I am sure this headline would get a number of people to stop and at least read the intro.
It is something I have been regularly contemplating across the last 6 months, and it has come up in many of my conversations with different business leaders and owners.
It is not an easy answer, but I do believe that there are some questions we should ask ourselves and principles we should follow.
When we, as business leaders and owners consider AI the answer to all of our “problems”, we set ourselves up for failure or at least a mediocre performing business.
Here's what I've learned interacting with CIOs and Transformation Leaders: AI hasn't changed what really good digital transformation looks like. It's has changed the speed, the ability to respond and to scale.
To be clear, in the end, if we do not do this properly, it’s our people that pick up the proverbial “mess” we cause and make it work. Let’s do it properly.
So, what questions do we need to ask? Here are some:
🔹Do we have AI defined in our strategy connected to our business outcomes?
🔹Have we attached real-world measurements? Usage adoption is not one of them!
🔹Have we created a training and change management plan for our people? Let’s bring our people along the journey with us.
🔹Are we clear on where we use AI best vs leveraging our highly talented experienced people?
AI Is a Capability, Not a Strategy!!!
The Principles:
🔸Treat AI initiatives the same way we treat any other significant investment’
🔸Ask what business capability it builds and who will actually use it.
🔸Take the time to define and implement a governance and accountability structure (who decides and is held accountable).
🔸Create the time and space for our people to have the time and skill to adopt it properly.
🔸Resist the pressure to have an AI story just for the sake of having one.
Slow down to go Faster
None of this is glamorous. It won't make a good conference slide. But it's the difference between AI becoming part of how the business genuinely works, or AI becoming a parallel universe of half-finished pilots that no-one wants to talk about.
The Question Worth Sitting With
If I asked you right now to name every AI initiative running in your business, and what business outcome each one is driving, could you answer cleanly?
If not, that's not a technology gap. That's a leadership one.
#DigitalTransformation #AILeadership #TechnologyStrategy #NexusConnectNZ