The CEO of Tesco, Ken Murphy, spoke about the role of tech in business at the Chartered Accountants Ireland annual dinner on Friday, The Business Post reported this week.
Cork native Murphy – who previously served as chief commercial officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance – spoke at Dublin’s Convention Centre of the rising importance of tech and artificial intelligence (AI) in business, and the challenges facing innovation in this area.
He told the attendees that Tesco had 2,000 people working in its tech unit when he joined the company, and that figure has now increased to 5,000.
Murphy said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I have 10,000 by the end of the decade.
“It’s just such a critical part of any business today. Almost anything you want to do has a technology dependency.”
He noted the current question of how to power the tech revolution, saying, “If we can find some way of unlocking energy … energy is the limiting step that I can see at the moment.”
In the US, Murphy notes, large tech companies are moving towards solutions, and new policies from US president Donald Trump could give these industries a head start.
He said, “Apple and Meta and others are trying to buy nuclear plants, basically, to power their data centres in the US because they know that if they can achieve an inflection in energy, they can do the same with their large language models, and then all bets are off with what they can do with that.”
Artificial Intelligence
AI is also gaining traction in conversations about efficiency.
In the UK, new social-security charges and an increasing minimum wage – both coming into effect in April – have pushed retailers to look at tech and AI solutions in order to protect profits.
Earlier this month, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer all announced that they would be stepping up their drive for efficiency through automation and other measures – including AI – to save costs.
This culminated in Sainsbury’s announcement last week, that it will be cutting 3,000 jobs in search of savings in a ‘particularly challenging cost environment’.
On the AI question, Murphy says, “We have to find our way into AI – obviously, not as a kind of first-mover because we just don’t have the money – but we have to find our way into an AI world where we can use it to improve customer experience, improve efficiency, improve every part of our business.
“The limitations of AI will be energy and probably Web 3.0, which is kind of next generation.”
Murphy concluded, “When those three come together, then everything we know about business and how we live today will be completely changed.”
Read More: Sainsbury’s To Cut Over 3,000 Jobs To Counter ‘Challenging Cost Environment’
