Veljko Krunic - Succeeding with AI

For online information and ordering of this and other Manning books, please visit www.manning.com. The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity.

For more information, please contact

2020 by Manning Publications Co. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in the book, and Manning Publications was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.

Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, it is Mannings policy to have the books we publish printed on acid-free paper, and we exert our best efforts to that end. Recognizing also our responsibility to conserve the resources of our planet, Manning books are printed on paper that is at least 15 percent recycled and processed without the use of elemental chlorine.

Manning Publications Co.20 Baldwin RoadPO Box 761Shelter Island, NY 11964

Neither Manning nor the Author make any warranty regarding the completeness, accuracy, timeliness, or other fitness for use nor the results obtained from the use of the contents herein and accept no liability for any decision or action taken in reliance on the information in this book nor for any damages resulting from this work or its application.

ISBN 9781617296932

Printed in the United States of America

Many AI projects are in progress today, and many of them will fail. This book will help you avoid starting an AI project thats doomed to failure and will guide you toward the projects that can succeed.

I wrote this book to help you get concrete business results, and to help you influence how AI is used in industry today. Current discussions about AI focus on algorithms and case studies of successful applications. Whats lost in this discussion is the human element of AI. We see algorithms, and we know what large organizations have done with them, but what we dont hear about is the leadership needed for an AI project to achieve business success and the principles applicable to our own organizations for leading AI projects. That causes us to have unrealistic expectations of what AI can do, and when paired with only a vague understanding of the actions leaders must take for their AI projects to succeed, the result is that many of the AI projects we have in progress will fail.

This book addresses what differentiates the AI projects that will succeed from the ones that will fail. In one word, it is agencya capacity that AI lacks. Conventional wisdom tells us that the determinant of success or failure of an AI project is the project teams in-depth knowledge of AI technology. Believing that success with AI is determined solely by technical prowess confounds an enabler with a capability. Although you do need to have technical skills on your team for your AI project to succeed technically, to implement AI in your business, you also need to link technical success with business results.

The very definition of high tech is that it refers to a newly emerging technology. As a corollary, the best practices of that technology are only developed later, once the experiences and early application of technology are understood and systematized. This book introduces the best practices for using AI. It guides you through the treacherous waters of running an AI project in 2020 and beyond.

This book shows you how to lead an AI project toward business success, measure technical progress in business terms, and run your projects economically. Youll learn how to determine which AI projects are likely to give you actionable results, and how to get those results. Finally, this book teaches you how to analyze your technical solutions to help you find the investment opportunities with the greatest business impact.

I want to thank my wife, Helen Stella, for love, support, patience, advice, and encouragement during the process of writing this book. Youre there when Im winning, and youre there while there are still challenges I have yet to conquer. Helen, I am lucky to have you in my life!

Id also like to thank Dr. Jeffrey Luftig, from whom I learned that the key to business success is bringing together business competence and strong technical proficiency in scientific methods youre using. His work and teaching had a profound impact on my thinking (for example, his book with Steve Ouellette []

I would also like to thank Steve Ouellette. Several years ago, I started writing a book quite different from this one, and Steve reviewed my early writing. This is, for all practical purposes, a very different book. Nevertheless, Steves thoughts on my previous writing helped me write a better book.

Most importantly, I would like to thank all the early adopters of AI and other novel technologies. Youre willing to take chances on the latest technologies, whose potential you have the vision to see, as opposed to playing it safe and opting for what everyone else is using. Without people like you, software, high tech, and progress in general cant exist. Youre the unsung heroes of technology revolutions.

No book is the product of the author alone, and I would like to thank the Manning team. Associate Publisher Michael Stephens had the vision to understand what this book could become. All he had to work with at that time was a proposal for a book approaching AI projects from a different angle than any other book on the market. His ongoing help and guidance made this book possible. My copy editor Carl Quesnel has supplied a lot of invaluable suggestions regarding the style and the flow of the writing in this book, and the book is much better for his involvement. I would also like to thank my technical development editor, Al Krinker, for his technical review of this book and for pointing out many technical details to include in the text. In addition, I would like to thank my ESL editor, Frances Buran, who had the job of proofreading my initial drafts and correcting many spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors in them.

I would also like to thank the reviewers of this book. Our whole community owes gratitude to people like them. These reviewers are presented with texts and ideas still in draft form. They donate their considerable knowledge and experience to read and evaluate writing full of rough edges and then help authors to revise their rough ideas so that the whole community can benefit. Im embarrassed to realize how rarely I think about the work of reviewers when Im a reader of the finished book. As an author, I came to appreciate their role, help, and guidance, and I did my best to incorporate their advice in this book. Those reviewers were Andrea Paciolla; Ayon Roy; Craig Henderson; David Goldfarb; David Paccoud; Eric Cantuba; Ishan Khurana; James J. Byleckie, PhD; Jason Rendel; Jousef Murad; Madhavan Ramani; Manjula Iyer; Miguel Eduardo Gil Biraud; Nikos Kanakaris; Sara Khan; Simona Russo; Sune Lomholt; Teresa Fontanella De Santis; and Zarak Mahmud.