What does it take for businesses to be successful with AI?
We've asked this question at numerous events and spoken to a variety of experts, including venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs, and people from MIT, and most agree that this is a bit more complicated than it seems.
It's one thing to be an early adopter. That's fine, but how are you going to use that AI? I've actually heard some trepidation from executives about this idea. You can't just get an LLM and get to work. You need to have a fundamental idea that will set you up for success.
Here's some excerpts from Karen Stroup, CDO at Wex, who serves 800,000 customers, in a recent presentation. She suggested that using these new technologies still requires a principled and measured approach:
The title of her presentation is “If you build it, they won't come.”
“That's the harsh reality we face in today's AI-driven world,” she says. “AI is an incredibly powerful technology, but it's not a silver bullet, a magic wand, or a panacea that will automatically make your company successful.”
She compared AI to the internet and mobile responsive design, calling for the need for both strategic vision and skillful application.
“A lot of people talk about the importance of data, the fact that leveraging data is the biggest obstacle to a company's success,” she says. “Yes, data preparation is a challenge, but I don't think data is the biggest challenge. What about the customer?”
Essentially, she says, companies still need to satisfy customers with a user-friendly framework.
“We know that success comes in many forms,” she added, listing “technology-driven innovation, commercial acumen, brilliant academics, and pure luck.” I thought that was a good list.
“All of these have a role to play, but at the end of the day, if you want to future-proof your business, you're putting the customer at the heart of your AI strategy,” she says.
Man and woman shaking hands in office. Collaborative teamwork.
So let’s look at the three principles she lays out for business.
1. Actions over words
What Stroup seems to be trying to say here is that you need to make sure your product or service is actually useful to your target audience.
She tells stories of customers who were initially enthusiastic but then couldn't use the platform effectively. That's a problem.
2. Design is just as important as functionality
Her second point was the importance of design and the emphasis on design.
“Imagine logging into an app you use every day,” she begins, describing a situation where a new chatbot pops up. Some people may have negative experiences with chatbots, but they can be highly accurate and a “gold mine” of efficiency and insight.
So her company invested in design.
“We invested in the overall experience of discovery and first use,” she explains.
3. Turning insights into impact
As for his third point, Stroup talks about fleet management.
Maybe fleet managers know what to look for, but they’re just too busy to efficiently comb through all the data for actionable insights.
“Data is just data,” she says.
But if designed properly, the data can be extremely useful to fleet managers and others, she adds.
“Data collection alone doesn't create transformation,” she argues. “Data + AI + behavior is what transforms business. … When you think about this, the power of AI, the real magic, is not the technology itself, but the impact it has on people. The progress, the change it brings. At the end of the day, we don't want to be the architects of that technology, we want to be the stewards of progress. We want to drive and improve people's lives. Because as we've learned, if you build it right, with the customer at the center, they're the ones who drive it. Intention come.”
These are the points that impressed me about how to lead a business. This may be valuable for many startups and idea people, so please let me know your thoughts.
