As you read this, your and your team have no doubt used ChatGPT to draft an email or Microsoft CoPilot to organise your calendar. AI has truly gone mainstream.
But there’s a lot of hype, and a lot of vested interests. Is it really going to be so transformative? In a survey of 300 Australian businesses conducted for IT provider Tecala’s report, Start Smart: Navigating Your AI Journey (https://tecala.com.au/ebooks/start-smart-navigating-your-ai-journey), respondents rated the statement ‘The earlier we use AI solutions and tools, the stronger our business performance will be’ with an average score of 7.7 out of 10.
Part of the challenge in navigating the new AI landscape however is figuring out where it’s going to have the most impact.
Sales/marketing leads the way in business processes that’s attracting the most investment and causing the most change. Strategy, customer operations and compliance/risk are next with HR, supply chain, finance, R&D, IT and legal following (although those values will change spending on your industry and workload).
But however they see themselves using AI, the Start Smart report identified some common themes. 56 percent of the companies surveyed said AI tools embedded in applications that already used were the primary approach, 10 percent said they were weighing options, but the most interesting finding was that 34 percent said they intend to build their own AI applications to augment business processes.
Diving in
But adopting AI isn’t straightforward – it’s a crowded and constantly growing market full of multiple, often conflicting marketing messages. Thankfully there’s an established pipeline-based approach to deploying AI that consists of strategy, ideation and deployment.
With the Start Smart report finding the owner of an AI project isn’t necessarily a technology executive, it presents the opportunity to figure out what AI will do for the business, not its own sake.
The first step is to set expectations about speed – the data from Start Smart suggests deploying Ai on a company-wide basis using a longer-term strategy can double the chance of success rather than just buying and installing an AI product to see if it works.
The other risk of ad-hoc deployments is they might not necessarily scale. You might have to (hurriedly) buy and deploy other tools to maintain the same capability, which might in turn expose you to increased governance and risk, all of which mean more cost.
Most companies surveyed in Start Smart said the most common internal sources of ideas around AI were business unit leaders and innovation/digital transformation teams, so you’ll already have a good idea of what your company can do with it.
But don’t let that drive the process – some organisations came up with a list of over 200 projects to consider. Devise a strict, metric-driven framework to prioritise the projects to pursue which includes definitive and measurable yardsticks for success. Nine out of 10 AI proofs of concept supported by partners don’t pass muster, and the main reason is because someone fails to grasp the ongoing commercial model beyond deployment.
When the time comes, you need a thorough audit of your technology stack to see if it can handle the demands AI will impose. Will your network and storage handle the increased volume? Are you compliant with relevant codes or legislation?
Even then it’s not completely a technology issue. Do you have the training frameworks ready so everybody knows how to use AI? If using one or more partners, are responsibilities for various elements clearly outlined and agreed upon?
The right partner
Speaking of partners, they’re more likely than not to be a crucial part of your AI plans, with 56 percent of companies from Start Smart saying they’ll engage a technology partner to do it. How do you pick the best one?
The best partner understands AI ins’t about technology but your people – letting your people adopt a new tool to do what they do better and more profitably. That means more than just software but change management, training and compliance.
AI is also – despite its rapid growth – a new area, and plenty of companies face a ‘don’t know what we don’t know’ problem, which means a partner with not just experience but imagination is critical.
To find out more about how your peers and competitors are using AI (or hoping to) and how Tecala might me the partner you’re looking for, download Start Smart: Navigating your AI Journey here.