Case1: Evie.

ai: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work

Soubhagya Dash
PGP/25/116
Section A

1. What factors in the global and local environment are conducive to the development of
AI? How did these factors support the founders of an AI start-up like Evie.ai?
AI can significantly improve the efficacy of our workplaces and increase the amount of work
performed by individuals. When AI assumes monotonous jobs, the human workforce is freed
up to perform things for which they are better suited. Happiness and work satisfaction are
increased when people perform work that is more engaging for them. Other elements of the
global and local environment include time management, decision-making, competitive
advantage, and location.
The aforementioned considerations led to the invention of Evie by a Singapore-based
company and Jin Hian, the company's founder and developer. The team of Jin Hian was both
regional and international. His supervisor was in the United States, he had an engineering
team in Singapore, and he had other stakeholders in various cities. Due to the fact that his
teams were in different time zones, Hian spent a quarter of his time booking meetings and
accomplished no work. Due of time zone differences, he concluded that future executives
would have the same issue.
2. What are some obstacles in the Singapore start-up environment that may have
hindered or slowed Evie. Ai’s progress?
 Funding was one of Evie. Ai’s greatest challenges. Since creating AI services such as
Evie.ai incurs a greater cash outlay, they first received a grant from the MDA, but the
bulk of the funds went to staff salaries.
 Evie.ai was unable to raise more than $5 million in Singapore, whereas a comparable
business in the United States was able to raise $44 million.
 Readiness - Few industries were prepared to use virtual assistants such as Evie. For
instance, because banking and insurance firms did not use cloud services, they were not
properly prepared to use Evie.

3. Based on the information provided in the case, describe and discuss the technologies
at the heart of Evie. Would it be possible to make Evie pass the Turing Test?
Evie is a virtual personal assistant that uses artificial intelligence to plan and confirm
appointments. Email is the programme used by Evie. Whoever desires Evie's assistance must
write an initial email initiating a meeting, but must CC Evie to the software in order for her to
take over. Once the software has assumed control, Evie will determine an appropriate time
based on the user's calendar. Evie will offer days and times based on the calendar or identify
the first available time. Evie will send out meeting reminders that include specifics such as
the meeting location, or if it's a Skype or Zoom session, the details of the attendees. Evie can
also reserve a meeting space. Meeting and appointment scheduling can be very time-
consuming, so Evie might be useful to a large number of employees in enterprises. It uses
Natural Language processing, Ruby and some Python to understand and interpret people.
According to Frankenfield, the Turing Test is a deceptively simple method of determining
whether a machine can demonstrate human intelligence: If a machine can engage in a
conversation with a human without being detected as a machine, it has demonstrated human
intelligence. Some of the factors which are non-intelligent behaviour which is required to
perform during the conversation to set up the meeting. Some formalities and behavioural
notions which can not be done by Evie. This suggests that Evie won’t pass the Turing test.
4. Discuss the costs and benefits of offering Evie as a service.

Benefits of providing Evie as a service - 

 Reduce time taken to install

Costs of providing Evie as a service - 

 Inferior performance as compared to desktop counterparts

5. Is there an alternative business model that may be better suited to the needs of the
target market and to Evie.ai?
Evie is a virtual personal assistant that uses artificial intelligence to plan and confirm
appointments. She was hired to increase productivity by minimising the time and effort spent
on meeting coordination. She not only schedules meetings, but also reserves rooms for the
meetings. Unfortunately, Evie is mute, and customers cannot converse with her. Being able to
converse with Evie and have her respond would expand the service's applications far beyond
commercial meetings. Evie's aim is to aid in time management, but having Evie who can
speak and customers who can communicate back without having to write will aid in time
management even more. Having Evie who speaks back provides on-demand access to
information. This will increase workplace efficiency and productivity.
6. What are some other opportunities and features that Evie.ai could explore to grow its
business?
Employee welfare – As a way to keep employees physically and mentally healthy, Evie
could be offered as a solution. It's a good way for the HR department to communicate with all
of the company's employees about the perks they're eligible for.
Employee support – In the event of an employee issue or complaint, Evie can assist in finding
a solution. This will save both time and money in the long run.
 7. How should Evie navigate ethical boundaries in performing its job? Could Evie learn
to tell a white lie, e.g., that all your time slots are full? Should Evie learn to lie?
Evie would have to be programmed to tell a lie by the programmers, according to my
principles. The only thing that could happen if Evie selects a time slot for a meeting and you,
as manager, would not be able to accommodate someone is for Evie to contact the individual
that the meeting would have to take place at a later date. I don't think that's relevant. Instead,
then lying to Evie, this is an easy solution.
8. What are the major benefits of using Evie in the workplace?

As organizational structure continues to morph with the addition of more and more remote
employees, smarter workplaces are slowly becoming the need of the hour. While everyone
speaks of AI, getting it right is the tougher part. But it seems those days are not far when AI
will get it right, automate the workplace, increase the productivity of employees, and make
enterprises smarter. Using the power of natural language understanding, autonomous
reasoning and extensible skills, Evie is the assistant for everyone that can schedule meetings
and interviews (including multiple time zones, offices and meeting rooms), track to-dos and
follow-ups, seamlessly integrate with back-end HRMS & CRM systems and acquire new
skills in order to help get things done faster and better. 

Evie understands natural language, so everyone can get things done with Evie effortlessly
with a single email or chat message. There's no app to download or instructions to learn - just
sign up, then tell Evie what you want to be done. With an AI assistant like Evie, users no
longer have to handle all the scheduling negotiations, time zone calculations, follow-ups,
calendar invites, and reminders. Evie can also be extended to handle company-specific
workflows like employee onboarding, leave application and other traditional pain points.

9. What are the major challenges, issues, and problems in using Evie in the workplace?
 Adapting AI for businesses such as banking, cloud requirement
 Increasing distance and limiting employee interaction
 Convincing about reliability, and network security
 Providing relevant encryption methods
 Extensive cost in R&D activities
 Inherent biases of privacy-related concerns by users
 Gap in communication due to cultural differences
 Loss of jobs
 It has the potential to hinder the employees' educational opportunities and create a
communication barrier with upper management

10. What other tasks do you think Evie should be able to perform in the future (if there is
technology available to support this)?
 using the power of consciousness to enhance operational areas such as performing an
interview and onboarding, quarterly review meetings and departure interviews
 Even though the other side is in the wrong, you can still communicate properly and
nicely.
 To ensure everyone's privacy, keep all lines of communication open.
 11. What tasks do you think Evie should not do, even if there is technology available to
support this?
 It should not attempt to pose as any other user or attempt to take advantage of their
position within the organisation for its own gain.
 Disrespecting or being impolite to anyone at any time
 Maintain the strict data governance policy and shouldn’t track user data for any other
non-disclosed reasons.

12. What tasks do you think should still performed by humans regardless of the state of
our technology?
 Maintaining a personal touch, empathy, and confidence-building should be a part of the
Candidate's experience.
 It is possible that the existence of Evie.ai will free individuals from monotonous jobs such
as taking notes, keeping a journal, and doing administrative duties, allowing them to have
more fluid conversations.