Enterprise AI preparedness unfortunately will continue have more to do with parsing hype cycles and understanding where the opportunities to infuse Artificial Intelligence into the enterprise actually exist, than implementing long-term solutions that are still waiting to emerge.
Most of the hype surrounding AI has to do with Generative AI given the introduction of ChatGPT is what made Artificial Intelligence “real” and tangible to so many people, but the reality is AI has been around for decades and is already pervasive in our lives whether we realize it or not.
The real risk with Artificial Intelligence is not whether it will take our jobs or eventually impose a hellish Skynet-level dystopian future on us, it’s the incredible greed being shown by Big Tech. AI is not just another emerging technology that carnival barkers and snake oil salesmen can bottle up and sell, it represents the underpinnings of our future existence and evolution as a species.
I’ve been through enough Silicon Valley hype cycles to know what the true opportunity of a technology looks like versus the manipulative buzzword-driven overselling and overpromising that we have seen time and again since the 1990’s and the proliferation of the commercial Internet.
In terms of the incredible value that AI can help your organization create, think of the risks that you were once blind to that you can now prepare for and mitigate, as well as the once unimaginable opportunities that are now emerging all around you. This is where the enterprise needs to be laser-focused with Artificial Intelligence-driven technologies.
If you are looking to AI as a cheaper replacement to human innovation and ingenuity, you’re thinking about it in the wrong way. If you are looking at it as a historic opportunity to rethink everything you’ve ever known, and align your organization to look beyond the way we’ve always done things to create new products and services that align to stakeholder needs, or operating the business in new ways, you’re on the right path.
Artificial Intelligence in the Enterprise won’t fix structural issues by itself, but with the right structure in place, AI can be leveraged as a force multiplier, delivering exponential value on a level that almost feels inconceivable given the entirety of human innovation to this point.
Where I see AI enabling the most enterprise value is in the application of technologies that enable mutual learning and knowledge creation between humans and machines.
Today we view human and machine learning as two distinct concepts, but in the not-too-distant future, the ability to collect data and knowledge at every touch point, interaction, and handoff in workflows, journeys, and business processes will create the underpinning of innovative, AI-empowered organizations.
Reducing the friction of knowledge capture, ensuring robustness and trustworthiness of underlying data, information, knowledge, and models, and building human and AI interaction-based interfaces will enable a continous flow of knowledge creation alongside holistic and sustainable value creation.