There’s no doubt that AI has transformed the business world. Whether it’s automating mundane tasks, streamlining customer service with chatbots, or enhancing sales forecasting, the uses for AI in business seems limitless. But it’s important to remember that AI isn’t a magic pill capable of immediately solving every challenge an organization faces. Deciding to implement an AI solution requires thoughtful consideration and strategic thinking to manage expectations for both internal stakeholders and customers.
Recognizing AI’s limitations
When examining your business’s challenges, it can be easy to jump to AI as the solution to everything. But just like most things, AI does have its limits and isn’t necessarily the right answer to everything. For both your customers and colleagues, it will be much easier to onboard them to the idea of an AI solution with an intentional and incremental plan, rather than introducing a sweeping panacea. Carefully deciding which process or element could benefit from an AI solution, and introducing that one piece, can help build confidence in the tool and prevent a scenario of overpromising and undelivering.
It’s also important to remember that just like any other technology, AI is just one tool in your toolbox. It’s not meant to do everything all at once. Instead, it’s just one piece of the puzzle to streamline and improve your processes. Think about the GPS system in a car. It enhances and improves your experience, but it doesn’t drive the car for you. So before you replace every human interaction with an AI tool, think about those touch points where a human voice or brain actually helps the process.
Don’t forget about the user
When determining if an AI solution (or any new tool for that matter) is right for your needs, think about how it can augment or facilitate an existing process, not necessarily replace it altogether. You want to make sure that an AI tool is designed to fit the life of the user, not the other way around. The key here is to align with the humans using the technology and discover “the intersection of user needs and AI strengths.” Trying to cram a user’s needs into an AI solution could leave you with a very powerful solution to a very small – or nonexistent – problem. Think of the round hole, square peg saying.
Consider the following questions when evaluating an AI solution:
- Does it help me do my tasks more efficiently?
- Does it tell me something I don’t know?
- Does it help me learn faster and know more?
- Does it support accessibility and inclusion?
Training is important
If you want human-like results from your AI, you need human interaction to teach it. This means that you need to spend time and resources on quality training data to teach AI solutions how to perform a specific task. Depending on the task, datasets can consist of examples, labeled or unlabeled (such as images), of inputs and outputs. You could find yourself with a crippled or useless AI solution if it’s trained with inadequate, inaccurate, or irrelevant data. The term “garbage in, garbage out,” holds very true in this situation.
So it’s important to remember that an AI-powered solution is definitely not a “set it and forget it” situation. Once you’ve chosen the right tool, you’ll still need to devote both time and resources (money and people) to make sure present and future applications deliver what you need.
AI is magical, but it’s not magic
AI really is a wonderful evolution in our digital journey. From virtual assistants to chatbots to driverless cars, AI-powered technology has revolutionized the world around us. But that doesn’t mean it’s a replacement for everything, or that humans have become obsolete. When considering implementing AI technology, there is a lot to consider and it’s important to think long and hard about what you need it to achieve. Remember that AI has its limitations, that the user’s needs should be at the center of everything, and that quality training data is crucial to an effective solution. With these guidelines in mind, you’ll be better positioned to make a smart decision when it comes to your next AI solution.
And if you do decide that AI is the way to go for your business, reach out to AscentCore. We provide end-to-end product development services, including specialized expertise, in a wide cross-section of industries and solutions. With a focus on AI and ML, we deliver transformational results for our clients by leveraging the latest technology and empowering companies to disrupt, transform, accelerate, and scale.
