A C-Suite Guide for Untangling Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and, your Human Knowledge Database

By Craig D. Nelson

?Has your board asked you to prepare a strategy for taking advantage of emerging disruptive technologies? ?Like most CEOs, you most likely have an initiative to figure out if this AR / AI / ML stuff is all just hype or if it will dramatically impact your competitive landscape.? If you are not already aggressively addressing these technologies, let's just say your competitive landscape has already changed.

?Let’s first consider what these technologies are and how they relate to each other.? Keeping it simple; AR, AI, and ML are all related technologies that have some overlap but are also distinct:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines to mimic human cognitive functions like learning and problem-solving.
• Augmented reality (AR) refers to technology that overlays digital information and visuals on top of the real world,
• Machine learning (ML) is a subset of AI and AR that focuses on algorithms that can learn from data and improve a machine’s predictions or operations over time without being explicitly programmed. ?

These technologies, in their various combinations, enable applications like computer vision, visual verification, object recognition, speech recognition, optical character recognition, i3D modeling, and natural language processing.

In summary, AI enables human-like intelligence in machines, AR integrates digital information with the real physical world, and ML is one approach to creating AI and AR that learns from data.

?The key word in all of this is “DATA”.?

The greatest challenge that nearly all companies face in leveraging these new technologies is accessing their human knowledge databases.? ?A similar challenge faced by CIOs over the past decade is the development of the Configuration Management Database (CMDB).? CIOs could not leverage emerging technologies impacting their IT strategies without understanding the elements in their IT configurations.? Missing DATA! ?Several factors drove CIOs to invest heavily in curating their unknown IT configurations:

• Need for visibility into the IT assets of the company,
• Increasing focus on IT automation for improved efficiency;
• Managing the cost of IT Service Management processes,
• Making the shift to a digital business strategy,
• Cloud adoption requiring high visibility and control across on-prem and cloud environments, and
• Mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations of disparate IT environments for unified management.

Do these challenges sound familiar?

If you’re wondering how to take advantage of AI, AR, and ML disruptive technologies you should consider investing in a Digital Knowledge Management Database (DKMDB).? Several factors that you may want to consider that are driving the need for a DKMDB:

• Lack of searchable access to partially digital repositories of company know-how,
• Undigitized Tribal Knowledge that resides in online manuals, PPT files, DOC files, and the brain tissue of your subject matter experts,
• High employee turnover exacerbating uncaptured data walking out the door,
• Inability to break down knowledge silos where capabilities are trapped in cross-functionally disabled data repositories, and
• Lack of an application platform for bringing together digital knowledge in an experience-based AR knowledge-sharing environment.

Overcoming these barriers to claiming your rightful place as an AI/AR-enabled company requires:

1. Instituting the right processes for capturing and curating your know-how,
2. Evaluating the right technology platforms to create, digitally publish, and enable your knowledge exchange,
3. Determining the right AI/AR talent mix of technical roles and business roles,
4. Developing a trustworthy technology partnership understanding that AI/AR are emerging, disruptive, and yet to be fully harnessed technologies,
5. Planning for organizational change management to promote AI/AR literacy and adoption, and
6. Tracking benefits and ROI of AI/AR implementations, to demonstrate business value quantitatively and qualitatively.

In summary, your AI/AR journey should align with your business goals, your ability to quickly test, prove, and adopt or reject new technologies, and your appetite for preparing your company to lead in the digital age. ??This will require that you first address your lack of a DKMDB and select a solution platform that can handle this massive curation of your company’s know-how.

Are you thinking we already have a learning management system?? ?That is missing the magnitude of the lift we are addressing in this article and the strategic planning needed to manage your digital transformation journey.? You will need a solution that enables the capture, curation, and accessibility of your DATA. ?This human knowledge is key to your AI/AR/ML strategy and is the fuel that will allow your company to leverage these emerging technologies.

?Craig Nelson leads the Professional Service / Proof of Value team for CareAR