Embracing a holistic point of view
Our research shows that 71% of executives don’t fully comprehend the scope of tasks AI can effectively augment or automate in their organizations. With many leaders struggling with where to begin, we recommend focusing on five critical dimensions of an AI-enabled transformation:
Business and customer value
Strategy alignment and orchestration
Organization and workforce
Technology and data
Security, ethics, and governance
Ensuring you have a plan that encompasses each dimension is critical to evolving your business and building out your transformation in a fast, sustainable, and adaptable manner. Many executives are already prioritizing this, with 70% planning to increase resources such as budget, staff time, training, and technological infrastructure toward AI in 2024. Now is the time to assess your current position and chart a strategic course to turn your AI vision into reality.
In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, leveraging generative AI becomes a strategic imperative to stay agile and relevant—and to lead the way toward long-term success.
The business and customer value dimension is centered on using AI to improve both customer and employee experience. Approximately 73% of executives believe the top advantages AI can unlock for their companies involve competitive advantage and growth. Begin by evaluating the impacts and benefits of AI on customer experience, business models, and overall market position.
“Generative AI ignites the spirit of exploration within organizations, tapping into vast amounts of data to uncover hidden insights and novel solutions,” says Tamarah Usher, senior director of strategy and innovation at Slalom. “AI-driven creativity fuels innovation processes, allowing businesses to reinvent their business models and product offerings with a deep understanding of customer needs,
preferences, and market dynamics. In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, leveraging generative AI becomes a strategic imperative to stay agile and relevant—and to lead the way toward long-term success.”
Ask yourself:
How are your customers shaping your AI initiatives?
What value can you drive for your employees and workforce in addition to your customers?
How can AI reshape your value proposition? And what might AI enable you to produce that you haven’t been able to before?
One of the most discussed challenges related to AI is how our workforces will evolve and continue to change through new human and machine combinations. While the knowledge worker has always used technology, that technology is now a co-creator and collaborator. Identifying the skills and workflows needed for this new way of working will be critical to a successful implementation.
When evaluating the role of AI in the workforce, consider how cultural shifts might impact training and educational needs and the evolving dynamics of human-machine collaboration. Also, remember that your employees will be in different places when it comes to leveraging AI. Some may be scared while others may be excited. Work to meet each person where they are.
Have you examined how your people work with AI tools and optimized them for efficiency?
Are you reevaluating skills and learning programs within your organization?
How is change management bringing your people along in your AI journey?
Have you built a resilient, adaptable culture? And do you welcome change across skills, tools, and processes?
Technology and data are essential to running any modern business, but does your technology planning enable future AI capabilities? IT infrastructure, data management, machine learning operations, and technology adoption are all crucial for a successful AI implementation. Many leaders also recognize the importance of technical skills within their organizations—43% of those surveyed ranked digital literacy and technological proficiency among the most important skills in the workplace as AI continues to evolve.
What is the balance between new AI tools and existing IT infrastructure and workflows?
How will you train and enable your people to safely use these tools and workflows?
How prepared is your IT infrastructure to support the increasing demands of AI?
How are you ensuring that your data can be trusted?
With new technology comes new responsibilities. We need to set standards and protocols for safe, fair, and responsible AI use so that we’re ultimately using these tools for good. Robust security, ethics, and governance policies and processes must provide a foundation for your AI-enabled transformation, especially within highly regulated industries. Our survey found that 61% of companies have yet to implement a comprehensive and adaptable data protection strategy when it comes to AI, leaving themselves vulnerable to external and internal threats.
Have you established governance teams to set standards, monitor, and educate your employees on responsible AI?
How are you ensuring that your AI tools are designed and used fairly and ethically?
Are you instilling a culture of regular training and learning so your employees understand the importance of these protocols?
Finally, no transformation can be realized without leadership alignment and strategic orchestration. An overwhelming 99% of the executives surveyed admit to facing operational and implementation hurdles in their AI-enabled transformations. Strategy alignment across the organization ensures quick decision-making as well as realization of customer and business value. Rather than consolidating the responsibility of an AI-enabled transformation to one person, this should be seen as a shared responsibility across the C-suite.
The orchestration of this transformation should be done with simultaneous top-down and bottom-up perspectives. From the top-down, AI leadership can set governance to ensure responsible AI and that the organization is focused on the desired business value. A bottom-up approach—such as organizing hackathons and empowering employees to build and test use cases—will help validate new ways of working, automate workflows, and design the best way to serve the customer. AI allows us to grant decision-making to those who know the customer best.
Are you leading with a top-down strategy to drive a shared vision? Are you empowering your teams to test, learn, and explore new use cases?
How might you leverage AI to support your business strategy and company purpose?
How are you integrating AI across organizational functions? And are you empowering teams along the way?
