The Transform Technology Summits start October 13th with Low-Code/No Code: Enabling Enterprise Agility. Register now!
You could say that when it comes to AI, companies today are engaged in a competition reminiscent of the 60s space race. So it should be no surprise that OODA, an old pilots acronym for observe, orient, decide and act, has been co-opted by those wanting to amass business advantages through the use of data and machine learning.
The OODA loop for AI updates the language, but the intent is just the same. The more data you have, the better your models get. The better your models are, the better your service becomes. This leads to more usage and, subsequently, more data. Thus the cycle continues.
Following this model, youd think most companies would be rushing to adopt AI. In more cases than youd think, its the opposite. And this hesitancy could have massive repercussions.
According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) research from 2020, one in three public companies will cease to exist in its current form by 2025 a rate six times higher than it was 40 years ago. Furthermore, 44% of todays leading companies have only held their position for at least five years, down from 77% from 1970.
This opportunity shows AI doesnt just have the potential to be an equalizer, it can be an advantage. Thats because the AI OODA loop has a flywheel effect. The more times a business cycles through it, the greater the competitive distance. Companies that have operationalized this model are simply going to be harder to catch up with.
In a word, leadership. Many executives, who subscribe to methodologies like Six Sigma, dont want to think about probabilistic methods and uncertainty. They just dont recognize the need for AI. Even if they did, theyd probably be dismayed by their technical debt and how their workforce lacks those with enough experience to connect AI to business use cases.
This take is supported by a 2019 OReilly Media survey conducted by my frequent collaborator Paco Nathan. In the below chart, he plotted the percentage of responses he received when asking companies at different stages about their AI adoption challenges.
As you can see, those whove advanced to what Paco calls the Evaluating phase are no longer in denial and recognize whats preventing them from embracing AI. Their identified problems are a data crunch, a hiring gap and having execs who are facing challenges from multiple departments. These companies dont yet have the solutions, but they arent daunted by them like the first group.
Interestingly, by the time a company has entered the Mature phase, their problems arent really problems anymore. Companies in this group are making money with AI and are working on ways to further increase their profits.
A key insight from a joint BCG-MIT Sloan Management Review research project makes a compelling case for adopting AI to gain a competitive edge. This data shows the spread in profitability between top- and bottom-quartile companies has nearly doubled over the past 30 years.
In my previous article Deadline 2024: Why you only have 3 years left to adopt AI, I explored the opportunities AI can unlock and the sense of urgency required. So how can companies get unstuck and proceed through those Evaluation and Maturity phases? It really requires a culture shift within a company and, of course, that starts with the person at the top.
This is reinforced by McKinsey & Companys State Of AI in 2020, where respondents at AI high performers were 2.3X more likely to consider their C-suite leaders very effective. This same group was also more likely to say AI initiatives have an engaged and knowledgeable champion in the C-suite.
In Nancy Giordanos new book Leadering, she delves into the future of company stewardship. The gist: There has to be a transition from leadership to leadering. Nancy who also advises my company defines the former as a static, closed, hierarchical, organizational approach designed to scale efficiently for consistent, short-term growth. She goes on the say the latter differs as it cultivates a dynamic, adaptive, caring, inclusive mindset which supports continuous innovation for long-term, sustainable value.
Once the concept of leadership is re-framed, it becomes easier to achieve what needs to be done to begin AI utilization (as it should be led from the top down). This includes:
Devising a plan for how AI will transform. Its critical to have a vision for how AI will impact your business over the next three years. Consider how itll steer data acquisition, digital spend, and use case exploration in a practical manner that de-risks and accelerates the time to outcome. The BCG-MIT research found that companies with the right data, tech, and talent but no strategy only have a 21% chance of achieving significant benefits.
Allowing disparate teams to work together. A legacy business practice like siloing business units (and their data) to minimize risk is now a liability. A company that wants to succeed with AI needs to tear down those walls and empower a network of teams to explore new ways of working together. This will help improve agility and innovation.
