C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Hanan Naeem of OneStream Live On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans
An Interview With Kieran Powell
Continuous Education and Adaptation: AI technology is continually evolving, and staying informed is crucial. Continuous learning — for both AI systems and human employees — is essential to use the latest advancements effectively and ethically. Encouraging a culture of ongoing education and adaptation helps ensure that our team remains skilled at integrating new technologies in ways that enhance their roles and our business operations.
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 Hanan Naeem.
Hanan Naeem is the founder and CEO of OneStream Live, an innovative live streaming platform that enhances global communication. Originally from Pakistan and a graduate in Telecommunications Engineering from Aalto University in Finland, Hanan transitioned from a promising career at Ericsson to establish OneStream Live. Under his leadership, the company has become a pivotal player in the tech industry, merging cutting-edge AI with a focus on human-centric interactions. His vision extends beyond business, advocating for the use of technology to foster education and cultural exchange globally.
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 often reflect on my roots growing up in Pakistan, where the dream of leading a global tech company seemed as distant as the stars. These dreams took me far from home to Finland, where I pursued a master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Aalto University. The decision to study Telecommunications Engineering at Aalto University was more than an academic pursuit; it was a quest to explore new frontiers, both geographically and professionally. These years were transformative, filled with challenges that taught me the power of resilience and the importance of cultural adaptability — qualities that are at the heart of every entrepreneur.
After completing my studies, I joined Ericsson — a move that seemed like the culmination of my educational efforts. However, as I delved deeper into the corporate world, I realized that my aspirations extended beyond conventional employment. The entrepreneurial call was too strong to ignore. There was a relentless drive within me to innovate, to lead. Thus, the idea of OneStream Live was born. Venturing into the unpredictable waters of entrepreneurship, I set out to create a platform that wasn’t just about live streaming but about connecting lives across the globe, transcending physical and digital barriers. This wasn’t just about starting a business; it was about creating a platform that could transform live streaming. We pioneered into the market of live streaming with a new concept i.e. pre-recorded streaming. Every step in this journey has been about learning and adapting, not just surviving but thriving through innovation and a keen sense of market needs.
The leap from a secure job to starting OneStream Live was fueled by a desire to make a significant impact on how people connect worldwide. Today, I lead OneStream Live with a commitment to ethical technology use and a focus on human-centric service.We believe that technology and personal connection must coexist, enhancing each other in today’s world. Each day is a new opportunity to blend innovative AI solutions with the invaluable human touch that characterizes our brand. This balance is crucial, as it ensures that while we push the boundaries of what technology can achieve, we never lose sight of the people we serve. We are committed to this philosophy, ensuring that while we push the boundaries of what AI can do, we never lose sight of the human element that makes our services truly meaningful.
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?
Every entrepreneur has their fair share of early blunders, and I am no exception. One of the more memorable missteps occurred during the initial days of OneStream Live when I entrusted our entire social media strategy to an AI tool. Optimistic about its capabilities, I overlooked one critical aspect — its lack of cultural context. The result was a series of posts that were wildly out of sync with our audience’s expectations and sensibilities, leading to some bemused and confused feedback from our followers.
This experience was a humorous wake-up call to the limitations of AI, especially in roles that require emotional intelligence and cultural nuance. It reinforced my belief that while AI can be a powerful tool for data handling and automation, it cannot replace the human understanding and touch that is so critical in communication. We quickly adjusted our strategy to ensure that all our social media efforts were guided by human insight, blending AI’s efficiency with our team’s creativity and empathy.
Reflecting on this, I learned that innovation requires a balance of enthusiasm and caution. It’s essential to embrace new technologies, but equally important to oversee their integration with a critical eye. This approach has helped us avoid similar mishaps and continues to guide our strategy as we integrate AI into our services.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
One project that excites me tremendously is our initiative to use AI for real-time translation of live streams into multiple languages. The ability to break language barriers in real-time can transform a local event into a global phenomenon, allowing cultures to converge and interact like never before. This project holds a special place in my heart, as it reflects my own experiences with cultural and linguistic challenges when I first moved to Finland.
