You’re The User Of AI. Yes You, So Take Charge!

This article is co-written by Thomas Schultz and Anders Liu-Lindberg 

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Have you ever worked on a project where consultants were involved? Was it you or the consultants that had to work with the final solution? It was probably you so why it is that too often when we bring in consultants we don’t have enough of our own people involved? This is not to say you shouldn’t bring in consultants because they often bring competencies you don’t have but more to say you need to own the solution.

That also goes for projects involving Artificial Intelligence (AI). You’re the customer of the solution and if it doesn’t work for you then you’re also the one with the problems. You want to make sure you’re working with the right partners on such a project. Otherwise, it spells trouble ahead! This challenge is what we’re addressing in step 4 of our model of how to work successfully with AI. 

How to choose the right partner? 

Most companies have processes for choosing vendors to work on projects. Typically, they issue an RFP (Request for Proposal) and vendors can then submit their suggestions. But what do you do from there? We’ll address that in step 4. 

4. Reference-check your business partners – the right way 

Challenge: There is an enormous difference between academic knowledge about AI and authentic experience. We would say we know how to plow a field with a plow – from a theoretical perspective. But put any one of us on a tractor and we would fail disgracefully. In the same way: It’s easy to study AI and get a degree – even a Ph.D. But applying AI on real life case and real life smelly and dirty data is a whole other ball game. So just because your business partner is KPMG, Boston Consulting, EY, PWC, Deloitte, SAS Institute or someone else – it’s no guarantee that you will succeed on your quest. 

Fix: Use the “Thomas Schultz” – 10 step AI-test on a napkin as a sanity check on the claims of your business partner. And ask for real life, operationally implemented cases/references that are providing the client with true business value. (Oh – and check up on those references as well).

What this will show you is that most partners can show you the fancy slides, but they have few successes to show for it in real life. That’s not because they’re incompetent and it’s easy to work with AI. No, it’s because it’s hard and it requires a lot from all parties involved in the project. Just because you bring on a partner on your AI project it doesn’t relieve you of your responsibilities. No, you must take ownership of the project, run the meetings, understand the solution design, and implement the product. You. Not the partner. Are we clear now? 

What does this mean for Finance? 

It means two things

1. You must have project management capabilities and
2. You know something about AI and how it could potentially impact the solution (see the Thomas Schultz 10-step process for testing an AI solution).

If you’re clueless about what you’re trying to achieve you will fail. You’d be surprised how often companies are rather clueless about the purpose of what they’re doing. That won’t happen to you though and certainly not in your next AI project. Now you know how to select a good business partner and you’re ready to embark on your project! Have you figured out what that project should be yet? If you have, then let us know and if not go back to step 1 in the model because we’re confident you’re not without business pains for AI to solve.

This is the eight article in a mini-series about RPA and AI. Read previous articles in the series below. From next week we begin to discuss how to succeed with AI.

How To Make Robots A Part Of The Finance Family?

Why You Should Only Robotize Standard Processes 

Robots and Humans. A Marriage Made In Heaven Or Hell?

A Tale Of Robots: From Assembly Lines To Knowledge Workers

Robots Must Solve Business Pains To Be Successful

What AI Competencies Do Your Finance Team Really Need?

Here's How To Test If Your AI Solution Will Be A Success

You can read previous articles about robotics and other stories about finance transformation below.

Blip. Blop. Accounting Robot. Are You Ready?

Are You Ready For Robotics Process Automation?

Have You Met Your Robot Accountant Yet?

Robots Are The Future Of Analytics

Your Robot Accountant Has A Name, It's Dixie

What Defines A Finance Master?

The CFOs Roadmap To Transforming Finance

How Finance People Can Be More Successful

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

I also encourage you to take a tour of my past articles on finance transformation, finance business partnering and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” which is really the starting point for the transformation. You should join our Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow me on Twitter.

Anders Liu-Lindberg is a Senior Finance Business Partner at Maersk supporting our largest product and I have more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. I am also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 7,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to show how to be successful with business partnering and drive value creation as a trusted partner. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 29.000+ followers.