AI and The Future of the AGILE ENTERPRISE

“Predictions” are an interesting category of human thought – much like opinions and other things everyone has! – so please share the nuances of your view as you read mine. You will enrich us all!

The edge of a precipice is emerging from the mist of the future where new technology, like ChatGPT and AI, is polarizing opinions as either “the arrival of George Orwell’s 1984” or “the Age of Aquarius.”

There can be no doubt that Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular generative AI models, like ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) have revolutionary potential to analyze data and inform decisions. But ultimately, how organizations function – for better or for worse – is in the hands of the leaders who will be "dead in the water" unless they provide pragmatic guidance, training, and SUPPORT for rational risk taking by the frontline associates who endure the pain of being told, "really...trust me, you go first!"

Here are 3 of my predictions about the Future of the Agile Enterprise.

1. Weaponized Disruption-by-Design Strategies

Regardless of which side of the recent Bud Light market-meltdown controversy you support, it demonstrates the reality that stakeholder expectations are more acute than ever. Their personalized experience with Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (affectionately called FAANG), who successfully pioneered Disruption-by-Design as a business model, has customers using the same “yardstick” to measure your value stream. Whether you are seeking buyers, voters, benefactors, or military victors, you need intimate knowledge of the stakeholder’s expectations – desires and fears – in order to unleash the power of being a trusted advisor in the relationship.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) the rapid pace of social and technological change can be characterized as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It concludes that “ultimately, the ability of organizational systems and public authorities to adapt will determine their survival.” This idea is echoed in the highly respected Standish Group’s CHAOS 2020 report that says we have entered a fourth evolutionary cycle, the Infinite Flow Period.

The evidence is staggering that sometimes is most powerful as a both/and symbiosis, but most often it is an either/or dichotomy. The US Navy and the SEALS is a both/and symbiosis. Examples either/or dichotomies include Airbnb’s impact on the hospitality industry, Uber’s effect on the transportation industry, and the iPad’s overthrow of Tablet PCs. Consider carefully how Zoom’s nonviolent coup d'état displaced WebEx and Skype and pivoted on just two key variables – ease of use and milliseconds of latency. While competitors focused on other variables, like corporate integration or user authentication, Zoom’s laser-like focus on variables most poignant in the customers’ experience of the value stream drove the daily meeting participants from 10 million in pre-pandemic December 2019 to 300 million in June 2020. Users sought a simple way to have visual, face-to-face meetings while avoiding the unknown risk of Covid so real-time easy won the battle.

2. Agile Strategies Anchored by Generative Governance Metrics

The dropped linkage between the executive’s vision, or the commander’s intent, and tactical and operational execution is the most overlooked factor in failing organizations. It often occurs because leaders don’t have the mindset, or make the time, to define Governance Metrics aligned to measurable increments of actual progress towards the desired outcome. Generative planning, with GPT Models, has the potential to revolutionize this vital, yet fundamentally broken or absent, communication.

The executive, or the teams supporting them, can use the GPT tools to generate initial lists of correlated metrics, making it easy for the leaders to cull down to a prioritized list of metrics. Then the tactical and operational teams can define the development process using Set-based Design principles to manage variability, preserve options, and converge production into the optimal technical and economic outcomes aligned to those metrics.

Using AI and GPT tools can reduce the time-cost for executives and balanced the need for enterprise confidence with metrics accelerate innovation. The process may solve the long-standing agile paradox pitting Deferred Commitment, for agility on the one hand, against Last Responsible Moment, for accountability on the other hand.

3. Accelerated Agile Enterprise Value Stream “Clock Speed”

Decision Latency research has proven that improving Time-to-Decision increases ROI and innovation success rates. Whereas deteriorating Time-to-Decision multiplies the ratio of poor decisions, cost overruns and project failure rates.

As competitors respond to ever-increasing stakeholder expectations of greater value, delivered sooner, accelerated value stream “clock speeds” will mark the winners. Success attracting buyers, voters, benefactors, or equipping military victors will be fueled by how fast customer-data-driven learning cycles are integrated by decision makers and decision-making processes. Market forces will drive the value stream clock speed higher and higher much like Intel, AMD and chip manufacturers have done with the number of cycles your CPU is executing as you read this article. This will be accomplished by moving decision-making power into the hands of associates closer to the point of contact. Sophisticated AI models will process vast amounts of data, apply parameters from the weaponized Disruption-by-Design strategy, and anchor the available choices to the generative Governance Metrics thereby allowing full integration of the executive’s vision, or commander’s intent, with decisions being made by associates at the point of engagement.

The results will transform marketplace potential into actual product delivery – tangible, intangible and services – personalized to the stakeholder in the most efficient, accessible way possible. Expect to see massive increases in the perceived value of the stakeholders’ experience when, for example, AI-powered chatbots provide real-time access to options and information about eligibility, options, and benefits the customer cares about. ?

As enterprises weaponized Disruption-by-Design strategies with AI-enabled decision-making processes, governed by AI-generative metrics, the competitive landscape may come to feel like the old Western film, “The Quick and the Dead” where deadly dueling will exact revenge on the unprepared and the spoils will go to the winner.

Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with potential impacts that are not fully predictable, prompting doomsday warnings from some and promises of everyday miracles from others. The only certainty for the next five years will be complexity, ambiguity and risk creating a critical period for evolving solution development and delivery operations. That means enterprise agility will be served and supported by generative AI and GPT models powering decision-making frameworks that create a sustainable advantage on the competitive razor’s edge of potential opportunity in whatever market currency – dollars, donations, votes, or victories – leaders choose.

Now that you’ve seen mine, please share yours. The nuances of many viewpoints will enrich us all!

Nicolas M. Chaillan , Lily Zeleke , Dr. Bemis Ikejiofor , Rich Yancy MBA, PMP, CSM, CSPO , Ken Silver , Chase Eiserman , Heidi Shyu , Sekhar Prabhakar , Brett Harry , Chendra Conklin, CPCM, CFCM , Alp Sezen , Larry Rentz, PMP , Joel Dimaapi , Jason Knudson , Dr. Dolores Kuchina-Musina , Dr. Jamie Billig , Jack Ryan , Kyle Fox , Jacquelyn Alpert , Mike Carroll , Kimala R. Winfield , Alan Zucker , Bryan J. Guinn , Christopher “Cody” Paul , Barjes Alotaibi , James Pitcher , Travis Johnson, M.A., PMP, CASP, CISM, CISA, VCP-DCV , Keith W. Gibson, CFCM, SCPM , Katy Barker , Will Roberts , Robert Warren , Graham Plaster , RyAnn Elizabeth McCoy , Benjamin R. , Jamie Dufrene , Steve Visokay, PMP, DASM, PMI-ACP , Jason Glavich, PMP , Michael Santens, DPA, PMP, CPCM, Fellow , Sabra Horne , Daniel Chenok