C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Christopher Kouzios Of Schellman On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans
An Interview With Kieran Powell
Is it more dangerous for a person to do the work than a machine? If so, you have a great case for AI + robotics and the two most certainly go hand in hand. Chernobyl. 3 Mile Island. Fukushima. No human should ever need to go near those three places and yet they need to be cleaned up. More specifically they need to be studied, dismantled, rectified, and made safe for use again even if it’s just the land they currently sit on. What is it your business does that’s dangerous?
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and integrate into various aspects of business, decision-makers at the highest levels face the complex task of determining where AI can be most effectively utilized and where the human touch remains irreplaceable. This series seeks to explore the nuanced decisions made by C-Suite executives regarding the implementation of AI in their operations. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher Kouzios.
Christopher Kouzios brings over 30 years of extensive experience in healthcare and technology, culminating in his current role as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Schellman, a leading provider of attestation and compliance services.
He brings significant expertise in the financial services, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries. Chris excels in delivering strategic business and transformation initiatives, effectively decreasing costs, increasing profits, and managing risk. A trusted leader, Chris quickly earns the trust of his associates and teams, fostering a culture that prioritizes innovation, integrity, and accountability.
Chris’s diverse career, including roles with Fortune-ranked companies such as Optum, Insurance Auto Auctions, Masergy (Comcast), RR Donnelley, Nielsen, and AT&T, has refined his management approach and improved his communication skills. His experience also includes a technology “sales” position, further enhancing his ability to navigate and succeed in the dynamic intersection of healthcare and technology.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I have always had a knack for technology, but my IT career started by being restless and having a bit of OCD. When I was just getting started, I worked as a temporary employee in a department that processed paper agreements for cell phone rentals. I worked through the piles so fast, I got bored and started digging through contracts no one had been able to process, then through the database itself and 6 months later the IT department asked me to join their team. I spent years coming up through the ranks, then moving laterally to move up again with a few odd stops along the way. I spent 5 years, some of which was during the Great Recession, in telecom sales which provided me with a completely different view of technology and what it’s used for instead of seeing technology for the sake of it being technology. After moving back into progressive IT roles, I was able to spend time as part of IT in many of the business functional areas at companies I worked for. Those experiences taught me that I was a company industry professional…I just delivered service through technology. That reframing allowed me to become a better, more well-rounded leader.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In my first “real” IT role, I was responsible for data center operations (which I doubt is even a job anymore). I had been working on modifying a program all day in between running jobs and pulling reports when I noticed the green bar printer had been spitting out one massive character per page, and these were huge pages, so I quickly stopped the job…stared at this 6″ thick stack of dead trees and started the print job over. That caused the PC to crash…and I hadn’t saved the program changes I was working on so…I also had to start that from scratch. It’s funny looking back now but I was horrified then and the hours it took me to go back and rebuild all I had built before was a great lesson in save-early-save-often. Also…multitasking…not a thing.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are working on some very exciting new projects today. I am going to guardedly say that we’re building the nucleus of a platform that has the potential to revolutionize how we do what we do and how much we can scale. More to follow…
Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. In your experience, what have been the most challenging aspects of integrating AI into your business operations, and how have you balanced these with the need to preserve human-centric roles?
You can remove the acronym “AI” and replace it with almost any technology. AI is the buzzword of the 2020’s but the concept of technology enabling, then replacing roles is not new. I have seen decades of the same cycles but with different technologies. Remember I said my first “real” IT job was a data center operator? Who watches job and print queues and pulls green bar reports today? No one. I still have a job…a better one than I had then. Why? Because technology has a way of making the mundane disappear, but it allows people to grow into new areas and discover new ways of doing business, new technologies and new ways of using technology to create solutions that were not possible prior to the existence of the new technology. For well over a decade, I have openly stated that my goal is to replace every job in the company with automation…so the people can grow into new, more interesting roles.
Can you share a specific instance where AI initially seemed like the optimal solution but ultimately proved less effective than human intervention? What did this experience teach you about the limitations of AI in your field?
There are several instances where we worked on POC’s only to find that they were either not viable or because the technology was not mature enough, the work to use the AI driven tool would take more effort than just doing the work as we had already been doing it. I believe we’ve made it to the “toddler stage” of AI; It’s not in its infancy but it’s definitely trying to figure out where it belongs in the world. Given some time and attention it’ll grow.
How do you navigate the ethical implications of implementing AI in your company, especially concerning potential job displacement and ensuring ethical AI usage?
Our job is to assess compliance so being compliant and ethical comes with the territory; That’s just gravity here. In terms of job displacement, I would think of it another way: If we created a solution that allowed us to grow exponentially without adding exponentially more people, but rather allowed us to grow exponentially by adding fractionally more people, what I’ve done is give the same people the opportunity to grow into new areas.