Our aim is to democratize information, making it accessible to everyone, regardless of language proficiency. By doing so, we’re not just expanding our business — we’re building bridges between diverse communities. This initiative is a testament to the power of technology in fostering understanding and inclusivity.
Moreover, this isn’t just about business growth. It’s a personal mission to ensure that no one else faces the barriers I did. By integrating advanced AI with a human-centric approach, we’re ensuring that live streaming is a tool for unity, not division.
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?
Integrating AI into our operations has been a transformative journey, marked by both breakthroughs and setbacks. Initially, the introduction of AI to manage customer interactions seemed promising. However, we soon realized that our customers valued interactions that felt personal and human, something that AI couldn’t fully replicate. This led us to rethink our approach, balancing AI efficiency with the irreplaceable human touch.
We learned that the best use of AI is not in replacing humans but in augmenting their abilities. For example, AI now handles preliminary data gathering in customer service, allowing our human agents to focus on providing more personalized and empathetic service. This blend of AI and human effort has not only improved efficiency but has also enhanced the quality of customer interactions, reinforcing our commitment to customer satisfaction.
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?
When we first explored enhancing our customer service capabilities, we experimented with AI-driven chatbots. The idea was appealing; chatbots could potentially offer round-the-clock support and immediate responses to basic inquiries. However, it quickly became apparent that the complexities of the issues our customers faced were beyond the capabilities of predefined algorithms.
Our customers often come to us with intricate technical problems that require not just an understanding of the issue but a deep dive into unique setups and configurations. These situations demand a level of technical expertise and personalization that AI, in its current state, cannot provide. The chatbots were efficient for handling straightforward queries, but they fell short when faced with the nuanced and varied technical challenges our users presented.
This realization led us to pivot away from relying on chatbots for customer support. Instead, we strengthened our human support teams, equipping them with advanced tools to enhance their responsiveness and efficiency. This approach not only maintained the high-quality and round-the-clock support our users expect but also ensured that each interaction was handled with the care and depth it required. We learned that in our field, the human touch is not just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for delivering the level of service our clients rely on.
How do you navigate the ethical implications of implementing AI in your company, especially concerning potential job displacement and ensuring ethical AI usage?
As the leader of a tech company, I hold a deep personal commitment to ethical AI use. This means not only ensuring our AI operates transparently but also that it enhances our employees’ jobs rather than replaces them. We engage in regular ethical reviews of our AI implementations, involving diverse teams to ensure our practices align with our core values of integrity and respect.
Our focus on ethical AI has helped us navigate potential pitfalls, such as data privacy concerns and the risk of unintentional biases in AI algorithms. By maintaining rigorous standards and open dialogue about our AI use, we build trust and foster a culture of ethical awareness within our team and with our users.
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?
One of the most successful instances of AI and human synergy at OneStream Live involves our content creation processes. The system of our AI tool uses AI to analyze viewer behavior and preferences, providing our content creators with insights that help them tailor their offerings to better meet audience needs. But the magic happens when our creative team takes this data and uses it to craft engaging, personalized content that resonates on a human level.
This synergy has led to remarkable increases in viewer engagement and satisfaction, demonstrating the power of combining data-driven AI insights with human creativity and intuition. It’s a perfect example of how AI can illuminate opportunities and patterns that might not be immediately obvious, allowing our human team to focus their creativity on areas with the highest impact.
The success of this approach has reinforced my belief that the future of successful business practices lies in the effective marriage of technology and human talent. AI opens up a world of data and efficiency, but it’s the human touch that turns these into genuine connections and memorable experiences.
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?
- Complementarity Over Replacement: The goal with AI should always be to complement and enhance human efforts, not to replace them. AI is excellent for handling data-intensive tasks, repetitive processes, and scaling operations, but it lacks the human qualities of empathy, creativity, and moral judgment. By using AI to take care of the groundwork, we free our human staff to focus on areas where they add the most value — those requiring human interaction and intuitive decision-making.
