Digital technologies have profoundly changed the ways we do business, shop, work and live. They have even altered society and continue impacting virtually all business functions and industries.
In business, digitalization represents the process of using digital technologies and digitized data (turned into actionable knowledge) to enable / improve / transform business operations, functions and models and to provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities. Using creative digital solutions gives a company a competitive edge and a proper digitalization plan can help reinvent processes, improve quality and promote consistency.
Some of the risks the companies are facing in the process of digital transformation are related to not getting on the bandwagon early enough or to choosing the wrong path. Kodak is an example of a company that underestimated the impact of disruptive change and failed to pursue consistently digital technology for fear of endangering its business with analog products.
A growing digitalization will open up a broad spectrum of new and better applications and facilities. It will increase effectiveness and efficiency in production and create new technologies that will revolutionise practically every aspect of our lives. One such development will arise from the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in companies’ digital transformation processes.
In order to successfully embed AI, companies need to build capabilities, improve employee skill sets, and embed a collaborative work culture. Besides technical adoption, AI is also about the attitude of the board members of a company. Companies that have been successful AI adopters have shown executive leadership support that came from all C level officers and the board of directors as well.
The applications of AI in business range from improving relationships with employees and customers to finding patterns in extreme data volume or to performing repetitive tasks. These applications are already a great benefit to most managers as it means they will have more time to focus on how they add value to their organization.
Potential applications of AI with a vital implication for managers looking for some quantitative support in their decision-making activities could be data-driven management applications with the ability to process large amounts of data and generate trend directions and actionable advice. By learning from prior target results and nuanced relationships between objectives, management behaviors and engagement patterns, AI tools of the future will provide in-the-moment insights to set Objectives and Key Results that optimise their impact in the quarter.
Ultimately, AI in business will boost our intelligence as managers and leaders, anticipating what we need to know, where our next best business move is and what our employees need from us.
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