Home Economy Emergence of AI discussed at Greater Providence Chamber Economic Outlook Breakfast

Emergence of AI discussed at Greater Providence Chamber Economic Outlook Breakfast

By

Christopher Allen

-

04/22/2025

C0CA82E9-C3C8-4EB4-8A96-E225C155EE2F (4) — PANELISTS DISCUSS the economy and emerging business trends spurred by the growth of Artificial Intelligence during this year's Economic Outlook Breakfast hosted by Santander Bank and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. Pictured from left are Rajani Mahadevan, chief operating officer, The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co.; Martin King, Entrepreneur, CEO and founder of AI-X.com; Laurie White, president of Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce; Matt Nylin, director of analytics and data engineering for Vacasa and Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. Economist, Santander U.S. /PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS/CHRIS ALLEN

WARWICK – Though artificial intelligence offers many benefits, Rajani Mahadevan, chief operating officer of The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., said during Tuesday’s Economic Outlook Breakfast that executives and business owners must ensure they have a robust workplace AI policy in place that spells out prohibited and allowable uses for the growing technology. “It is not

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WARWICK – Though artificial intelligence offers many benefits, Rajani Mahadevan, chief operating officer of The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., said during Tuesday's Economic Outlook Breakfast that executives and business owners must ensure they have a robust workplace AI policy in place that spells out prohibited and allowable uses for the growing technology. “It is not going anywhere. It's coming at a rapid pace,” she said at the event hosted by The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and Santander Bank N.A. “But if you maintain the discipline that you've always had, you can embrace the technology with optimism.” The emergence of AI and recent economic turmoil dominated most of the conversation at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick, which included a panel discussion moderated by Chamber President Laurie White. In his pre-panel speech, Gov. Daniel J. McKee said the state was prepared for this technological revolution through initiatives such as Rhode Island College’s Institute for Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies, chaired by former U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin. The institute was recently designated as a U.S. Department of Defense’s National Security Agency Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. “We are ahead on this,” McKee said. Matt Nylin, director of analytics and data engineering at vacation and real estate platform Vacasa, said AI has transformational power to level the playing field for small businesses competing with large corporations. "But you can't rely on AI to do all of the work for you," he said. "Here's your opportunity to really lean in and take advantage of what is available to you." While most survey respondents were familiar with AI, a 58% majority said their experience was limited to the use of ChatGPT. A little more than half of the respondents now have policies in place regarding its use. Martin King, founder and CEO of AI-X.com, predicted the tool would never become an outright replacement of traditional work and “critical thinking.” The purpose of AI to cut out redundancies and free up resources, he said. “The days of being task-based and memorizing things are over because AI is going to do it for you," he said. "But this still has everything to do with human intelligence ... It's about framing a problem." King unbeknownst to the audience installed an AI-enabled recording and transcription tool that when the discussion concluded provided a multi-page summary of the discussion in less than three minutes. That program uses “prompt engineering” to include relevant and accurate insights into the event's major points and themes. “It sliced and diced all the information and started injecting this insight using these models,” he said, as attendees read the document as it was unrolled on the digital projection screen. The event also included an unscientific real-time survey of the attendees, which showed 44% of respondents reporting the most challenging issue they expect in next year was revenue and sales growth. Thirty-one percent expected their own business would be in somewhat worse shape within the next 12 months and 54% planned no operational or staffing changes. A majority had no plans to increase capital expenditures. In November 2024, hopes for deregulation and tax cuts at the federal level has given way to uncertainty surrounding the size and scope of the Trump administration’s trade war, said panelist Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist with Santander U.S. Capital Markets. The business sector was optimistic after election, however, before “the year turned and suddenly the focus is on tariffs," Stanley said. Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.