Leaning into diversity. This isnt just about making sure teams have a mix of genders and ethnicities. Its also about inviting employees with different professional experiences. Companies that hope to thrive with AI should welcome a wide variety of perspectives. This means being open to dissent as well.
Rethinking how people interact with machines (and vice versa). BCG research shows when you create feedback loops, theres a greater chance of success. To seize upon this, youll want AI learning from human feedback, humans learning from AI, and AI learning autonomously. Doing all three of these things gives a company a 53% chance of significant financial benefit (versus the 5% chance that comes from doing nothing).
Soldiering ahead with AI doesnt just require a change in technology, it also demands a change in process, culture, and collaboration. Those that will prosper from AI are the ones investing in strong cultures and better communication structures.
Employees at AI high performers tend to agree. In McKinseys 2020 survey, 52% of these employees said their team leaders feel empowered to move AI initiatives forward in collaboration with peers across business units and functions. 42% also believe a strong, centralized coordination of AI initiatives should be balanced with close connectivity to business end users.
If youre serious about using AI to gain and hold a market edge, ask your employees about the changes theyd like to see in how theyre led and how they interact. A feedback loop is just as crucial to success as the OODA loop. By institutionalizing both, youll be able to amass an advantage or at least stop falling behind.
Steve Meier is a co-founder and Head of Growth at AI services firm KUNGFU.AI.
See the original post here:
Want to win with AI? Focus on your leadership, not the competition. - VentureBeat
- Chinese national arrested and charged with stealing AI trade secrets from Google - NPR - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- President Biden Calls for Ban on AI Voice Impersonations During State of the Union - Variety - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Revolutionize Your Business with AWS Generative AI Competency Partners | Amazon Web Services - AWS Blog - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Broadcom Expects AI Demand to Help Offset Weakness Elsewhere - Yahoo Finance - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Micron Hits Record High With Analysts Calling It an 'Under-Appreciated AI Beneficiary' - Investopedia - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- The Adams administration quietly hired its first AI czar. Who is he? - City & State New York - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- AI likely to increase energy use and accelerate climate misinformation report - The Guardian - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Could Double, and It Is Way Cheaper Than Nvidia - Yahoo Finance - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Fake images made to show Trump with Black supporters highlight concerns around AI and elections - The Associated Press - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research - Nature.com - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Analysis | House AI task force leaders take long view on regulating the tools - The Washington Post - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Don't Give Your Business Data to AI Companies - Dark Reading - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- NIST, the lab at the center of Bidens AI safety push, is decaying - The Washington Post - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Essay | AI is Coming! Tips for Staying Calm and Carrying On - The Wall Street Journal - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- AI can be easily used to make fake election photos - report - BBC.com - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- 5 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Make You a Millionaire - Yahoo Finance - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- AI could be an extraordinary force for good. So why do our politicians still not have a plan? - The Guardian - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Mapping Disease Trajectories from Birth to Death with AI - Neuroscience News - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- India plans 10,000-GPU sovereign AI supercomputer - The Register - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- SAP enhances Datasphere and SAC for AI-driven transformation - CIO - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Jim Cramer names companies and sectors poised to rally on the AI wave - CNBC - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- The job applicants shut out by AI: The interviewer sounded like Siri - The Guardian - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Microsoft confirms Surface and Windows AI event for March 21st - The Verge - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Adobes new Express app brings Firefly AI tools to iOS and Android - The Verge - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- A Google AI Watched 30,000 Hours of Video GamesNow It Makes Its Own - Singularity Hub - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Palantir CEO Karp on TITAN, AI Warfare Technology - Bloomberg - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Elliptic Curve Murmurations Found With AI Take Flight - Quanta Magazine - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- 5 AI Stocks to Buy in March 2024, According to Analysts - TipRanks.com - TipRanks - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Wix's new AI chatbot builds websites in seconds based on prompts - The Verge - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- Amid record high energy demand, America is running out of electricity - The Washington Post - March 8th, 2024 [March 8th, 2024]
