AI is growing in prevalence and businesses are getting more and more excited to jump on the bandwagon and start gaining business insights with Data Science. But is all the hype surrounding AI worth it? Will implementing AI really drive the business results you’re looking for? This resource will explore the myths and misconceptions of AI as well as the reality of implementing AI at your organization

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Hype vs. Reality

HYPE‍

• Robots will entirely replace humans in the workforce.
• AI is the silver bullet to any and all business questions & problems.
• One generic platform can solve many of your business problems - the snake oil approach!
• AI is just a fad.

REALITY‍

• AI augments human labor, it doesn’t replace it.
• AI saves you money by automating normally complex processes, but it won’t solve all your problems.
• AI is evolving and increasing in its ability. This tool is a powerful one for any company to have and it’s going to be around for a while.
• You need clear goals, executive buy in, good data and subject matter experts to make AI work.

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How to move past the shiny-object phase and see true value from AI

• Understand that you’re simply augmenting human jobs, not replacing them entirely. Furthermore, humans need to train the machines and models to do their job effectively.
• Identify concrete problems to solve (Analytical Objectives). Don’t start with “What can I do with AI?” Instead, consider real business problems.
• Then evaluate how AI can be incorporated to solve that business problem and deliver real resutls.
• Don’t forget about human involvement. People still need to be involved when AI processes are enacted. SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) are necessary to make sense of the insights AI provides to your organization.
• You need clean normalized data, without good data you cannot get good results. Garbage in, garbage out! For long term AI enablement you need a cost effective way of collecting good data and measuring business value.
• With new data and processes you will need to retrain some of the underlying AI models.

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Conclusion

AI isn’t just a fad, but there are many misconceptions regarding how AI can play a role in your business’s strategy. It’s most important to remember that AI isn’t designed to act on its own–AI can be a great decision support tool working with humans. Where is your business at with AI activities? Take our AI CMM (Capability Maturity Model) survey to find out.