Establishing an Opportunity-First Approach to AI Adoption to Displace the Fear-Forward Bias

For many years, surveys of Canadians (individuals and organizations) have revealed a lack of Trust in artificial intelligence ( Canada’s AI imperative: Overcoming risks, building trust | Deloitte Canada , Opinions about AI vary depending on countries’ level of economic development | Ipsos , Trust in artificial intelligence ( kpmg.com ) and more)? With GPT capturing the zeitgeist, boards of directors, organizational “C Suites,” and other senior leaders are asking their teams where they are using GPT as a shortform for “where is AI being used in the organization.”? Despite AI being used across organizations for years in applications of cybersecurity, fraud prevention, optical character recognition, machine translation and more, leaders are asking their teams to establish AI governance structures and accompanying AI strategies.?

Before I go any further, let’s be crystal clear that there are risks associated with both predictive and generative AI.? My sense is that we need to help everyone understand what risks apply where.? I especially like how Mila Banerjee CEO and Tech Leader for Pronti AI talks about AI – “no one wants to ignore risk, but thinking of the value alongside is important. The stove is hot, but we need it to cook food!”? We have many years of experience appreciating the different safety considerations for electric element, induction, gas or even wood burning stoves – but these considerations don’t prevent us from using these essential tools.

As 2024 progressed, enterprise AI governance structures were being put in place across Canada’s largest organizations.? Often AI accountability found itself in the privacy officer’s domain, with Chief Privacy Officers wondering how to manage both mandates.? Where AI governance wasn’t rolled in to privacy, it was still found in the risk management part of the business.? You can imagine the line-of-business owner’s enthusiasm in deploying AI enabled tools when they are told of yet another oversight body to work their solution through.? The allure of the status quo certainly dampens opportunity.? In some cases, AI governance is part of broader data governance, reporting to chief data officers.? CDOs frequently report to the chief operating officer or chief innovation officer as organizations look to derive more business value from their data, while respecting their compliance obligations.? These organizations take an opportunity-first approach to data and AI.

The second AI task from senior leaders has been to develop AI strategies and policies.? Again, I see many organizations starting with a risk forward approach to these development efforts.? Opportunity-forward approaches to AI strategies tie the use of AI to the mission or strategic goals of the organization.? Florin Rotar Chief AI Officer for Avanade sums this up quite well in noting that "<Avanade's> competitive edge comes from ensuring our AI strategy aligns with our purpose and the strategic outcomes we aim to achieve.”? One of my favourite AI strategies is that for Canada’s Department of National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces . Not only does it tie the use of AI to Defence policies and strategies, it enumerates a number of practical use cases, including chatbots and predicative maintenance.? I’ve found it particularly powerful to take an organization’s mission statement and then appending the words “…through the thoughtful application of AI.”? It changes the dialogue with business leaders and help open imaginations to what may be possible.

Lastly, we’ve seen some organizations implement policies that ban the use of generative AI tools.? Microsoft’s 2024 work trend index shows that “78%?of AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work (BYOAI)—it’s even more common at small and medium-sized companies (80%).”? Where these tools are banned, employees are using alternative devices. Tis hinders the development of their AI skills and their productivity. Embracing organization endorsed approaches helps provide trusted environments to harness these tools and work them into daily routines.

What does this mean for small to medium organizations in Canada.? Well certainly the micro businesses or smallest not for profits (both without AI as their core business focus) won’t have the capacity to establish AI governance within their organization, and perhaps even establish an AI strategy or policies.? I would argue that leveraging the built-in AI capabilities in the tools that people use every day really doesn’t demand that oversight.? After introductory learning , by using these AI enabled tools, people will gain education and awareness of how these tools can help with day-to-day activities and appreciate where these tools need stronger human oversight.? (remember the early days of autocorrect :-S?)? With an increasing number of applications harnessing the power of AI, now is not the time to sit on the sidelines for the many low risk uses that are out there.? Seize the opportunity to use these tools, while keeping a keen eye for where these tools need additional human intervention.

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Up next: Float all Boats – Scaling the Supporting Cast of Tools and Documentation