Founder and CEO of Landing.AI Andrew Ng delivered a keynote speech on “The New Era of Artificial Intelligence Empowerment” today at the 2018 China Artificial Intelligence Summit (CAIS2018) in Nanjing.

Ng said that during Landing.AI’s startup phase he often discussed how to implement AI driven solutions across a wide range of situations with CEOs from around the world. Those discussions informed today’s talk.

Ng said the first thing to realize is that an AI company is not just a traditional company that has neural networks or machine learning tech. A bona fide AI company should have their own data collection strategy, a centralized database, top AI talents and an advanced automation system.

Ng highlighted three challenges facing CEOs of AI startups:

How to recruit AI talents and establish an AI team?

How to choose AI projects?

How to combine AI technology and corporate strategy?

How to recruit AI talents and establish an AI team

Ng identified three key factors to consider when establishing a team of AI talents:

External talent resources

Internal AI talent training program

Good chemistry between the business team and the AI team

How to choose AI projects

Ng proposed several principles to keep in mind when selecting artificial intelligence projects:

Select a demonstration project

Partnership and collaboration opportunities with external AI experts

Internal project team capabilities

How to combine AI technology and corporate strategy

Ng believes that developing a corporate strategy is complex and multifaceted. He said a CEO should choose a core technological focus, and stressed that attempting to compete with tech giants like Google or Baidu in general AI technology is not a good idea. He advised a new company to build their AI solutions for vertical application.

In the keynote Ng also spoke on challenges regarding AI and government, education, and the labour force.