We live in a fantastic era of automated cars, drones delivering packages, chatbots taking fast food orders, and a new generation of robots’ co-existence with humans referred to as the 4th industrial revolution. AI has become an integral part of every discussion that I am in with a CXO. It’s always on their top five list if not their top two where usually the other will be saving costs by process automation. In order to thrive in this 4th Industrial Revolution, here are five organizational factors you should consider when adopting AI.
Adapt and Adopt AI Culture with Open Arms
At a recent conference, I heard a speaker mention that “Humans will not lose their jobs to AI. However, humans who don’t learn how to co-exist with AI will lose their jobs to humans who will learn to co-exist or AI itself.” In my recent experience working with organizations’ leaders, the biggest challenge I have to overcome is culture and legacy thinking as a gut reaction to change. It’s important to challenge the existing dogma that promotes fear of job loss, distrust in AI for results, and the idea that AI cannot compete with humans in ANY processes. Education and clarification using facts from reputable resources like R&D firms such as Gartner, PwC, and Forrester is a great way to promote a partnership between employees and AI and dispel doubt.
Humans will not lose their jobs to AI. However, humans who don’t learn how to co-exist with AI will lose their jobs to humans who will learn to co-exist or AI itself.
The Importance of Big Data and Smart Machines
IDC expects 175 zettabytes of data to be created worldwide by 2025 driven by cloud data centers, edge computing, and IoT devices. What’s interesting is that a lot of this data will be stored in the edge device itself. Your strategy should be to embrace that data and use it for your competitive landscape. Any professional digital interaction involving your customers and your employees should be tracked and analyzed for intelligent segmentation and analytics. Perficient’s Big Data practice has built intellectual properties to collect this data from any device, any time using open source ecosystem.
Social Media Data is Valuable
Whether it’s Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSAT) or Facebook and Twitter feedback for an objective evaluation of organization, data from social media is valuable in certain aspects of customer service. Eliminate any biases and run sentiment analysis and other predictive algorithms against social media and benchmarking data to challenge the status quo of your organization. Listen to what your customers have to say and what your competitors are focusing on. However, more importantly, find what is MISSING in the ecosystem of your customers doing business with your organization and your competitors and be opportunistic.
Embrace AI Startups
According to the KPMG Venture Pulse Q4 2018 Report (similar to 2017 and 2016), artificial intelligence attracted the most significant funding opportunities in the technology sector. Among the companies embracing AI startups is Uber, which announced $200 million of investment in AI-focused auto startups, and healthcare companies, which invested $2.3 billion in 2018. Examples of AI startups are CrowdAI, which uses machine learning and vision API to maximize the value of pictures from aerial drone and satellites, and KenSci, an AI startup built by doctors and data scientists to help hospitals uncover opportunities and risks in clinical, operational, and financial predictions by aggregating EMR, ADT, and claims.
Digital Experience Anywhere, Anytime, Any location
Customer experience using digital technologies has reached customers in their comfort zone to their specific needs instead of just public locations, especially in hospital settings. Montefiore Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals from Bronx, NY, is an example of how companies are providing a digital experience powered by AI. Montefiore has advanced specialty treatment, primary care, and research and education with NO BEDS. Their philosophy is to reshape patient healthcare through multi-disciplinary teams at a hospital without beds. They say that the hospital room of the future will be the patient’s bedroom. Advanced patient sensor devices, patient treatment adherence monitors, telemedicine with video conferencing, and emergency medical devices can make a SMART MEDICAL HOME.
The bottom line is that you can use AI for your organization’s competitive advantage. So stop focusing on the “what” and the “how” of AI and start focusing on “why” your company exists and how it can use the insights gained from AI to increase revenue, gain new customers, keep existing customers, and improve profitability by focusing on strategic investment into the field of AI.
Learn more about the factors affecting success for AI adoption from a senior technical AI architect or by scheduling a meeting to discuss your AI journey with our experts.
