We are often unaware of how AI-based products, working behind the scenes, make our daily lives easier. But is it easy to adopt artificial intelligence if you’re not a tech giant like Google or Amazon? Serhii Pospielov, AI Practice lead at Exadel, shares a roadmap to AI implementation to set businesses up for success.
Implementing AI solutions is certainly not the cheapest way of improving your business, but is there an affordable yet effective approach you can adopt? Let’s look at an AI implementation roadmap with real case examples to get you on the right track.
Hard Facts about AI implementation in business:
- More than 9 out of 10 (91%) top businesses report having an ongoing investment in AIOpens a new window , as noted in a NewVantage, 2022 research.Â
- According to a McKinsey survey, high-performing companies attribute most of their profits to their integration and use of AIOpens a new window .Â
- A Forbes report discusses that 2022Opens a new window could see the “collective shift away from point solutions toward holistic platforms that offer a suite of business solutions.â€Â
How Can AI Adoption Help Businesses?
What are the key advantages of adopting AI for your business? According to Harvard Business Review, AI solutionsOpens a new window can help to support three primary business needs:Â
- Automating business processes (administrative and financial activities that do need to be done manually)
- Generating insights with data analysis (using algorithms to find patterns in vast volumes of data for further predictions)
- Engagement with customers and employees (chatbots, intelligent agents)
AI Implementation In Business: Challenges
The main stumbling block in adopting AI for business is that organizations trying to adopt AI solutions are often complex, making integration and implementation challenging.
An approach recommendedOpens a new window by McKinsey consultants Tim Fontaine, Brian McCarthy, and Tamim Saleh is first to consider using AI to reimagine just one crucial business process or function. They advocate carefully rethinking how that one key business function can benefit from AI rather than attempting to implement AI solutions across the company.Â
Businesses need to rethink their business models to benefit from AI in total volume. You can’t just plug AI into an existing process and expect positive results or valuable insights.Â
Cybersecurity is still one of the most challenging areas of AI implementation. Organizations do not have one cyber standard covering everything under one umbrella. Another point worthy of note is that AI systems often become targets for hackers. The more complex your AI systems are, the more potential threats to the system.
AI Implementation PlanÂ
A recent survey by Deloitte AI Institute covered the leading AI PracticesOpens a new window for potentially AI-fueled organizations. AI implementation must begin with developing a carefully planned strategy.Â
Here is their advice: Tie your AI implementation strategy to your overall company strategy and then orient in investments. Organizations with good profits from AI implementation follow both core and more advanced best practices.Â
See More: Top 10 Machine Learning Algorithms in 2022
Building a Successful AI Implementation Strategy
Now let’s see how to build an AI strategy for your business.Â
1. Define the areas that need automation
 Answer the following questions:Â
- What are, and where are the barriers?
- In what areas are data and technology prevailing?
- Which areas are flexible enough for fast innovation implementation?
- What resources do we have, and do we need to implement AI?
You’ll likely find multiple areas where AI could improve things – but you must focus on the top priorities first – the low-hanging fruit. List your priorities by considering the areas that will:Â
- Increase profits and reduce costs
- Optimize processes key to business success
- Launch more data-driven processes
- Improve interaction with customers and employees
2. Staff the AI teamÂ
People responsible for AI implementation in your company should have different functions and be capable of efficiently managing the processes they’re responsible for. Managers must ensure that team members are properly integrated into the new initiative and deal with potential barriers to successful implementation.Â
3. Rethink your businessÂ
Next in the AI implementation plan is to reimagine your business. Find a goal and investigate how you may achieve it, describing the process in detail. For example, a vast HR consulting company needs the employees to log their time in one click – how do you achieve this? To develop AI solutions or reinvent the current inconvenient platform with some ML components.Â
4. Support new AI-based processes with agility
Companies should define AI technologies that will speed up the development of new business capabilities as much as possible and then move on to channel additional investments into other priority areas in the business.
A Case Study: Employee Time-Tracking App for an HR Consulting Firm
Let’s see how businesses can add value from AI by looking at an Exadel case study. This real-life example shows how adopting AI solutions automated manual work, enabling employees to free up time and concentrate on more critical tasks.Â
The client was a key player in HR consulting, with more than 10,000 employees. The company turned to Exadel to develop a scalable time-tracking application to log employee working hours. The previous version was cumbersome and not sufficiently intuitive or user-friendly.Â
Exadel created a solution that integrated with the company’s employee mobile application with a machine learning component that completely streamlined the process of logging time. The employee AI time-tracking app learns from work-logging patterns with continual use.Â
Benefits of Exadel’s ML component for the company:
- Employees concentrate on more important tasks than admin
- Human error is reduced
- Employee retention data is more positive
- Employee productivity and performance are increased
A similar AI solution could be applied in a whole range of industries and situations from small to large entities.Â
Such a solution could be used for everything from answering FAQ questions to tracking employee performance and time on task – being a cost-effective, highly efficient and useful replacement for legacy systems.Â
How Else Could AI Solutions Be Implemented in HR?Â
You might start with automating administrative tasks. For example, you may implement such AI solutions for pre-screening candidates or creating a chatbot to answer common questions while onboarding.Â
By analyzing employee data, you can implement performance management and improvement solutions. For example, you can recommend training and development courses or suggest specific actions for improvement. Equally, for employees who demonstrate outstanding performance, systems of suggested promotions, pay upgrades or rewards can be built into the admin portal. This is just one example of how AI can be integrated into an aspect of an organization to make significant and far-reaching improvements.Â
The Road to AI Success
A successful AI implementation business strategy should be based on solid business objectives and be tied to actual KPIs. Remember, in 2010Opens a new window , Jeff Bezos assigned every Amazon manager to research how to use AI and ML to be more competitive in the sector. Arguably, this initiative made Amazon what it is today – a worldwide leader in AI implementation. While your path to succeeding with AI may not be exactly the same, now would be a good time to take a step back, assess your business needs and plan forward on the road to AI transformation.
What are the key hurdles on your road to AI implementation? Share with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to know more about you!