Artificial Intelligence Conquers the World

The theme of "Artificial Intelligence" went through the entire agenda of the high-profile SAP partner event in Dublin, Ireland. While the "Mobile First" strategies morphed into commodity, the IT strategy at hand is "Artificial Intelligence First".

Many people even don't recognize the fact they are already surrounded by AI within their personal lives, from Siri to Alexa to Cortana to many more. However, consuming AI is one thing - understanding and controlling AI another.

In business, there are so many opportunities to use AI to boost sales through personalization and make products and services even more profitable. However, AI is still cutting edge, the big players still in their R&D phases. They demo and show many AI scenarios and usage cases that just show the capabilities of the underlying platform and the power of its computing capabilities (see also: Google's TPU chips). For YOUR business, though, there are not really usage cases in play. And this is the chance to get ahead of the curve. Think about potential ideas how AI can help your business to excel! In fact, you and your own people shall get creative. Think through what-if scenarios, for example. Can chatbots, nurtured by an AI platform, help to make your web presence more sticky and as such increase the probability that your customer eventually pushes the "buy" button? Can you use an AI platform to simplify complex configuration or product selection procedures very easy by using information about the potential buyer that you can find within the social networks? I could go on and on with examples. However, the point here is not to provide you with examples; the point here is to encourage you to start your own innovation journey.

The most powerful methodology to invent and create new ideas that I experienced so far within my business life is DesignThinking. The methodology got developed in Stanford and got widely adapted within SAP. However, DesignThinking not only can be used for groundbreaking research, but also to introduce and channel the power of creativity and innovation that each individual brings with. And I mean here YOUR people and YOUR teams.

Give it a try and allow new ideas and innovations within your own business, be it an own firm or a department you lead. With the onset of the Artificial Intelligence era you have the opportunity to get ahead of your competition. Fast and lasting!