Where in the hype cycle should your business adopt AI

There's an incredible amount of hype about AI today.

Consumer use cases like self-driving cars and robotics have captured people’s imaginations and shown them that they can make a huge leap with innovation rather than an incremental change. That shift in thinking is exciting, but there’s also a lot of FOMO around AI that means businesses are just trying to tick a box rather than thinking more deeply about how they can use automation to improve their business.

Your AI strategy

There’s an enormous amount of pressure from boards and investors to have an AI strategy.

Microsoft surveyed 800 business leaders in Europe and the US and found that 93% of high-growth companies intend to invest in decision-making AI in the next three years. People feel like they need to have an AI story, but they don't. AI is just a technology set within a much broader automation conversation. The question shouldn’t be when are you going to invest in AI, it should be what’s your use case for it?

How to harness AI to optimize your business

The best way for you to harness AI is to think pragmatically about your business and how you can build a cohesive business strategy.

• What are the outcomes that you want to see?
• How do you want to change your customer experience?
• How do you need to optimize your business?
• Which business processes would benefit most from smart automation?
• As a business leader, what technology problems are you trying to solve?

Once you’ve thought about how you want to transform your business, you can then choose the toolsets that will help you achieve your strategy. AI could be the right solution, but there could also be a myriad of other options. Take the time to understand what those technology options are and choose the right one for your business. If you're transforming your business on the run without a solid strategy or understanding of the technologies you're using, then you're bound to fail.

Root AI in your business strategy

So when you start to apply AI technologies or any digital transformation to your business, it should be rooted in your business strategy.

• What problems are you trying to solve?
• What's the impact on the customer?
• What's the impact on your operations?
• What's the impact on your people?

Based on that knowledge you can then apply new and varied technologies and AI may be just one small subsection of that.

How can you automate your business

So, before you jump on the AI hype cycle, think more broadly about how you can automate your business, improve customer experience and optimize processes. Then you can choose the best technologies to improve those processes, whether that’s AI or something else.

There is a huge amount of market disruption occurring because of AI. But it's occurring because people understand their businesses well and can apply that technology to their businesses to make a difference. That’s how you succeed when adopting AI.