Business leaders share their best practices when implementing AI

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Business leaders share their best practices when implementing AI

By John Kell | Fortune Magazine | November 9, 2023

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Artificial intelligence is projected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030 and Big Tech giants including Apple, Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet are spending billions to secure their dominance.  And yet despite all the hype, nearly half of all companies remain firmly on the sidelines. 

The adoption of AI has more than doubled in the five-year period through 2022, with capabilities added to a variety of functions ranging from robotic process automation, to natural-language text understanding, to facial recognition. But the proportion of companies using AI in at least one business area has been stagnant in recent years, and even declined from a peak at 58% in 2019 to 50% last year, according to survey data from McKinsey. 

“Gen[erative] AI and some of these technologies are like swimming: You need to really swim in the water to learn,” says Ankur Agrawal, a partner at McKinsey who focuses on counseling health care leaders.  For companies that are considering deploying AI for the first time, Agrawal says setting up a cross-functional team that aligns on the right business cases to leverage AI can be the greatest challenge. “It isn’t a technology problem, it is a business problem,” he says. From there, companies should set up the basic tech backbone needed to enable AI, including data infrastructure and cloud computing. After those two steps, he says, firms should establish use cases where they can find either near- or long-term value. 

Boston Consulting Group advises clients to assess the business value of AI through a 10-20-70 formula. That means: 10% of effort to build machine-learning models, 20% involving high-quality data and technology implementation, and 70% focused on developing new business processes or transforming the way business functions operate. 

Sylvain Duranton, managing director and senior partner at BCG, says companies exploring AI for the first time should start with the launch of a task force that includes IT and HR functions. They should then look at the products available on the market and plan for costs of deployment—because it will be expensive. 

Many remain skittish about deployment. Six out of 10 CEOs told consulting firm Earnest & Young that “uncertainty around GenAI makes it challenging to develop and implement an AI strategy.”  “Business leaders are first and foremost a bit confused and I would say even a bit frustrated,” says Chris Perry, chief innovation officer at communications firm Weber Shandwick.  C-suite leaders are disoriented by the pace of change and how quickly generative AI models are developing. “It’s like the genie is out of the bottle and we’re trying to figure out what it means,” says Perry. 

Deloitte advises companies that are exploring AI to begin with a committee approach, but not only think about the legal and risk implications. Leaders should ask: How will AI flow into the business? “It’s not a one-person exercise,” says Chris Griffin, audit and assurance managing partner of transformation and technology at Deloitte.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Artificial intelligence is projected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030 and Big Tech giants including Apple, Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet are spending billions to secure their dominance.  And yet despite all the hype, nearly half of all companies remain firmly on the sidelines. 
2. The adoption of AI has more than doubled in the five-year period through 2022, with capabilities added to a variety of functions ranging from robotic process automation, to natural-language text understanding, to facial recognition. But the proportion of companies using AI in at least one business area has been stagnant in recent years, and even declined from a peak at 58% in 2019 to 50% last year. 
3. There can be multiple teams or committees across an organization working through how and where to adopt AI. Diverse perspectives are needed to make sure a company gets it right, ranging from sales and operations to risk, compliance, and legal.

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Topics:  Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Business Strategy, Risk