10 pointers on AI and Digitalisation for CEOs……and interested parties

You can hardly look at the Harvard Business Review, Forbes or CIO ‘magazine’, let alone key trends surveys from McKinsey, Gartner and the like without encountering ……..AI. Just over a year ago the same was true of Digitalisation. For many both go together now anyway. There is broad agreement that AI/Digitalisation should be on the agenda of EVERY CEO. And it surely is for many, but so is much else taking their……your attention.

I have been chatting recently with some colleagues consulting in this space and all reported similar concerns such as:

• AI/Digitalisation WAS on their client CEOs agenda BUT,
• Most of their clients were not very sure what it meant and even less what doing it entailed
• Many had – in the manner of Star Trek’s Jean Luc Picard – said: ‘make it so’

But make what so?

Stating the obvious, your journey with AI/Digitalisation is staggeringly complicated, expensive, risky and difficult to get right. It will probably be one of the greatest investments your organisation may ever make. Even your CTO will probably not have the knowledge to see it through. It should be useful to have a checklist to keep in mind not just at the beginning, but throughout the journey. Such a list should help focus on the important, and help you ask the right questions of those Digital Leaders you select to help you on the journey.

So here are 10 pointers on AI and Digitalisation that every CEO, in fact every C level and executive needs to get both in their heads and hearts. The numbers do not imply priority.

1.????? AI is not a fad or badge to be gained

2.????? AI is not a technology solution but a business solution

3.????? AI is about value creation

4.????? AI has to be strategic and not just IT strategy

5.????? AI changes your entire business operating model and culture

6.????? AI and business agility go together

7.????? AI must be led and sustained from the C level

8.????? AI is not evolutionary but revolutionary, it is a transformation

9.????? Even with AI rubbish in still means rubbish out

10.?? AI should be the servant not the master

To finish, I just want to pick out a few of the above.

Pointer 5: Adapting McKinsey’s 5 Dimensions of Operations model. As well as Strategy, AI will impact Organisation Structure and interactions, change People aspects, not just roles but behaviours too, change Processes making them more lean, and will of course radically alter your Technology. The tricky bit is to ensure there is an integrated solution, not bits and pieces here and there.

And a word on Culture.......define the culture you need as part of the solution, or as Drucker said, culture (you don't want) will eat your strategy for breakfast.

Pointer 6: If you think about the goals of AI/Digitalisation and Agility they have much in common. Both are intended to increase value delivery. Both seek to make working more lean and efficient. Both require and enable changes in organisation culture. And many sector disruptors use both – Agile organisations are more profitable (PA Consulting 2021). Consider integrating agile working into your AI/Digitalisation solution.

Pointer 8: It is not a criticism but an observation that most C level people come from an Operations not a Change background. The experience, skills and mindsets are different. Make sure you have Digital Leaders experienced in organisation transformation. I.e. that know how to integrate changes to those 5 dimensions. Remember too that portfolio, programme and project management have evolved over several decades as THE mechanism for managing Transformations. Please do not be tempted to forsake them for approaches like SAFe. SAFe is really good for scaling IT and could well be part of your Transformation journey. But some agilists promote SAFe as being suitable for managing an entire transformation journey, replacing portfolios, programmes and projects. It isn’t and can’t.

Good luck on your AI/Digitalisation journey!

You might also find this recent podcast useful:

Episode 216 - Level Up your Career - How to become a Digital Leader in 2024.

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Adrian Pyne led organisation transformations for more than 20 years in 11 industries and the public sector. He now consults on Agility, has developed Provek’s Business Agility for Business Leaders workshop, is a visiting lecturer, blogger, podcaster and author of Agile Beyond IT .