Your 2025 Data and Analytics AI priorities: Where to Innovate, Reinvent, Cannibalise or Remain as is?

When starting a new role there is the inherent benefit of a ‘fresh-eyes’ perspective on what is working and the areas to improve in realising and accelerating the business value of Data and Analytics AI.

Yet when embedded in day-to-day delivery mode, its hard to make a detached assessment as to the right opportunities to progress and the fundamental challenges to resolve.

A rigorous review of what to ‘????????????????, ????????????????, ??????????????????????, ?????? ???????????? ????-????’ can help ensure that the direction, balance of priorities and business aligned roadmap meets current needs and accelerates future value delivery.

Using an understanding of business priorities, the art of the possible and experience of best practices, what is the right priority and balance of activity across:

??. ????????????????: Where is the innovation conscious, focused and structured in what to solve for and how? What is the right balance between learning from innovation, with activity where the impact and feasibility are more certain? Is the innovation ‘shiny new’ technology led or grounded in business problems to solve? Does the approach ‘forward-solve’ the post-pilot barriers to implementation?

??. ????????????????: Where or how does the business perception, team focus or approach need to step-change to deliver strategic impact. The stretching of business opportunities and adoption best practices should be a given, yet what are the more fundamental opportunities/ challenges that need to be solved for? What is actually preventing the business realising value and become data driven and how are these being addressed in the roadmap?

??. ??????????????????????: Seeking opportunities to automate or productionise is critical to freeing up team members to work on higher value outcomes and enable talent development. Remaining in the comfort zone needs to be challenged – if the team doesn’t consider how to cannibalise itself then an externally imposed review might do it instead.

??. ???????????? ????-????: There should not be improvement for improvements sake. There is finite resource/ capability bandwidth and change fatigue is real. Therefore its critical to make conscious decisions and agree with stakeholders on what to leave for now (but not forget!) due to prioritisation or marginal benefit/ cost.

Forming a detached view of where and how to Innovate/ Reinvent/ Cannibalise/ Remain ‘as is’ can be uncomfortable and challenging.

There is no shortage of opinions on what to do, but which are based on learned-experience, broader expertise and appropriate to the scale and dynamics of the business? Who is the person you can use as a sounding board to ask the probing questions, provide new perspectives or just pressure test the plan?

Unless there is conscious thought and consideration – the business aspiration, value and team development risks being akin to a rudderless boat tossed and blown by the wind.