Generative AI: What is the Business Impact? 🥁

In my engagements with various clients, I've noticed a common trend in generative AI. Many companies are in an experimentation mode, testing generative AI on use cases that don't significantly impact the business, or they treat it as a technical playground for IT enthusiasts. While experimentation is vital, this tactical approach often falls short when it comes to demonstrating tangible ROI to leadership.

The benefits of AI are highly contextual, varying dramatically from one use case to another. However, when management seeks feedback and return on investment, this fragmented approach proves insufficient. 

To truly leverage the potential of generative AI, it's crucial to establish a structured approach that ensures AI delivers real business value. Here are some key steps:

Evaluate Your Vision and Strategy

Align generative AI initiatives with your long-term business strategy. It's not just about single-use cases; it's about evaluating how AI integration supports your overall vision. Additionally, ensure that the use of AI aligns with your business ethics. This alignment fosters a cohesive strategy that resonates with your organizational goals and ethical standards.

Identify Key Areas for Value

Assess where generative AI can provide value across the business. Depending on your sector, environment, and ecosystem, results can be dramatically different. A common approach is to leverage AI for efficiency and productivity, which is pragmatic given the current economic context. A study by the Nielsen Norman Group found that AI can improve employee productivity by up to 66%. But consider also how AI could drive new benefits, new services, product development, attract new customer segments, and offer competitive advantages in crucial areas. This requires a broad brainstorming session that encourages creativity and innovation without limitations on new ideas.

Assess Readiness

Determine your readiness to move forward by evaluating your data organization, infrastructure, computing capabilities, and AI skills and talent. This assessment will help you understand the effort required to achieve a baseline for AI integration. Recognize that this entry ticket involves significant investment and costs, but it's essential for laying a solid foundation for AI initiatives.

Consider Compliance and Risks

Do not overlook compliance requirements related to IP, data privacy, and the unique risks posed by generative AI, such as hallucinations. Involve legal representatives in your discussions and incorporate these considerations into your decision-making process to establish robust future roadmaps. Ensuring compliance from the outset can prevent costly setbacks and legal complications down the line.

Prioritize Your Business Cases

Based on the identified key areas for value, compliance considerations, and the overall effort estimation in terms of costs, investment, and implementation difficulty, evaluate your ROI. Understand that ROI is highly context-dependent and varies with different use cases. This is where leadership must make tough decisions to prioritize initiatives that promise the highest returns and strategic benefits.

My Experience as a Consultant

As a consultant, I’ve helped clients transition from fragmented experimentation to a structured approach. Understanding the complexity of generative AI and developing an efficient strategy often requires a neutral facilitator. This facilitator can mobilize diverse internal teams (technical, business, legal, risk, ethics, HR) for cross-collaboration, align everyone through education and upskilling, and lead the initiative impartially.

Within a few weeks, this structured approach can provide management with a clear roadmap of business benefits, ensuring AI initiatives are strategically aligned, innovative, and sustainable.

If you’re interested in adopting this strategic approach, discover more details through this link.

Alternatively, contact us directly to organize strategic workshops designed to streamline the integration of generative AI into your business strategy.