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After several years of relative technological stability, generative AI has taken the world by storm — so much so that McKinsey estimates that every company that won’t connected to AI will become obsolete over the next three years.
AI enterprises – enterprises built on artificial intelligence – are already on the rise. Existing businesses that need time to implement changes need to watch out. Generational AI has created an inflection point where AI-centric models are moving forward at lightning speed, and organizations that are still on the edge are quickly falling behind.
I saw a similar situation occur during the dot.com boom with Blockbuster, when the company failed to digitize in time to meet the needs of an increasingly digitally savvy audience. The same thing happened to Blackberry, who didn’t introduce the touch keyboard in time, making their state-of-the-art device a thing of the past. Both examples are less about a lack of product updates than about the failure of the leadership team to deliver a deeper business transformation in a timely manner.
While many people are just waking up, organizations still working on artificial intelligence are running out of time. This is bad news. The excellent news is that there is still time to correct course. Every successful technology transformation begins with business process transformation. Everything about your employees and how people work together. Employees can quickly become change agents if they are given the right tools and space to contribute. And this is something you possibly can easily do.
What is an AI-centric organization?
I see a convergence of two forces here – AI-native organizations, essentially startups that are built from day one with AI in their infrastructure, automation and data at the forefront of how they operate, and the rapid transformation of existing organizations into AI-central units. To survive and thrive, more organizations will need to focus on AI, making room for AI as the central “glue” in their operations and development in the future.
This transformation is, after all, a difficult query. Any operational change may be a painful process, let alone one that touches every aspect of a company’s operations, from sales and customer support to finance and HR. However, I consider that the opportunity cost of not undergoing this massive transformation is too great to ignore. Organizations must implement artificial intelligence if they need to remain competitive and relevant in the long run. So the query is not whether you must become an AI-centric organization, but how to become one.
Building an artificial intelligence-oriented organization
Create an open dialogue about artificial intelligence:
People are afraid of the unknown. If changes are coming and your employees feel like they are the last to know about them, it is going to cause a lot of tension and uncertainty. For example, a McKinsey study found that many transformation efforts fail because goals are not aligned with each worker’s job. Even more disturbing is the discovery that these are senior leaders 20% are more likely than the remainder of the staff to consider that these goals have been aligned, leaving a wide gap of confusion between them.
When defining your AI strategy and goals, you would like to engage intrapreneurs from all levels of the organization in how these changes will impact their individual job roles. Let them inform affected employees about these changes. Create open forums where employees can ask questions, express concerns, and share best practices. This proactive engagement may make you nervous and require some hand-holding at first, but it is going to surely repay in the future in increased levels of innovation, adoption, and impact.
Get everyone involved:
In addition to informing people about the upcoming change (top-down approach), you furthermore may need to think about ways to involve all employees in the process (bottom-up approach). Early McKinsey research shows that when employees feel they are actively engaged in any business change, they are much more likely to stick with it.
The best way to engage employees is to simply ask them about use cases and tools that they think can solve an existing business problem. Another approach is to create “promptathons” that help people come up with recent AI prompts while providing much-needed insight into the quality of existing AI algorithms. Finally, ask teams to test pilot solutions and provide feedback. For example, if your customer support team needs to learn to work with a recent chatbot, work with them to co-design it. Your employees are the best innovators and know what you are promoting processes best.
Experiment with AI-centric business models:
Pay attention to the rapid changes in the AI space – each in technology and in emerging business models. If you have a dedicated innovation team, work with them to experiment with AI-centric solutions. If you do not have one, it might be time to create one because AI innovation doesn’t wait.
In this context, create a multi-level approach to AI use cases, a clear framework of metrics and prioritization, and a transformation map for each business function. An AI-centric organization requires that data (and due to this fact organizational knowledge) can flow freely between business units and underlying platforms. This may be a costly endeavor, but it provides a unique opportunity to re-examine and redesign your entire business infrastructure. Think of it as migrating from paper notes to email. This was a huge step forward, but it is now difficult to imagine that organizations once relied solely on printed materials and interoffice correspondence.
AI road or highway
Having worked with managers in many industries, I see that many of them are vulnerable to fear-mongering by artificial intelligence. Business leaders are feeling increasing pressure to adopt AI, even if they are not ready. This is after all the fallacious approach. Improper implementation of AI could cause much more harm than not implementing it. So focus on what you are promoting strategy first.
That said, complacency is not the answer either. If you do not have a clear strategy for how AI can improve what you are promoting, it must be at the top of your priority list. Consult with your employees to obtain information chances are you’ll not otherwise obtain. So get to work, because time is running out and AI-powered corporations are already racing through the competitive landscape.