POV: A strategic approach for AI in business
I recently read an excellent article in the Economist by Wharton professor Ethan Mollick titled “Companies should treat AI as what it is: profoundly weird”.
As a fundamentally new and transformative force unlike anything we have navigated before, Mollick points out that AI is not only “profoundly odd, risky and powerful” but also capable of things that were impossible a year ago”. His caution is clear: “don’t navigate strange territory by pretending your old maps will work”. Many GenAI users are still only scratching the surface on what this technology can do for their work and their organizations.
To navigate this new territory, we need to replace those old maps. Here are my key takeaways and thoughts about strategically building AI to become more knowledgeable, capable and proficient:
- Examine AI through multiple lenses
Building an AI strategy requires a holistic perspective. Leaving AI strategy primarily in IT’s hands is not recommended because business strategy can get overlooked and AI adoption becomes overly technical, cumbersome and slow. As Mollick notes, IT groups are typically focused on implementation over innovation, meaning they are rarely the best group to lead the broader strategic charge alone. An AI-powered organization requires systems thinking with stakeholders actively involved from the outset. Broad experimentation across business units is one of the most effective ways to build a genuine culture of innovation. - Empower leaders and employees to own AI adoption
Help your team grow their AI literacy and acumen. Provide different training for different company roles and levels. Build sustainable capabilities at individual and team levels that generate meaningful business impact. Help your teams “reimagine what’s possible and accelerate innovation”. In-house training is private, more intimate and specific. Be clear on specific goals and set the bar high to help spur transformation - Execs need a broader “imagination” approach
Don’t fall into the trap of only pursuing the simple AI use cases everyone else is adopting. If you want to transform your company or shape your industry…think big. Think beyond easy and add the dimension of value. Take time for imagination and “test to the edge” of new capabilities that create major value. Limiting your perspective “leads companies to default towards automation rather than augmentation”. - Implement a multi-level adoption model: Executive leadership, employee and expert
Strategic AI adoption needs a coordinated approach across levels. Leadership must become AI proficient and champion adoption from the top down. The crowd, your broader employee base, needs to be inspired and enabled to identify big use cases. Finally, a dedicated expert lab or “skunkworks” team should be tasked with pushing AI’s commercial frontiers, stress-testing ideas and scaling the most promising applications to generate tangible value. Together these three forces create the momentum that sustain meaningful organizational change.
AI is a completely new transformative technology wave. It demands thoughtful planning, organization-wide commitment and the willingness to think well beyond what’s known. Treat AI as a weird system with lots of potential.
