In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), industry leaders are shifting from initial hype to pragmatic applications. Javier Lafuente, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Orquest, with extensive experience in leveraging AI for operational improvements across sectors, shares his insights on AI’s impact on business and society.

From Hype to Reality

Lafuente, a seasoned AI solution developer, emphasizes AI’s transformative power in enhancing business efficiency and decision-making. “The main value that AI will provide will not be the AI itself, but the way you use AI to solve problems,” he states. This highlights a pivotal shift: AI’s value lies in its application to optimize tangible outcomes, not in its isolated capabilities. 

He envisions AI augmenting human intelligence: “Helping humans to help other humans, I think, would be the role of AI.” AI empowers smarter, faster decisions, streamlining processes and fostering a symbiotic relationship between people and machines, allowing humans to focus on creative, high-value tasks.

Understanding Analytics in the AI Era

In the conversation, Lafuente highlights the different stages of analytics as laid out by Gartner twenty years ago. These stages—descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics—offer a clear framework for understanding how AI can be applied across various levels of business operations.

Descriptive analytics, for example, refers to basic data analysis, often represented through graphs and charts in tools like spreadsheets. Diagnostic analytics builds on this by identifying trends and helping businesses understand why certain outcomes occurred. Predictive analytics, which leverages machine learning, allows businesses to forecast future trends with a certain level of accuracy. However, Lafuente emphasizes that the true potential of AI lies in prescriptive analytics, where AI doesn’t just predict outcomes but also suggests actionable steps for improving performance.

“For businesses, the most important thing is how to decide which actions to take in order to minimize costs or maximize profits,” Lafuente says. Prescriptive analytics, in his view, is the cutting edge of AI’s impact on business. It is this capability—where AI not only predicts but also prescribes—that is revolutionizing how companies operate and make decisions.

A Broader Philosophical Shift

While AI’s practical applications are often the focus of discussions about its impact on business, Lafuente also touches on a deeper philosophical question: What does it mean for humans when machines become intelligent? “We traditionally thought that humans are intelligent because other animals are not intelligent. Now machines are intelligent, so what makes us human?” Lafuente poses.

This philosophical reflection highlights the profound implications of AI’s increasing capabilities. As machines take on more tasks traditionally handled by humans, businesses—and society as a whole—must confront questions about human identity, purpose, and value in a world where intelligence is no longer exclusively human.

Ultimately, Lafuente believes that the true value of AI lies in its ability to support human decision-making and enable businesses to achieve their goals more effectively. By focusing on how AI can improve operations and strategy, businesses can unlock significant value and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.

AI’s Impact on Business: The Road Ahead

Orquest, Lafuente’s company, is at the forefront of applying AI to solve a common retail challenge: workforce scheduling. For retailers, labor represents one of the largest variable expenses, yet employee performance is a critical driver of sales. Balancing labor costs with employee performance is essential for profitability. 

At the heart of Orquest’s approach is a three-step process. It starts with forecasting, where machine learning is employed to predict key performance indicators such as ticket sales and foot traffic. “The first step in Orquest is to compute the forecast. Whenever you’re planning for the future, you need to guess what you’re going to sell,” Lafuente explains.

Building on these predictions, the next phase focuses on determining workload and identifying employee requirements. Finally, AI automates scheduling, aligning forecasts, labor needs, and employee preferences while minimizing costs. This step optimizes workforce allocation to ensure maximum operational impact.Companies like Orquest are driving AI’s practical application, demonstrating its potential to transform operations through prescriptive analytics. Lafuente’s insights emphasize that AI is a tool to enhance, not replace, human intelligence. Its true impact lies in solving complex challenges, making operations more efficient, cost-effective, and ultimately, more human-centric.