Could you describe a successful instance in your company where AI and human skills were synergistically combined to achieve a result that neither could have accomplished alone?
This one is TBD but stay tuned.
Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things To Keep in Mind When Deciding Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans, and Why?” How have these 5 things impacted your work or your career?
1. Is it routine, mundane, and repeatable? If you answered yes to any or all of those three, you have a case for AI. People don’t want to do this type of work so they are not engaged in it and why should they be? I use a robotic vacuum and mop to clean my floors because they need cleaning. I don’t vacuum and mop because I love it. The job gets done by a robot with a tad of ML thrown in (not quite AI yet) because it needs to be done. I have clean floors and never pick up a vacuum or a mop. If I can automate it, it gets automated. The job gets done and no one is upset the robot took away their job cleaning the floor. Someone has to teach the AI what to do…that’s where the human connection is important. Who teaches the AI?
2. Is a person doing the work because they don’t have the opportunity to do something bigger, better or more challenging, but they still need to earn a living? If so, you have two cases for AI. Automate the work but then teach the person a new skill. AI can assist with that knowledge and growth. Imagine a person who has no money for college, no idea what to do or where to go and even with a job and financial assistance can’t make ends meet let alone take college or tech school courses. Now enable that person with a tool that allows her to learn…anything. To build…anything. Couple that with robotics or 3D printing and you have the next Elon Musk or Bill Gates.
3. Is it more dangerous for a person to do the work than a machine? If so, you have a great case for AI + robotics and the two most certainly go hand in hand. Chernobyl. 3 Mile Island. Fukushima. No human should ever need to go near those three places and yet they need to be cleaned up. More specifically they need to be studied, dismantled, rectified, and made safe for use again even if it’s just the land they currently sit on. What is it your business does that’s dangerous?
4. Can an AI become a force multiplier? If so, you have a great partnership between a person and the AI. Imagine one person who is able to perform the work of 10 or 50 people today. Not possible? Taking your jobs? We used to dig ditches with shovels. Now we use backhoes. What happened to the ditch digger? He learned to operate a backhoe. One person can now dig a mile of ditch instead of 50 people with shovels and people can’t even fathom having to dig a mile long ditch with shovels. Every company has people digging ditches. Teach them to use the backhoe.
5. Can an AI become an enabler? If so, you could be giving someone his life back. Consider what has now been done for the first time ever: a human being with a chip implanted in his brain is now more independent. What if you could enable a person who today is encumbered by ANY mental or physical challenge? Imagine the life of that vet who no longer has the use of his legs but through a bit of AI and robotics can walk, run, jump — live — again. Translate that to your business problems. Who can you enable?
The point is…it’s a tool. We have been using tools to eliminate the routine, mundane and repeatable work for eons. We have been using tools to create opportunities for people who would not otherwise be able to do a given job. We have been using tools to handle work too dangerous for people for…ever. We have been using tools to force multiply increasingly over centuries, but the creation and adoption curve is so much shorter than it has ever been. We have also been using tools to enable people since the first person used a sharpened stick to feed his family. Why are we struggling with AI when our past is filled with millions of tools we’ve used to get to where we are today. The tool is just an instrument; the true power lies in the hands of the one who uses it.
Looking towards the future, in which areas of your business do you foresee AI making the most significant impact, and conversely, in which areas do you believe a human touch will remain indispensable?
I see AI allowing us to automate the most mundane work, like comparing hundreds of policies to hundreds of standards if not thousands of both. It’s important work but it’s not stretching the cognitive abilities of either the customer or the assessor to compare list A to list B. People on the other hand are creative. They are personal. They understand nuance, tone, inflection, body language, morals, and ethics. They understand context at a level a machine cannot. I expect at some point in the distant future for AI to recognize some of those items, but it will never have a soul or a belief system and those are what drives humanity. Not tasks.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’m not sure I think of myself as a person of great influence, but I’ll pretend that I am for the purpose of this question. If I were to start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people it would be similar to the SETI at Home project but instead of processing data for the study of extraterrestrial life, it would be using the idle compute power to process data for human trafficking. Imagine 2 billion personal computers using their idle time to help Thorn. Game changing.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherkouzios/ Website: https://www.schellman.com/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
About The Interviewer: Kieran Powell is the EVP of Channel V Media a New York City Public Relations agency with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised more than 150 companies in the Technology, B2B, Retail and Financial sectors. Prior to taking over business operations at Channel V Media, Kieran held roles at Merrill Lynch, PwC and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can be leveraged to achieve concrete business goals.
C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Christopher Kouzios Of Schellman On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.