News Room

The popularity of bike-share systems has grown in popularity thanks to the younger, more environmentally conscious generation. While they have garnered considerable attention in cities from Paris to Washington, D.C., their promise of urban transformation is far from being fully realized.

In his President’s Desk column in the February issue of OR/MS Today, INFORMS President Ramayya Krishnan shares examples of how O.R. and analytics are addressing some of society’s biggest problems, and the importance of collaboration and active engagement with government and industry, other INFORMS members, and the public to ensure O.R. and analytics continue to grow in vibrancy and relevance.

The convergence of big data, AI (artificial intelligence) and algorithmic platforms is transforming all sectors of the economy. Driverless cars and popular applications such as IBM Watson and AlphaGo have captured the imagination of the public and leaders alike. Organizations of all types and sizes are pondering what AI means for them. As AI automates, fully or partially, the execution of a task, the nature of a job that is a collection of tasks, changes. This in turn raises questions among workers in every sector of the economy about the future of their work, and policymakers are actively discussing the myriad opportunities and challenges of AI’s impact on our society and our economy.