AI Starting Points for Business Demystified and GACPA

Artificial Intelligence’s Value Proposition and an Early Way Forward for Business Professionals (updated September 26, 2024).

I’ve been fielding some excellent foundational questions regarding AI from a typical business perspective. Most business professionals still seek a concise and informal explanation of AI’s value proposition, where to start, and what AI is/will be good at soon.

Here’s my brief, informal attempt (for my network).

The AI Value Proposition for a Business

The overarching AI value proposition to a business is a combination of faster, better, higher volume, and/or lower cost delivery that is likely very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate without the technology.

Where to Start?

• A great way to start investigating AI is to dream or “Imagineer” by saying, “I wish I could…” (this is a use case, business problem to solve, or opportunity to capture).
• A more structured way is to write your wish in an agile User Story format: “As a [your role or the role you’re working to improve], I want to [targeted outcome] so that I realize [targeted benefit].”

In a Typical Business Context, What is AI Good At (or Going to Be)?

GACPA is an excellent memory acronym

• GENERATE – text, images, video, and audio, including combinations to produce complete deliverables.
• AUTOMATE/CONTROL – mechanize virtual or tangible tasks.
• CORRELATE/PREDICT/DISCOVER – answering what did/is/should/could happen if...
• PROBLEM SOLVE/REASON – problem identification, analysis, evaluating solutions, and recommendations (OpenAI o1-preview/o1-mini are good examples).
• AGENT – your AI personal assistant that can perform complex virtual tasks (coming soon).

There are thousands of resources out there to help you already… so when will you begin your AI journey?

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