What’s the Secret to Breakthrough AI? Agile Ways of Working.

Here’s how to unlock great outcomes in artificial intelligence.

In the recent past, practitioners of artificial intelligence (AI) often encountered skepticism, if not outright opposition in applying agile with AI.

We were told that there’s little, if any, value in applying agile ways of working to the complex task of implementing AI.

We were told that AI requires deeply technical skills, and that forcing folks with these skills together with those without them was counterproductive.

We were told that executives don’t value incremental results.

These are all dangerous myths.

In fact, our experience proves the exact opposite to be true. On a daily basis, we see how AI and agile pair seamlessly together. Indeed, agile is especially helpful in overcoming many of the risks that prevent AI from realizing its full value.?

Defintions

Let’s step back for a minute and define our key terms.

What is agile? Agile is a new way of working — and thinking — which helps organizations transform themselves from rigid to resilient . The benefits are enormous: Agile-powered groups are more nimble, more focused on business value, more attractive to talent, and better able to achieve faster time to market.

Agile is an especially effective approach in today’s turbulent times; it harnesses the waves of disruptive impact without becoming overwhelmed. What’s more, agile supports teams wherever they work: On site, remote, or a combination thereof (a “hybrid” environment).

Note: While there are several agile frameworks, we’ll focus on the most popular one, Scrum .

What is artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence, or AI, provides an ever-expanding set of services, from recommending the next video to watch to the promise of self-driving cars .?AI uses algorithms and data to perform “human-like” activities while appearing to learn and reason. The field of AI techniques is vast, ranging from data-driven machine learning to linear programming optimization to probabilistic Bayesian networks.

Lessons

So, how can agile enable and empower AI? Here are five AI lessons we’ve learned on the frontlines of consulting for the world’s leading businesses where agile can excel.

A few notes upfront:

1. ?These lessons build upon and support one another, thus providing a holistic path to success.
2. ?These lessons are not unique to AI; they apply equally well to many other areas of business.
3. ?Agile is not the only key to AI success, in the third article we'll share additional keys, but agile is one that rapidly delivers great AI results.

The AI Challenge: “We Built It, But the Business Doesn’t Want It”

When AI practitioners are disconnected from the goals of the business, they often pursue work that’s intellectually engaging but that doesn’t bolster the company’s broader vision. As a result, the project fails to get adopted; you’re left with interesting proof of concepts but no bottom-line results.

The Agile Solution: Designate a Product Owner

In agile Scrum, the Product Owner is charged with aligning the goals of the team with the goals of the company and the needs of the customer. The Product Owner sets the vision and makes the product decisions. To ensure the right thing is built, the Product Owner interfaces with everyone: Customers, internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, sponsors, and of course the agile team itself. In this way, the value of what’s built is never in question.

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Curious about the next lessons? Check out part two and three of this series. Comments and feedback welcome.