Journal of Asia-Pacific Business

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Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and

Challenges

Riad A. Ajami & Homa A. Karimi

To cite this article: Riad A. Ajami & Homa A. Karimi (2023) Artificial Intelligence:
Opportunities and Challenges, Journal of Asia-Pacific Business, 24:2, 73-75, DOI:
10.1080/10599231.2023.2210239

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10599231.2023.2210239

Published online: 09 May 2023.

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JOURNAL OF ASIA-PACIFIC BUSINESS
2023, VOL. 24, NO. 2, 73–75
https://doi.org/10.1080/10599231.2023.2210239

EDITORIAL

Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Challenges

Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting local communities and global society.

AI tools such as ChatGPT and OpenAI among others, are likely to transform
the way we live, work, and interact with each other. It will impact various
economic sectors in the United States, across the Asia Pacific region, and
elsewhere. From medicine to pharmaceutical products, entertainment, corpo­
rate banking, retailing, and commerce. In the field of pharmaceutical and
medicine, AI could usher in a future of innovation in diagnosis and could
reshape the field of patient treatment care. AI could help medical providers
identify medical markers quicker and better. Nurses, doctors, and hospital
administrators can improve the medical care chain. It could cut costs, improve
outcomes, and make for a more productive and efficient healthcare delivery
system. An AI tool such as IBM Watson can provide diagnosis and data
analysis faster. AI machine learning algorithms can process large amounts of
data quicker and make more accurate and targeted treatment possible, thus
reducing medical costs along the medical value-added chain. Moreover, AI
could also improve medical revenue generating systems for hospitals through
the organization of medical records. It could process medical test results faster,
and allows doctors and healthcare providers to have more autonomy and
better workflow, and improve patient-doctor interactions and allow for nurses
and doctors to spend more time with patients. Moreover, during medical
surgery, physicians can rely on multidimensional imagery to guide and
improve surgical procedures. Also with AI, charts and documents can be
reviewed faster and in real time to deliver better treatments. Hospitals using
electronic medical records could benefit significantly by using AI tools. Drug
manufacturers can also benefit from data analytics so that they can bring drugs
to market faster. The development of the COVID-19 vaccine by Johnson &
Johnson was brought to market faster with the help of AI analytics. The
National Science Foundation is cooperating with Cornell University School
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to advance research on how to
modify the polymer nanoparticles to make it possible to target cells in patients
and bring about specific treatments with the help of nanomedicine solutions.
Overall innovations in the healthcare delivery system and the pharmaceutical
industries are very promising and will grow immensely with AI tools.
Beyond medicine, AI can help optimize supply chains across various sectors
from engineering to manufacturing and services. This will result in cost saving

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes does not impact on the academic content of
the article.
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
74 EDITORIAL

and the reduction of down time. It could also improve customization to meet
the needs of consumers and address demand variability.
AI is likely to improve quality controls and help with generating design
algorithms for optimization. It will certainly help access data, improve innova­
tion, and enhance technological growth and development in various econo­
mies from highly industrial countries to emerging economies. Moreover, AI
could improve cyber security and improve responses to customers’ needs by
helping to build faster software. It could also monitor various corporate
transactions to customize personalized advice, and could make related trans­
actions more efficient, and free members in the value-added chain to move
toward skill enhancement and learning. Furthermore, AI could also help
monitor changes in supply chain and logistics to ensure availability of certain
products and allow for efficient replenishment of missing supplies. Finally, AI
usage in virtual voice assistant programs could be used in various sectors from
retailing to banking, and could increase employee productivity and enhance
teamwork.
While AI could perform tasks better than humans, it should be stated that
AI has the potential for misinformation and risks in the social, economic and
political spheres. Moreover, AI tools could not protect individuals from what
has been referred to in social discourse as “hallucinations.” AI tools produce
“hallucinations” and misinformation that could be used by others as facts and
not be considered as opinions, though opinions are not always facts. Thus, AI
tools could create incorrect falsehoods.
AI technology is now in its early stages and growing fast and we should
move to minimize its risks. Technological firms should not resist the demand
from governments and other stakeholders to work together to mitigate and
reduce the negative impact of AI tools. Rather, they should want the feedback
and the input of all stakeholders and members of society in the early formative
years of AI usage.
Some countries are now introducing both regulations and legislation to deal
with AI’s potential risks and have moved to ban ChapGPT. Across OECD
countries and elsewhere across the globe, there are social and cultural concerns
about AI and the protection of individual privacy. In this regard governments,
the corporate sector, and other societal stakeholders should come together to
create guidelines and promote the safe usage and application of AI. Italy and the
U.S. among other countries and governments are proposing policies to regulate
AI to mitigate the possibility of misinformation and bias. The coordination
between the private sectors and governments could help provide for sound and
functional rules to capture the benefits of AI and reduce its risks. From such
initial attempts informed policies can come about. Global discourse and coop­
eration of the various stakeholders at the local and higher level of governments
could guide the process to reduce the risks of AI prior to its emerging and
certainly growing worldwide usage. Bringing together transnational firms,
 JOURNAL OF ASIA-PACIFIC BUSINESS 75

governmental bodies, and societal stakeholders from across the globe at this
early stage is in the best interest of all. The disruptive tools of AI could be
immense and could lead us away from possible global cooperation and sustain­
ability as a functioning global society. The time for global cooperation and
coordination to regulate AI is now. For our future just arrived yesterday.
The Journal of Asia–Pacific Business has a seemingly very specific scope,
but the region includes such a wonderful variety and our articles for this issue
reflect that as well. Our articles for this issue are as follows: our first article,
“Consumer Purpose: A Holistic Rethinking of Psychological Bonds,” by
Dianne Welsh and Bonnie Canziani of The University of North Carolina at
Greensboro, and their colleague Yuchin Hsieh of Saunders College of Business
Rochester Institute of Technology. The second article, “Social Media Used for
Academic Purposes in Vietnam and China: An Overview of Implementation
and Futures,” by Daniel S. Helman of Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam.
The third article is by Asra Jabbar of Lahore Garrison University and Rizwan
Qaiser Danish of the University of Punjab entitled: “The Art of Juggling:
Effects of Employee’s Polychronic Orientation on Service Recovery
Performance and Extra-role Customer Service.” Our fourth article,
“Exploring the Impact of Servitization on Chinese Manufacturing Firm
Performance,” is a collaborative effort of Muhammad Ajmal of the
University of Gujrat, Pakistan, Zeenat Islam, and Azmat Islam of the
National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore. It is
our hope that one or more of these articles will inspire and augment your
research interest about the Asia–Pacific economies. We are as always, extre­
mely grateful for our reviewers and referees without whom all of the scholars
in our fields would be left adrift. Finally, we value our readers for their
continued support of our efforts.

Riad A. Ajami
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Asia-Pacific Business, Wright State University,
Dayton, OH, USA
Riad.ajami@wright.edu
Homa A. Karimi
Managing Editor, Journal of Asia-Pacific Business, Dayton, OH, USA