This article first appeared in our Jacksonville Daily Record Industry Insights Column
To the surprise of no one, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a cornerstone of enterprise strategy. As a business leader, understanding the potential of AI can help you drive efficiency and innovation and maintain a competitive edge.
As with any new tech, the gap between innovation and implementation is usually the toughest to bridge. The majority of business leaders are waiting for Generative AI (GenAI) to advance past the hype. After all, the true value of AI lies not in quick wins or buzzworthy applications but in long-term software and technology strategies that integrate seamlessly into everyday workflows and enhance customer and employee experiences. While there’s still a lot of over-hype, AI’s potential in automation, data analysis, and predictive capabilities holds promise for significant, lasting impact.
But waiting around for the dust to settle on the excitement around AI is a mistake. The most forward-thinking leaders are the ones who see what components of AI are already exceeding their own capabilities and find ways to implement them to start streamlining processes and rerouting tasks from humans to machines that can do them more efficiently, allowing their people counterparts the opportunity to focus on more high-level, creative thinking tasks.
Where to Begin?
Increasing your company’s productivity is the best way to implement AI and get everyone on board with it. It’s not as simple as slapping an app on top of your existing workflows, however. AI’s uncanny speed, precision, and attention to detail need governance before being turned loose, and that governance needs to be multi-pronged, covering how data is collected, used, stored, and disposed of. AI feeds on data, but can get greedy when it doesn’t have boundaries and can become a liability, leading to potential legal repercussions or damage to your company’s reputation.
Find Your Fit
Take an objective view of your company and determine where your biggest areas of need are, and then figure out what AI can do better. Maybe it is reasonable in your line of work to use bots to answer your FAQs. If you need to streamline your operations, there might be a way to implement AI to assist in automating repetitive tasks.
If you’re looking to enhance your product offerings, that could mean using GenAI to develop intelligent features, such as personalized recommendations, advanced data analytics, or predictive maintenance. Don’t think that AI is some sort of catch-all for your company’s shortcomings. Identifying your areas of need and aligning them with the right AI capabilities will help fortify your long-term strategy, driving both efficiency and innovation.
Keep the Cycle Going
Like any emerging technology, AI is a work in progress that is going to need constant attention. This comes in the form of investing in your existing infrastructure to ensure it can support the AI-driven solutions your software development team is implementing. You don’t want to waste time and money deploying solutions that aren’t paying off. Finally, engage with your peers to see what’s working and share your own innovations. Leveraging the influence of the business community can create an innovation ripple effect, where sharing local best practices strengthens everyone.
Conclusion
AI is the most exciting technology since the dawn of the Internet and can level the playing field in any industry with incredible speed. As your local tech partners, Valyr is here to help you navigate AI. Reach out to us today and let’s start strategizing how your company can plan for and leverage AI to its fullest potential for your organization.
Ready to take your enterprise strategy from hype to high impact? Connect with us at hello@valyr.com or take a look at our website and start turning potential into practical solutions.
