Is Artificial Intelligence Ready to Ride the Waves?

Can you scale artificial intelligence (AI) in your organization?

Of course, the answer is yes assuming you want your company to survive and gain competitive advantage.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has a great read on this: “Artificial Intelligence: Ready to Ride the Wave” as part of its Executive Perspectives series, a tsunami of trends, charts, lists and insights helping C-suite executives better understand AI as a must-have technology investment.

Scaling AI matters, even more so because most companies fail at it. According to BCG’s report, only 11% of companies have found value in AI.

Why aren’t companies taking AI beyond the pilot?

The answer is a bit complicated. AI, meant to mimic human behavior, must also work with humans to scale. This crossroad is where the magic happens.

If you’re not sure where to start, consider an executive briefing and playbook. Lean on big data. Look at every part of your company AI can transform, from managing talent to areas of regulation and ESG.

Now the entire C-suite is in the picture.

Here are some ideas to get started:

• Optimization to reduce opex

• Personalization to increase revenue

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• Automation to reduce cost-to-serve

• Predictive operations and maintenance for cost savings 

Think of AI as business transformation beyond technology tied to strategy. What would you do if you implemented a new ERP system or migrated to a new product category? You would plan, implement, test and scale.

For every executive who acts holistically in designing and deploying AI solutions, there is another executive who takes small steps to build up capabilities. Whichever camp you live in, stay at the top of your game by staying current with the landscape, opportunities, and pitfalls.

One surprising recommendation from BCG’s report is to find inspiration from #digitalnatives who embrace change, keeping them agile and ready to reimagine business processes (score one for the kids!). It always comes down to people enabling, changing, adopting and thriving. These are things digital natives are very good at.

How will you harness the power of AI in your organization?