On this episode of the Digital Velocity Podcast Erik and Tim discuss highlights of their recent attendance of MAICON, Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference, and how an AI-first approach to business can help companies gain a competitive advantage.
AI is becoming more prevalent in business and it can dramatically improve an organization if teams make the effort to start learning about and applying it. Erik says,
“…not only is the technology changing on a day-to-day basis, but the development of applications for business use cases is rapidly growing as well. The deployment of this technology can be an absolute game changer in your organization if you take the time and energy to kind of understand and start putting some building blocks in.”
It’s imperative for organizational leaders to actively participate in learning about AI to implement it in their business processes. Tim says,
“For leaders, regardless of where you are in your career, this is going to take some work on your part to dive in and become more intellectually curious yourself about AI. What’s AI? What’s machine learning? What’s deep learning? Beginning to really understand the implications of that because we are at a seminal point in technology and business. This is one of those pivot points in history, where the development of this is going to radically alter the landscape. We all bear responsibility to play that out.”
To ensure that AI is prioritized in a business, there must be an individual selected to learn about, advocate for, and initiate AI tools. Erik says,
“…the big question is who in the organization should own this. You know, one of the things I learned last week was somebody has to be the champion of the technology. And it doesn’t matter what it is, what initiative you’re driving in your business, somebody has to be champion of that initiative.”
That AI champion must be someone who has a passion for AI and really desires to make it an integral part of the company’s processes. Tim says,
“In some cases, it may be you that champions it, you build a team around you. In other situations, you find somebody. The big takeaway for me here in terms of finding somebody who has an intellectual curiosity about AI and is capable of leading understanding and adoption. Someone has to be the point person for AI technologies, and it’s someone who has a motor and an appetite for academia insights and knowledge acquisition. They’re driven by the pursuit of this. They want to get engaged. It stimulates their mind.”
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about how focusing on AI can help businesses progress more quickly and be more effective.