambassador Dushyant Savadia, founder and chief executive of the Amber Group, made the point during a virtual Next Generation Innovator Forum panel held on Tuesday by the National Certification Body of Jamaica. The event marked World Quality Week under the theme "Quality: Powering Performance".

Savadia said AI was levelling the playing field in quality management, allowing small start-ups to achieve what was once possible only for large businesses, without the same financial resources.

"AI in [terms of] quality has now allowed a small company in Kingston to be as fast, accurate and better as any other big company out of Dubai or South Africa or UK (United Kingdom) or anywhere else," he said.

From reactive to predictive

He said businesses can now use sensors, connected equipment and machine learning to spot warning signs before failures occur, shifting quality management from a reactive to a predictive approach.

Where quality assurance once meant inspecting a sample of products, computer vision and AI now make it possible to check every item on a production line, he said. AI is also improving root-cause analysis by examining thousands of records to find patterns that would take staff much longer to detect.

Savadia added that technology is helping organisations manage documents, keep accurate records and standardise quality processes across several locations. "The audit stops being an event and becomes a habit for every single person engaged," he said.

A rethink for the region

He said quality management is essential to building customer confidence, noting that "quality is also what lets a customer trust you the second time." AI is also changing how businesses are set up, through tools that help generate ideas, design prototypes and create products.

While AI offers significant opportunities for Caribbean businesses, Savadia said the region needs to rethink its approach to the technology and balance adoption with human involvement.

"AI and humanity will have to go hand in hand for the next decade... one cannot live without the other," he said, adding that "ignoring AI is not an option."