Rob Thomas - The AI Ladder: Accelerate your journey to AI

by Rob Thomas and Paul Zikopoulos

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Everybodys talking about AI. Why? Well, we believe AI presents a tremendous opportunity for businesses of every size, across any industry. We believe AI is shaping (or will shape) future outcomes, automating decisions, processes, and workflows, enabling people to do higher value work, and reimagining new business models. We believe AI is a powerful tool for rethinking and reinventing businesses, not just squeezing a few extra percent out of tired processes. In fact, we dont believe well be calling it AI in the future in the same way that we dont cite using a simple messaging service (SMS) to quickly communicate with someone anymore (we just say we texted them). Quite simply, artificial intelligence will become ambient intelligencebecause AI will be doing its thing, in the background, unobtrusively, everywhere. AI will lift and shift some companies into heights never imagined and will serve as a rift or cliff for others. AI will be the lifeblood of a company, helping it reimagine tired business processes, create new models, and super-charge reinvention; and in the uncertainty of these modern times, what business doesnt need reinvention?

The reality is, AI isnt magic. Its hard work. It requires the right tools, methodologies, and mindset to overcome the challenges companies face such as data complexity, talent scarcity, and a lack of trust in AI systems. So, as critical as AI is to any organizations long-term success, its also likely youll run into some of these challenges and fail. Weve seen plenty of failures; perhaps you have, too. And thats a good thing, because with AI we believe you should embrace fast but safe failure. AI is about a different culture. Its about a culture of iteration and experimentation, with small agile groups working for three to five weeks at a time. Your goal should be to do a hundred AI projects a year. If you do that, half of them are probably going to fail. And thats okay. Because while half of your AI projects might fail, the half that succeed are going to drive huge outcomes for your organization.

Weve had privileged access to observe and analyze a corpus of over 30,000 IBM AI engagements around the world, and what weve concluded (via personal experiences or research around them) from those engagements is that organizations need a thoughtful and well-architected approach to AI, particularly in todays hybrid multicloud world.

Thats why we developed the AI Ladder. Its our proven methodology to help businesses succeed with AInot just by updating a few old processes, but by re-creating themselves and doing business in a new way. Its proven; its solid; its effective; and make no mistake about itit works.

We wrote most of this book before COVID-19 originated. As we finished, it was looming, and now that were done, its here in full force. Businesses are being forced to reinvent themselves, whether they like it or not. In todays current environment, reinventing your business with AI is no longer an option. Its a requirement.

You want to succeed. We want you to succeed. And thats why we wrote this book.