What to put in place now, for AI success in the future.

“Be not simply good - be good for something.” Henry David Thoreau, Naturalist & Philosopher

AI strategies need to be aligned to business outcomes – with the ability to show a clear link between capability and business value.

A takeaway from Gartner’s Data and Analytics Summit.

Organisations must evolve their data and analytics strategies to keep pace with technological advancements and the growing complexity of data environments.

Embracing AI, managing complexity, ensuring trust, and empowering employees are critical to achieving business success in 2024 and beyond.

The emphasis on practical actions and governance underscores the need for a structured yet flexible approach to data management.

• AI and Business Integration: Generative AI and other advanced technologies will have a profound impact on industries, necessitating a shift from “good enough” data practices to those that can support critical business decisions.
• Managing Complexity: Organisations must adopt new methods to manage the complexity of their data environments, using design thinking, process mining, and AI-enabled systems to streamline operations and improve decision-making.
• Building Trust: Establishing trust in data through robust governance, observability, and explainability practices is essential to counter the growing distrust in single sources of truth.
• Empowering Employees: Enhancing employee capabilities through AI literacy programs, decision-making tools, and dedicated innovation time can lead to better business outcomes and reduced burnout.
• Proactive Actions: Immediate steps such as adopting FinOps, establishing D&A franchises, and aligning stakeholder goals with ethical data governance are crucial for staying ahead of the trends.

Here’s our key takeaways for evolving your data and analytics environment.

Prove the value to the organisation

1. Use the enterprise value equation to create a clear link between D&A capabilities and business value.
2. Optimize resource allocation decisions with a consistent approach to scoring investment opportunities.
3. Include relevant intangibles, such as sustainability or DEI goals.

Use FinOps to flatten the cost curve

1. Establish a formal, centralized FinOps practice to set and enforce standards.
2. Track and attribute costs by using resource tagging and targeted FinOps tools and practices.
3. Conduct regular vendor price/performance reviews to assess the health of your environment.
4. Seek out vendors offering augmented FinOps capabilities to progress your maturity and automation aspirations.

Establish D&A franchises

1. Identify best practices in skills, processes, and technology across the organization.
2. Use those best practices as a template for others to leverage.
3. Consider establishing some franchisees as designated thought leaders.

Balance your complexity

1. Avoid the temptation to try to fix problems by adding complexity.
2. Simplify the governance process with policies, not rulebooks.
3. Use design thinking principles to simplify your technology environment.
4. Consider using D&A-enabled complexity as a source of competitive advantage.

Understand your ecosystem

1. Invest in systems that capture contextual data.
2. Create a digital twin of your products, processes, organization, or environment.
3. Invest in process mining tools to discover, monitor, and improve business operations and processes.
4. Use AI to build automated responses to complex phenomena.

Augment with AI-enabled systems

1. Invest in augmented data management tools, for established use cases such as data catalogues and migration and to support advanced use cases like active metadata.
2. Boost the efficiency of business analysts with augmented pattern discovery and communication capabilities.
3. Embrace decision automation for more use cases with self-learning AI systems.
4. Invest in augmented analytics capabilities such as NLP/NLG to reach emerging groups of users.

Join Ignite’s Consulting Services Manager Kris and Solution Architect Nischay for a discussion on how to translate Gartner’s trends into practical, business value.

How to optimise AI in your business

Thursday, 5th September 2024

1:00PM to 1:30PM followed by 15 minutes Q&A.

ignitedata.com.au/webinar