AI presents a unique transformational opportunity for organisations. Hand wringing has begun about potential job losses as a result of the implementation of AI capabilities. However, it is already clear that AI goes beyond the potential of efficiency. The purpose of this piece is to provide a framework for AI options that might grow organisations and opportunities for your people.
In periods of rapid technological change, shared sense making is important so that we can build on the experiences of others. This post doesn’t seek to provide answers or even exact models, just some signposts to where your organisation might want to go next. It is important to note that one organisation may pursue one or more of these clusters of use cases at any time
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken (because you may travel all roads with AI)
Five Clusters of AI Use Cases
Work so far around the world by organisations implementing AI highlights five different use case clusters that have wildly varying benefits and implications for organisations.
These clusters are
- Ignore – do nothing and wait for more information or capabilities
- Deploy – rollout AI to one or more employees
- Replace – leverage AI to replace human tasks
- Unlock – Use AI to unlock constraints in current business models
- Reinvent – Use AI to do something new, different or innovative
Here is each of those AI Use Case Clusters described in a handy table:
Till even the comforting barn grows far away
And my heart owns a doubt
Whether ’tis in us to arise with day
And save ourselves unaided.
Robert Frost - Storm Fear
Observations on these Patterns
Doing Nothing is Not An Option: New technology takes time to be mastered. Making sense of the capabilities requires testing and learning and making sense of its application and risks in your context. Without experimentation you are likely to be at the mercy of disruption by others or only benefit from generic capabilities that flow to everyone.
Reducing People is Not Inevitable. Changing what People Do is: The Unlock and Reinvent use cases may both lead to increased level of people in your organisation supporting expansion of new levels of activity and new work. However, it is likely that simple, repetitive tasks, content creation, and review, transcription, and analysis of information will be automated using AI. Human activity will move to higher value and likely higher paid tasks involving governance, discretion and person-to-person interaction.
The Highest Value is the Hardest Work & Risk: Not surprisingly, the greatest return comes from exercises to explore the uncertainty created by the opportunities of new technology. That means great risk of failure but also greater potential returns. Realising greater returns is going to require investment, governance and effort. Accidental success is always possible but systemic effort produces better consistent outcomes.
All at once: While there are different capabilities required to execute each of the clusters above, this is not a maturity model. As noted above your organisation is likely to need to consider a little bit of everything from the use case patterns above. There will be areas where wait and see is wise. You may also have areas where it is urgent today to unlock your business model or reinvent it. What is clear is that almost everyone will explore the opportunities to remove tasks that are mundane and repetitive using AI.
Get ready to be surprised: New technology offers entrepreneurs new ways to explore business processes, value chains and business models. Every industry will have some form of new entrant and new model to consider. Not all of these models will succeed but there are likely to be shocks and adjustments along the way. Organisations need to invest in their capabilities to learn, experiment, adapt and react.
Best of luck with your adoption of AI in your organisation. I hope you found these clusters useful in your efforts to make sense of AI adoption. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Particularly, let me know what I missed.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy evening
Simon Terry is a consultant, advisor, and non-executive director who focused on how organisations can better leverage technology, collaboration, leadership and learning to achieve innovation and business growth, particularly in financial services, healthcare and education.
