Ranging from assistive diagnosis to ‘robocall’ services, from online schooling to digital banking, new technology – in particular, artificial intelligence (AI) – has revealed its strength in the worldwide battle against Covid-19, says Duan Dawei, CFO of leading intelligent speech and AI company iFLYTEK.
The results are impressive. In China alone, iFLYTEK’s technology has served more than 15 million students and teachers, and powered 50 million ‘robocalls’ to help screen for infection.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, the company is offering the same technology for free through local partners. iFLYTEK’s AI-enabled outbound calling system, which can make tens of thousands of calls at the same time to check on quarantined users, has been deployed by the country’s Ministry of Health and Welfare across 70% of the population.
As applications are set to deepen, AI will transform all industries. We will see a full convergence between traditional sectors and technology
CV
Duan Dawei, CFO and senior vice president at iFYTEK, has nearly 30 years’ professional experience in accounting, finance and investment.
Prior to joining iFLYTEK in 2018, he worked with Sany Heavy Industry Co for over a decade between 2003 and 2017 and was promoted from the company’s controller to senior vice president. Before that, he worked for Jilin Chemical Industrial Company and Jilin Electronic Group from 1993 to 2003.
Duan says that the initiative has received positive feedback as it not only improves efficiency in screening and education but also reduces infection risk by hosting a centralised call service.
‘One can only imagine how much work it would mean if done manually,’ he says during an online interview powered by the company’s teleconferencing app that supports auto transcribing and translation. ‘The value created by AI is palpable.’
AI technologies are also behind machine translation services at Moscow airport, facilitating international passenger registration. The system supports auto translation between any pairing of 60 languages, providing an ideal solution for communication with travellers from different countries.
Indispensable tech
As he steers the rising company’s financial operations, Duan believes that AI will become indispensable for future economic activities.
‘AI will be just like steam and electricity in industrial times, or the computer and the internet for the information era,’ he says. ‘It will form foundational productivity.’
Although there’s still some way to go before the emergence of general intelligence that can develop all senses, think for itself and truly match the human mind, the business potential is huge, according to Duan.
‘As applications are set to deepen, AI will transform all industries,’ he says. ‘We will see a full convergence between traditional sectors and technology.’
Because what one can achieve within a lifetime is limited, we should pick a career that is fit for the era and work towards that goal
iFLYTEK
Founded in 1999 and based in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, mainland China, iFLYTEK is a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, focusing on speech recognition, natural language processing systems and hardware products such as its educational robot, smart recorder and auto-translator.
In 2017, the company was named one of the leading national AI open platforms focusing on the development of voice intelligence.
With around 10,000 employees globally, iFLYTEK has made its products available in 200 countries and regions, and posted RMB10.1bn in revenue in 2019. Publicly traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of over US$12bn, the company recently became an ACCA Approved Employer.
Healthcare is one of the first sectors to embrace the AI transformation, and iFLYTEK has been at its heart.
In 2017, iFLYTEK’s robot passed mainland China’s medical licensing exam for doctors, making it the first robot globally to carry out such an achievement.
‘AI can learn from top experts in various fields and transfer that knowledge into a smart solution to assist humans in their daily work, such as offering doctors in community clinics a second opinion, so as to avoid missed diagnosis and more pressure on hospitals,’ Duan says.
With around 1.4 million developers on iFLYTEK’s open platform, offering a collection of applications powered by the fundamental AI technologies, Duan notes that the company is achieving its ambitions: ‘iFLYTEK has two goals,’ he says. ‘One is to maintain our global leadership in technology and the other is to apply AI to every corner of our lives.’
Serving society
Duan has spent nearly three decades building finance infrastructures – first in engineering mechanics and then new technology.
His journey began in the 1990s when he decided to study economics at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in Dalian, mainland China. This was, he recalls, in response to the opening up of the country.
‘I sensed that an economic major would be of greater use to society,’ he says. ‘Because what one can achieve within a lifetime is limited, we should pick a career that is fit for the era and work towards that goal.’
Established in 1999, iFLYTEK was founded by a group of graduates from China’s University of Science and Technology. The Hefei-based company has grown into a national AI champion spearheading the country’s research efforts in voice intelligence. It was named one of the world’s top 50 smartest companies by MIT Technology Review in 2017 and 2019.
iFLYTEK recently became an ACCA Approved Employer, enabling the company’s ambition to provide opportunities in staff training and development along with internships for students throughout the country.
‘ACCA is an excellent platform and a professional organisation with a global impact and it has made a tremendous contribution to the construction of the country’s market economy over the past decades,’ says Duan, who last year won the ACCA/SNAI/Korn Ferry China Best CFO Leadership Award.
‘People have a great deal of respect for ACCA-trained accounting professionals. ACCA continues to strengthen cooperation with employers and iFLYTEK can play a role too.’ He adds that iFLYTEK is seeking partners by offering its AI-enabled outbound calling system free of charge to ACCA Approved Employers and members in response to the pandemic.
Intelligent future
The evolution of technology poses many new challenges to finance professionals, Duan points out. For a start, the AI investment circle is usually lengthy, with some taking years to generate a positive return.
Duan recalls that when he first joined iFLYTEK in 2018, the traditional metric of cost-volume-profit analysis turned out to be unsuitable. While raw materials would take up around 90% of overall cost for manufacturers, over 70% of the AI company’s costs came from human capital.
‘For hi-tech companies, staffing is both our major expenditure and our most important asset. The cost model devised from the industrial age, with its own limits, may no longer be effective,’ he says.
‘Embracing an intelligent future means we need to redefine our cost structure and develop new thinking on how to transform management accounting.’
There is, he adds, much to learn from observing the experiences of companies across industries as they go through a similar journey. ‘It has happened countless times as each technology emerges, prepares for a tipping point, experiences explosive growth and matures,’ he says.
A key priority for Duan has been to strengthen iFLYTEK’s cashflow, which had not kept pace with revenue growth.
In order to address the mismatch, Duan’s team began to securitise long receivables, while enhancing overdue collection efforts and setting up a strict access system for suppliers.
As a result, iFLYTEK’s operating cashflow enjoyed record growth in 2018 and 2019, bringing it level with profit.
‘A company’s cash position is akin to a person’s spirit,’ he says. ‘It reflects its comprehensive wellness, including the efficiency of its sales network and supply chain operation.’
