Len Bass Illuminates Key Challenges in Large-Scale AI Deployment at IT&NH 2024

Len Bass's new co-authored book, Engineering AI Systems: Architecture and Devops Essentials, will be released in March 2025. In his talk, titled "Overcoming the Challenges of Large-Scale AI Deployment," Bass explored why achieving quality in AI systems proves more difficult than in traditional software systems, emphasizing that data quality, interdisciplinary collaboration, and evolving regulations are critical hurdles. He discussed how AI models’ effectiveness hinges on high-quality training data, ongoing data monitoring, and mitigation strategies like retraining and ensuring bias-free datasets. These complexities, as Bass highlighted, contribute to why a significant percentage of AI projects—up to 80%—fail to move into production, compared to a lower rate for non-AI projects.

Bass also underscored the necessity of fostering effective interdisciplinary teams, which are essential for large-scale AI projects but often face challenges such as communication barriers and power dynamics. He pointed out that continuous education, understanding cultural nuances, and structured team-building efforts are essential to overcoming these issues. Through this keynote, Bass not only shed light on AI deployment’s multifaceted nature but also provided strategies for improving success rates, thus contributing valuable insights to both academic and professional audiences.