Over the past several years, I’ve written a number of blogs and research notes centered around the theme of business transformation. As many of you are aware, I recently embarked on a new journey with a blog series that delves into the realms of AI platforms and architecture.
Today’s conversation with a client about the impact of AI on their business served as a reminder—many of the insights I’ve shared regarding business transformation hold true for organizations venturing into the world of AI.
Navigating AI Strategically
The rapid proliferation and adoption of AI technologies have spurred numerous organizations into a reactive stance. They find themselves grappling to govern, manage, and develop AI systems in a bid to propel their business forward.
Yet, amidst this fervor, a prevalent challenge emerges: many organizations approach the adoption of AI technologies and services with a reactive or tactical mindset.
Essentially, they gravitate towards AI solutions either embraced by their users or readily provided by their solution providers.
In essence, their AI strategy and architecture is based on user adoption and emerging trends within applications—a somewhat opportunistic AI strategy.
Crafting Your AI Strategy
Before diving headlong into the adoption of any AI technology (or any technology, for that matter), it’s imperative to pause and reflect on a few fundamental questions:
- Does this AI technology serve a vital role in bolstering our business strategy, enhancing our support for customers and partners within our current business model?
- Alternatively, are we leveraging AI technology to carve out a new business strategy, unearth fresh opportunities, tap into nascent markets, attract new customers, and pioneer novel business models?
If your response to question #1 is affirmative, chances are you’re primarily thinking about business automation, optimization, or enhancement. The aim is not to change your business model but to leverage AI technologies to fine-tune and fortify your existing business practices.
On the other hand, if your answer to question #2 leans towards the affirmative, then you’re likely seeking to utilize AI technologies as a catalyst for transformative change within your business and its overarching strategy.
While this transformation may pertain to specific facets of your business, it’s crucial to discern between automation and transformation.
Distinguishing Automation from Transformation
Business automation—be it enhancement or optimization—involves harnessing AI technology and services to streamline human (employees, customers, partners) workloads.
Deploying business automation holds the promise of enhancing service quality, streamlining processes, or even curbing costs.
For instance, leveraging generative AI to create marketing materials or customer emails, or to monitor customer engagement, falls within the realm of business automation, rather than transformation.
Conversely, business transformation is a fundamental overhaul of an organization’s business operating model. It entails creating new business strategies, models, and operations to support new business paradigms.
In effect, it entails redesigning existing solutions, systems, processes, and information frameworks to align with these novel business models.
Business transformation, by and large, is a strategy-driven evolution underpinned by technology—namely, your AI technologies.
An Architectural Approach to AI
Embracing an AI architecture is critical for ensuring that your AI decisions and acquisitions integrated with your business’s context and future=-state.
When making AI investments with an architectural viewpoint, it ensures these decisions are in-line with other organizational facets, including human resources, culture, organizational dynamics, information ecosystems, business processes, existing technologies, and resource allocations.
At its core, conceptualizing an AI architecture safeguards that your investments in AI technologies align with your business’s envisioned future state.
Bottom Line
Through 2029, the primary pitfall leading to failure and squandered resources in AI systems will stem from organizations approaching AI support from a technological or solution-oriented stance, rather than a business-centric approach.
As with any technological endeavor, it’s critical that organizations grasp the underlying business rationale driving their investments in AI technologies and how they dovetail with their overarching future state.
Central to this decision is determining whether the objective is to automate or enhance existing business operations, or to embark on a transformative journey.
Recognize that many organizations will end up supporting both automation and transformation into their operations.
This underscores the criticality of adopting an AI architecture that is future-state focused, thereby ensuring each business area receives the requisite attention and action.
Webinar Now On-Demand
How are you going to develop AI solutions? How are you going to integrate diverse AI technologies? The answer is…with AI platforms.
An AI platform coordinates AI services to enable organizations to define and develop AI solutions. What makes AI platforms specific and differentiated is that it supports AI technologies and services, such as LLM, SLM, knowledge graphs, computer vision, deep learning, bots/agents, vector database, development tools, etc.
Join us for this interactive webinar, in which we will introduce this market, and begin to explore how this this market will evolve.
Key topics for discussion include:
- Why have AI platforms become critical?
- What are the key capabilities of AI platforms?
- How will the AI platform market evolve?