Undecided about digital transformation and AI adoption?

The business leaders of today are faced with an ever-growing list of options and decisions around technology adoption.? While some companies seek to be on the “cutting edge” of new tech adoption, other companies still embrace “the way we have always done it” and are resistant to technological change.? Furthermore, some industries and business types seem well suited to modern technology adoption, while other types of businesses just don’t seem to be a good fit.?? How should you proceed with prioritizing these decisions along with the expenses, integration challenges, employee training, troubleshooting and other complex issues related to operating your business?

I am reminded of a situation in the earlier parts of the 21st century when computer virtualization and cloud computing first gained popularity.? With everything from globalized IP telephony to new cloud-based SaaS applications, to companies wrestling with whether or not they should still be required to manage their own servers, apps and infrastructure, there was much confusion.? Like today, there was a seemingly overwhelming list of potential options.? To further complicate things there was a significant paradigm shift happening where new technologies were challenging the status quo that said, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” and “why should we change just for the sake of changing when we already have a successful operating model?”

One company that I worked with took a very conservative approach.? Leadership announced that they were not going to make any moves towards cloud and virtualization adoption, and that the company’s apps, servers and IT Infrastructure were going to remain 100% in control of the company’s IT department, located in a private, company-owned data center.? Their reasoning included avoiding unnecessary risks and privacy issues with letting other companies handle their data and sensitive information.? The technology was relatively new and untested and whether or not there was going to be a return on investment for significant new expenses was unclear.? Cyber security was another major concern with the idea of significantly exposing the company’s apps and data to be potentially accessed by everyone, everywhere.

Another company that I worked with took the opposite approach.? They were convinced that the new tech was going to automagically give them a proprietary advantage and they rushed to adopt new tech as soon as it was available.? They were also convinced that although some of the new tech was expensive, that they were going to save money in overall operating expenses and enjoy increased efficiency.

Neither company was particularly successful in their “all or nothing” approach.? Although the first company’s leadership said that nothing was going to change, the individual departments and divisions within the company started adopting new technologies.? They were either ignorant of how their new tech applied to the company’s overall objectives, or they were convinced that the efficiency gains and cost savings promised by the new tech was a “no brainer” and that corporate leadership simply didn’t understand the individual requirements of each department head that was making purchasing decisions.? This led to the company realizing that new technology adoption was going to happen whether the company approved it or not. It was followed by a multiple year period where the company reactively tried to adapt to the inevitable change that had already happened.? The second company did realize some cost savings and efficiency gains, but not at the level they had predicted.? The new cloud native vendors had made changes in how IT services, storage and app management were monetized, and the related new and different expenses had not been accounted for.?? Their lack of a holistic approach caused some departments to do better while it unintentionally created new requirements, resource demands and expenses for other aspects of the company.

We are faced with a very similar environment today.? The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another major paradigm shift that is posing new challenges to all business leaders.? Assuming that we have learned from the paradigm shifts of the past, it would suggest that a “hybrid” approach is necessary.? In the terms of IT and computing, hybrid means that some applications, infrastructure, and data should be outsourced to the cloud where others make more sense to remain under direct control of the company.? Your goal should be a balanced approach that benefits every aspect of your organization.? How can this be achieved?

·?????? Organizational planning, strategy and company culture.? Business leadership must be very clear on what the company’s goals are.? Furthermore, the company must build, communicate and maintain a culture where the employees feel that they understand and agree with the overall strategy.? This will require a balance between enabling the employees to be creative and try new ideas while also communicating risk management and cost/expense objectives.? At a minimum, the company’s leadership must understand that this will take significant, on-going analysis and planning that goes well beyond an everyday annual spending forecast.

·?????? Enterprise Architecture.? This is a clever way of saying you must consider the “big picture.”? In modern information technology, every application and business process should be able to share data, analytics, and operational value with every other application and process.? This is a major shift from past thinking where each aspect of the business was compartmentalized and had its own unique, individual requirements.? The way to approach this is holistically.? SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) must be considered for the entire organization.? This should lead to maturity assessments.? Which capabilities need the most improvement?? Which capabilities are either negatively or positively impacting other capabilities?? What opportunities are there for new ideas and technology to improve or integrate the tech is already in place?? What regulatory/legal changes, risks and threats are created by new technology as well as which existing challenges will be resolved by new technology adoption?? What is the roadmap for getting from where we are today to where we want to be in the future?

·?????? Can short-term gains be realized on individual tasks without negatively affecting other parts of the business?? It is seemingly contradictory, but you must also consider the minute details.? The way to consider this is to look for tasks and capabilities that are regularly and repeatedly handled by the human work force.? Voice mail is a good example of this.? In the past a business had to hire employees to answer the phones and then take down a message and make sure that the appropriate person returns the call.? Voicemail (and now AI) automates this process and frees up administrative employees to focus their time and talents on other tasks.

As we look towards the future, the greatest mistake that we can avoid is embracing the hype.? If you are adopting new tech “because everyone is doing it” or because of some generalization like “adopting new tech is guaranteed to save us money”, then you will be likely to make costly errors that will take additional time and effort to fix.? AI adoption must be done with purposeful intention. ?You must specifically assess each new tech improvement and how it will impact your entire business.? You should partner with other companies that not only understand the new innovative technology and they must also understand the unique aspects of your business model.? This may also be accomplished by hiring knowledgeable talent into your business and/or training your employees on tech advances.? It is likely that spending resources on a hybrid mindset that includes both of these approaches is the best answer for your future success.? Look at paradigm shifts and new technology as a journey and not a single destination.? It should be an on-going process that is baked into every aspect of your business operations, because “doing it the way it has always been done” is rarely the correct approach in modern day business.