Takeaways on the Future of AI in Greater Des Moines

If any community is equipped to tackle AI with a collaborative approach, it’s Greater Des Moines.

That was one of the themes from a panel of leaders at the Capital Crossroads Regional Council quarterly meeting in July. Leaders included:

• Mike Howard, Hilsinger-Janson Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Iowa State University and Director of the Murray G. Bacon Center of AI Ethics in Business
• Cory McAnelly, Assistant General Counsel – Patent Attorney at Principal Financial Group and Chair of The Partnership’s AI Roundtable
• Kameron Middlebrooks, Deputy Executive Director at Onyx Impact
• Curt Simmons, President & CEO of the Science Center of Iowa

The panel touched on how business and community leaders are coming together to have important conversations around AI, how students are using AI and more. Here are some takeaways from the conversation.

A Community Ready to Rise to the Challenge

McAnelly is Chair of The Partnership’s AI Roundtable, which is convening leaders from around the region to collaboratively put together recommendations for how Greater Des Moines organizations and the community can best grow in their AI fluency and skills. This effort stems from what McAnelly refers to as “Slide 81,” a reference to The Partnership’s work with James Chung who challenged the region to answer the question, “Who is involved in activities that can help the region thrive in an increasingly AI-driven economy?”

McAnelly noted that the Roundtable is conducting interviews and they are hearing, particularly from small and mid-size business owners, that they are exhausted with trying to figure out how to effectively implement AI, deal with potential legal and compliance issues and use the tool, and do so on top of all of the other competing priorities as a business owner.

And yet, this group of leaders still comes to the table.

“I posed this question to the group: ‘Everybody in this room says you’re exhausted with AI conversations too, but you keep showing up to this meeting. Why?’ McAnelly said.

“Because you’re with peers that understand the challenge at the same level you do. It’s almost like a therapy group. But we are seeing that there is real value in that ‘convening,’ especially when it comes to destigmatizing AI.”

This has allowed the conversation to focus around sharing best practices and learning from how others have overcome roadblocks. McAnelly is especially passionate about the fact that this work with a small business has real potential to impact economic growth. “If AI can help a 10-person company operate like a 12- or fifteen-person company without adding or reducing headcount, that's not just a technology story, it's a growth story.”

Most of all, it’s another reminder that this region figures things out together.

“You don’t keep walking into the AI roundtable because it’s you have to. You want to be here. You want to solve this problem.” McAnelly said. “If there’s a community that’s going to rise to the challenge to help solve this, we’re right in that. I’m really hopeful that with the leadership in our community we’ll thrive in this adoption. Otherwise, someone else will.”

Humans are Still Critical

Howard, who directs the Murray G. Bacon Center of AI Ethics in Business at Iowa State, noted that the Bacon Center is focused on exploring the appropriate use of AI, including the human element.

“Humans have empathy and context, “ Howard said. “Students graduating need to know ‘when I use AI, how do I use it appropriately and effectively.’”

Simmons with the Science Center of Iowa referred to a Brookings Institution study that said the top three factors to determine community readiness for AI are talent, innovation and adoption.

“These are all human skills,” Simmons said. “Soft skills are still critical. Communication, empathy, problem-solving skills.”

AI adoption is still in its early stages, creating an environment in which educators are tasked with preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist yet. Simmons said we can learn from past technological changes to know that teaching soft skills is the most effective way to prepare students of today for jobs of tomorrow.

Building Trust

Middlebrooks serves as Deputy Executive Director for Onyx Impact, a nonprofit research, media, and technology organization dedicated to amplifying Black voices and protecting Black communities. He noted that AI data is artificial but not neutral. It is biased to the creator, both in good ways and in ways that generate blind spots.

AI models can lead users down the wrong path, or even worse, a dangerous path if they are not built with the right guardrails up front. Onyx Impact has built an AI model called Aisha aimed to provide a trusted resource particularly for those in the Black community.

“AI is here. We know it’s around,” Middlebrooks said. “How can we have a conversation about creating a standard and model that is trustworthy, with guardrails on the front end?”

Resetting Expectations

Some in the business world are finding that the hype around AI has not yet lived up to expectations. That’s ok and to be expected, McAnelly said. It’s common for new trends and technologies to go through a hype cycle that underwhelms, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile in the long-term.

“We’re thinking about the human way to measure success. How do employees adopt things, not just did it save my organization money,” said McAnelly. “The value creation phase is what we want to get to.”

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