ChatGPT AI has a meteoric rise. Should I think about deploying AI in my business?

It seems everywhere we turn these days; AI is at the forefront of business discussions. And with ChatGPT bursting onto the scene with an almost meteoric rise, it provokes several questions in all of our minds. “How can I use AI in my business? Is it something to be concerned about? And what will AI technology evolve into?”

For greater context, let’s look at the graph “Time to reach 100 Million Users”:

ChatGPT has become a commercial phenomenon. ?With the massive early adoption of this platform, one can argue that AI has now become mainstream. ?So, what information can we glean from these adoption numbers??

1.??????If you are a consumer you are thinking, “What other tools are out there to help me?”?There are sites that list out all the tools available today and that list is growing (Futurepedia.io).?

2.??????As a business you are thinking, “How do I implement AI in my business to grow revenues, retain customers, and create my blue ocean strategy?”

3.??????Everyone is thinking “Are there any concerns with AI that I need to be aware of?”

Consumers are already exposed to AI today.??Who is currently using AI? Meta, Google, Microsoft, banks, retail, etc.?It is all around us as a consumer.?ChatGPT is the mainstream introduction to consumer interaction with AI.

From a business perspective, like any new endeavor, you must first know your “why?”, your desired end state and what would be the measure of a successful outcome. We encourage our clients to educate themselves around the AI space so they can generate ideas for useful business applications. Some ways to do this would be speaking to others in your network, IT teams and/or other companies that have implemented solutions in this space, articles in journals, videos or reach out to companies like ours that specialize in this area.

Once you have a deeper understanding of AI, you can start to develop the use case that is best for your business. ?The planning stage requires finding the right resources to help you to execute on your use case. Keep in mind that implementing AI requires a higher-level skill set that not every company has on staff.?Without the right resources, the project will be very difficult, and the outcome will not meet your expectations.?The analogy would be, before you would ever run a marathon, it would be prudent to work with a coach.?They will help you to plan out your training regimen and adjust as needed.?Since they have been there before, they will know what works and what doesn’t work so you can successfully complete the marathon. The same is true with AI or any other technology change in business.

What can AI do for my business? ?Retain and grow your customer base, open new revenue streams, streamline operations and give you an edge over your competition to reduce the risk of becoming obsolete (think Uber in the taxi industry).?The question is which area should you start with first that will have the greatest impact to your business?

Once you understand which area(s) are most impactful, you can begin to develop your use case. ?After that has been finalized, the most important ingredient to success that must be addressed is the DATA.?You need a Data Lake to feed the AI model.?Where does this data come from??From your databases, hot or cold storage devices, etc.?The first stage is to clean up this data so that it can feed your model accurate information.?Think of an excel spreadsheet that just has numbers all over it, without columns, or rows or pivot tables.?If you were to look at that sheet it would be overwhelming, lack context, and ultimately be useless.?To make sense of any data, you need to provide context and proper organization to it, this becomes your data lake.?AI modeling requires the data lake to be organized to produce the desired output. This is the most critical step in any successful AI deployment. ?

Below is the percentage of time spent on AI deployments:

% of time spent on AI deployment:

-?????????10% of the time is spent on understanding the domain and use case.

-?????????70% of the time is spent on the data discovery phase. Where is it? How is it presented, and does it need to be scrubbed?

-?????????20% of the time is on the AI Modeling phase.?Once you have clean data you can build the models based on the use case, test, retest and deploy.?

What are the concerns with AI??There is the risk to the large amounts of customer data in the system if not protected properly, reputation to companies if data is leaked or used in a way that is not intended, and the lack of high-level resources to continue developing the technology within the companies that deployed it.?With the right procedures put in place, and organizations building governance processes around the technology, most of the issues can be addressed. ?Finding the right talent will be required up front, but there are teams that can manage the processes once they are deployed, with periodic engagement from the original team that helped build the platform if you want to develop any new features and use cases. ?

Where is AI going??There are new developments in AI every day.?The capabilities of this technology will continue to advance, so long as it provides a societal and business value.?AI within IoT, new breakthroughs in NLP and deep learning. The real question is, will we have controls in place at the government level to contain how far the advancements go? Like anything else, what begins as a good intention, can find a path to bad intentions.

In summary, AI can provide many advantages to a business.?Learn as much as you can, to prevent the situation of your competitors advancing faster than you can which will be their blue ocean strategy.?Data is the oil to any successful AI deployment.?Your model is only as good as the data that is feeding it.?Go through a skill set inventory in your business if you want to deploy AI. ?Ask yourself, do I have the right internal resources to begin this journey? ?Do I require assistance due to a lack of resources??Bring in resources that have been there before and can guide you on the journey, as this will provide far more success in the long run.?

Now that you have the use case, the data, and the model, you will see success over time as the model learns from the data and improves the outputs.?You can always adjust your model as more information is fed into the tool and you become more comfortable with the outputs. ?

If you are not sure where to begin, or you are unsure of who to ask, or just want to learn more, comment on this article or reach out to me via LinkedIn or on our company’s website www.DCTStrategy.com.?Wishing you success in your AI journey.