What If It’s All For Nothing?

I often think about this cartoon:

In the context of my work, a lot of what you have to put into place to get benefits from AI is what you should be doing anyway:

• Gather the relevant context

• Map out what the process should look like

• Identify how value is created by your organization and identify bottlenecks

• Have a clear concept of what "better" looks like

• Work in small slices with tight feedback loops

If you do all this and then find that AI on top of it doesn't provide much extra value, you've still massively improved your organization and your employees' lives and allow them to be more effective.

And isn't that a great way to de-risk an AI initiative? It's a double-whammy:

• First, you get all the clarity and improvement without adding any risky new tool to the mix

• Second, you set that new tool up for maximum success, making its addition much less risky

If that isn't good enough motivation to start getting the business "AI ready", I don't know what is.