- Understand and Respect Boundaries: It’s vital to understand the boundaries of AI’s capabilities and its implications on privacy and ethics. As leaders, we must ensure that AI is used responsibly, protecting user data and respecting privacy. This involves not only adhering to legal standards but also setting our own higher benchmarks for ethical AI use, which can sometimes mean opting for human oversight in sensitive areas.
- Continuous Education and Adaptation: AI technology is continually evolving, and staying informed is crucial. Continuous learning — for both AI systems and human employees — is essential to use the latest advancements effectively and ethically. Encouraging a culture of ongoing education and adaptation helps ensure that our team remains skilled at integrating new technologies in ways that enhance their roles and our business operations.
- Maintain Human Contact Points: Despite the efficiency AI brings, maintaining human contact points in customer service and decision-making ensures that we preserve a personal touch that fosters loyalty and trust. It’s important to keep human interactions in areas where customers seek reassurance from another human, such as handling complex issues or providing personalized services.
- Evaluate Impact Regularly: Finally, regularly evaluate the impact of AI integrations. This means not just assessing their effectiveness in terms of business metrics but also their broader impact on employee satisfaction and customer experience. Feedback loops involving both customer and employee insights can provide valuable data that guide further AI integration and workforce planning. Keep a clear vision of the future. Understand where AI has the most potential to transform your business and where the human touch will remain indispensable.
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?
The integration of AI into our business operations at OneStream Live isn’t just about automation; it’s about enhancing the capacity for human creativity and decision-making. Looking forward, I see AI transforming the backend of our operations, such as optimizing our network capabilities and stream analytics. These tools help us understand user behavior and preferences more deeply, which in turn allows us to offer a more personalized and engaging viewer experience. This kind of backend enhancement is where AI excels and can provide insights at a scale and speed unattainable by human teams alone.
However, the front end of our business, particularly in areas like customer engagement and content creation, will continue to thrive on human input. AI can suggest content based on analytics, but creating content that resonates on a human level — content that tells a story, evokes emotions, and builds community — requires a human touch. Similarly, while AI can provide initial customer support, the complex issues that truly matter to our users often require empathy, understanding, and creative problem-solving that only humans can offer. This blend of AI and human input ensures we do not lose sight of what makes our platform unique — the genuine connections we foster between people around the world.
In the long run, I envision AI playing a crucial role in predictive analytics, helping us anticipate market trends and user needs before they become apparent. This foresight will be invaluable as we strive to stay ahead in a competitive market. However, the core of our decision-making will remain human, particularly when it involves strategic direction and ethical considerations. AI provides the data, but human wisdom turns that data into decisions that align with our values and vision. It’s this synergy that will propel us forward, ensuring that our technological advancements enhance rather than replace the human connections that are the heartbeat of OneStream Live.
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. 🙂
If I were to spearhead a global movement, it would be ‘Stream for Change.’ This initiative would harness the unique capabilities of OneStream Live to empower communities worldwide by providing them with the tools and platform to share their stories, issues, and solutions globally. The idea is straightforward: use live streaming technology to give a voice to those who are often unheard, turning local dialogues into global conversations and fostering global understanding and action.
The practical steps would involve partnering with local nonprofits and educational institutions to identify key issues and stories that need a spotlight. We would provide the necessary technology and training to enable effective storytelling through our platform. The focus would be on creating high-impact content that can attract global audiences and drive awareness and change. This content would range from environmental issues to social justice, providing a diverse view of global challenges and solutions.
Furthermore, ‘Stream for Change’ would also include a fundraising component, where viewers can donate directly to causes they are moved by during live streams. This direct action aspect not only increases the tangible impact of each stream but also empowers viewers to become active participants in change. By making it easy for anyone, anywhere, to contribute, we turn passive viewership into active engagement and support for global causes.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanan-naeem-52b585144/ or read my blogs here: https://onestream.live/blog/author/hanan/
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: Hanan Naeem of OneStream Live On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.