- AI Crypto Tokens in 5 Minutes: What to Know and Where to Start - Inc. - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- 'The Worlds I See' by AI visionary Fei-Fei Li '99 selected as Princeton Pre-read - Princeton University - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- AI is having a 1995 moment, analyst says - Business Insider - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Vatican research group's book outlines AI's 'brave new world' - National Catholic Reporter - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Honor's Magic 6 Pro launches internationally with AI-powered eye tracking on the way - The Verge - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Google explains Gemini's embarrassing AI pictures of diverse Nazis - The Verge - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Google cut a deal with Reddit for AI training data - The Verge - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- What's the point of Elon Musk's AI company? - The Verge - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- AI agents like Rabbit aim to book your vacation and order your Uber - NPR - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Announcing Microsofts open automation framework to red team generative AI Systems - Microsoft - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- After Nvidia's latest blowout, here are 20 AI stocks expected to rise as much as 44% - Yahoo Finance - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- 1 Exceptional AI Chip Stock Investors Need to Know About in 2024 - The Motley Fool - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Nvidia briefly hits $2 trillion valuation as AI frenzy grips Wall Street - Reuters - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- AI Chatbots Can Guess Your Personal Information From What You ... - WIRED - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Harvard IT Launches Pilot of AI Sandbox to Enable Walled-Off Use ... - Harvard Crimson - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Advancing policing through AI: Insights from the global law ... - Police News - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Hochul announces new SUNY, IBM investments in AI - Olean Times Herald - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Nvidia's banking on TensorRT to expand its generative AI dominance - The Verge - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- AI expands from MRFs to vehicles - Plastics Recycling Update - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- AI Reads Ancient Scroll Charred by Mount Vesuvius in Tech First - Scientific American - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- A DEEPer (squared) dive into AI Harvard Gazette - Harvard Gazette - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Florida bar weighs whether lawyers using AI need client consent - Reuters - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Cognizant and Vianai Systems Announce Strategic Partnership to ... - PR Newswire - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- How AI could speed up scientific discoveries, from proteins to ... - NPR - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- AI challenge to deliver better healthcare | Western Australian ... - Government of Western Australia - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Henry Kissinger: The Path to AI Arms Control - Foreign Affairs Magazine - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Stability AI releases StableStudio in latest push for open-source AI - The Verge - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai Predicts That This Profession Will Be ... - The Motley Fool - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Frances privacy watchdog eyes protection against data scraping in AI action plan - TechCrunch - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Investing in Hippocratic AI - Andreessen Horowitz - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- As Alphabet flexes its AI prowess, there's a 'new elephant in the room' for Google - MarketWatch - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Boring Future of Generative AI | WIRED - WIRED - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- OpenAI readies new open-source AI model, The Information reports - Reuters.com - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- What every CEO should know about generative AI - McKinsey - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- AI creates images of the 'perfect' man and woman - Sky News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Audit AI search tools now, before they skew research - Nature.com - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 3 Reasons C3.ai Stock Could Be Your Golden Ticket to the AI ... - InvestorPlace - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Zoom makes a big bet on AI with investment in Anthropic - VentureBeat - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- AI voice phone scams are on the rise. Here's how to avoid them - USA TODAY - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Amazon is building an AI-powered conversational experience for ... - The Verge - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- AI speculators need to 'differentiate between actual spending and investment' and hype: Strategist - Yahoo Finance - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- AI Can Be Both Accurate and Transparent - HBR.org Daily - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- You're Probably Underestimating AI Chatbots | WIRED - WIRED - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- AI presents political peril for 2024 with threat to mislead voters - The Associated Press - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- We need AI to help us face the challenges of the future - The Guardian - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- End Of Googles Dominance? Stock Gets Rare Analyst Downgrade Over AI Fears - Forbes - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Watch 44 million atoms simulated using AI and a supercomputer - New Scientist - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- AI Is The New Electricity: Bank Of America Picks 20 Stocks To Cash In On ChatGPT Hype - Forbes - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- Tech Giants Are Barreling Headfirst Into an AI Arms Race - February 20th, 2023 [February 20th, 2023]
- Bing's AI Is Threatening Users. That's No Laughing Matter - TIME - February 20th, 2023 [February 20th, 2023]