AI a must-have tool: Wistron’s Lin
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a must-have tool for businesses to increase productivity amid drastic changes in markets and the environment, Wistron Corp (緯創) chairman Simon Lin (林憲銘) said at a panel discussion at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University after receiving an honorary doctorate.
“I’m not an expert in AI, but our company has adopted AI in its operations and I feel deeply that AI is an integral part of the business,” Lin said. “Without utilizing the power of AI to double or triple an employee’s working capabilities, a business would face difficulties in handling enormous changes in markets, technology and the environment.”
Likewise, AI technology would play a crucial part in allocating production lines promptly and taking countermeasures when geopolitical tensions spell trouble for manufacturers, Lin said.
Wistron is a primary supplier of AI modules and AI chip baseboards to Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Intel Corp.
Benefiting from the AI boom, the company’s shares more than doubled last year and have risen 28 percent since the beginning of this year, closing at NT$120.5 in Taipei yesterday.
Lin said AI also helps enhance productivity and partly solve workforce shortages.
The headcount of Wistron and its subsidiaries would be less than 70,000 at the end of this month, compared with 150,000 in 2011, while its consolidated revenue has increased to almost NT$1 trillion (US31.3 billion) compared with NT$600 billion in 2011, he said.
However, scarcity of talent remains a headache for Wistron and most companies given a low birthrate in Taiwan, as firms continue to expand the scale of their businesses and globally deploy, Lin said.
As a result, creating a bigger talent pool with different expertise would be vital for Taiwan to seek long-term growth and to safeguard its core position in the technology industry, he said.
To that end, the government should make bolder decisions and become more open about recruiting talent overseas, Lin said, adding that Japan has relaxed its rules on introducing overseas talent over the past few years, a move that was unimaginable for the nation in the past.