Erick Brethenoux, Gartner’s global chief of AI research, believes AI should focus on simplifying users’ lives by automating tiresome tasks and solving real problems, rather than generating meeting summaries. Brethenoux calls his vision of useful artificial intelligence “empathy AI.”
The Register reports that at the recent Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in Sydney, Australia, Erick Brethenoux, the firm’s global chief of AI research, expressed his dissatisfaction with the current state of AI, stating that “AI is not doing its job today and should leave us alone.” Brethenoux’s comments come amidst the growing hype surrounding generative AI and AI agents, which he believes are often misrepresented by tech vendors.
One of the key issues Brethenoux highlighted was the lack of practicality in AI-generated meeting summaries. He argued that users don’t have the time to read summaries of meetings from years ago or follow through with the action items listed. Instead, he called for AI to simplify users’ lives by automatically performing tiresome tasks, a concept he labeled as “Empathy AI.”
Brethenoux cited examples of companies successfully implementing Empathy AI, such as US healthcare company Vizient and a real estate firm. In both cases, the organizations identified employees’ most dreaded tasks and automated them using AI, resulting in instant adoption and zero change management problems.
However, the analyst cautioned against the current trend of tech vendors promoting the use of AI agents for automation, particularly in complex enterprise environments. He pointed out that while AI agents have been used in relatively closed industrial systems for decades, they often struggle with handling very complex tasks.
Brethenoux questioned the feasibility of personal AI agents seamlessly working with multiple data sources across an enterprise and making decisions such as automatically scheduling meetings. When asked how such systems would consider competing needs of an employee’s boss, partner, or kids, he said vendors respond with “silence.”
The analyst emphasized that building agentic systems that address these issues is a significant software engineering problem that requires careful consideration of system decomposition, communication, autonomy levels, and information perception and control.
Brethenoux also highlighted the conflation of the terms “AI agent” and “generative AI” by vendors, which he believes contributes to the current wave of AI hype. He shared an aphorism attributed to French philosopher Albert Camus: “To misname things is to contribute to the world’s miseries,” underlining the importance of clear definitions in the AI space.
Read more at the Register here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
