The Fast Or Slow Elevator?
As I wrote this on the flight back from Chicago, I have to laugh at the simplicity of this analogy.? Attending the Master B2B event at the Willis Tower, I rode one of the fastest elevators in the world (1,600 feet per minute!).? After the event, as I checked into my hotel at the airport, I rode considerable one of the slowest elevators I've ever been on.
MasterB2B and team have outdone themselves, again, with this recent Chicago roundtable. More than 50 of the top talent and knowledge in the B2B space from every vertical was in attendance at the beautiful Metropolitan Club.?
The event can be summarized in a few ways, but one that stands out to me is Fast Vs Slow.? A lot of fantastic discussion was had among some of the top talent in the B2B space, and we just kept coming back to the question: "Is your business adopting AI fast or slow".
Overall, most businesses in the room replied slow - or medium to slow.? Different reasons, from data clarity to trust were brought up. Resources in the space also seemed to resonate with many of the B2B enterprises.
Another common theme that was felt by multiple practitioners in the room was where does AI fit.? One comment made was "AI is a tool, looking for a solution"? I don't think it could be better summed up.? AI is not new, as we are all aware, but the speed at which new tools and ways to use it come up every day, week and month are astonishing.
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Data is the core of any business, and really the commodity that any business needs to operate. It doesn't matter if you're in healthcare, manufacturing, or niche beverages like the First Chilean Woman Owned Pisco brand (shoutout to Catalina Gaete-Bentz ).? Data is what drives all business because we need information on our customers, suppliers, processes and more to make any decision in the business.
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One of our session leaders, Andy Hoar made a comment about how many companies still think PIMs are optional.? PIMs are not an optional feature of business in 2024 if you want to scale and adopt new tech like AI. While AI is great with unstructured data, the cleaner the inputs the better the outputs. Remember, the old saying "Garbage In, Garbage Out" couldn't be more true today.
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AI is great at taking data and doing "stuff" with it.? The possibilities of what you can train a model to do with your data is nearly endless, but I think too many businesses are stuck with the quality of data they have.? As a group, we discussed at length how data cleanup is not a once-and-done task, and it requires sturdy guardrails to keep it clean - or the exercise is for naught.
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What I think I found most eye-opening was the wide differences in adoption of AI between organizations.? Almost everyone has used Chat-GPT or something similar at this point in some capacity.? But your company culture has to support the ability to try and fail fast, learn, and improve.? Many of the people in the room expressed that their company is slow to adopt because of the need for testing, trust, and lack of ability to easily prove ROI to make a business case.
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My final thought on the day was that AI is the shiny object that everyone wants to work on, so find people in your organization that want to learn and drive this change.? You don't need to boil the ocean to implement AI, but you do need to start somewhere and soon.? If you don't have some plan to explore, integrate or utilize AI in 2024, your putting your business at risk of being left behind.
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If you are serious about B2B eCommerce and growth, and you're not a part of this fantastic group of people that attend and contribute to @MasterB2B Ecommerce you're on the slow elevator.? The great news, it's never too late to join and be a part of the fast one..
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See you all in June!
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On a side note, networking is so interesting. I wound up sitting next to Mark Kirchgasser and in talking to him found out we both live near each other in the Philadelphia area, but more interesting is his local fire company recently bought the ladder truck from my 1st firehouse almost 18 years ago. What a small world.
PS - This was not written by AI - some things still just need to be done the old fashioned way. ;)
Director of eCommerce & Digital Marketing at Reinders Inc.
12 个月Great topic and great to meet and talk with you yesterday!!
Well said Marc V.. Really like the fast vs. slow juxtaposition because increasingly the speed with which a company can execute is becoming a hard differentiator. Customers aren't waiting these days, so companies can't either. Brian Beck and the Master B2B team (Jared Blank and Carrie Hogan) have had quite a bit to say about this particular topic. And we'll have even more to stay coming soon. Glad you enjoyed the Chicago roundtable. It was great to have you there!
CTO, CIO, CISSP, SVP - Focused on creating customer value
12 个月Nice recap Marc. It was a great time and great seeing you and everyone in person again. Definitely agree with the quote you called out, "AI is a tool, looking for a solution.” ??
Vice President Sales and Marketing, Away From Home at SOFIDEL AMERICA
12 个月‘So two volunteer fireman walk in to a B2B AI event’. While no punchline is coming both left with tractionable insights to move a paper and a clamp business forward. Great observations and hope we can find the fast elevator on this necessary adaptation.