When making AI part of your business' processes, make certain to back the effort with strong ... [+]
We live in a time when businesses are increasingly implementing AI to automate or outsource many of their practices. A recent report from NewVantage found that 91.7 percent of leading firms were planning to increase their investment in AI, in large part thanks to the potential benefits it can unlock.
Another survey from SnapLogic found that 81 percent of office workers felt that AI improved their overall work performance. Eighty-nine percent said AI had the potential to support them in up to half of their work responsibilities, while 61 percent said that using AI made them more efficient and productive.
While AI can have a significant, positive impact, successful implementation takes strong partnerships.
AI Uses Many Technologies In An Age Of Specialization
One of the biggest reasons why strong partnerships are essential for AI implementation is that the field has become increasingly specialized. New and emerging challenges require a wide variety of AI tools to be used by a single business, and this often requires an entire network of partners that can help companies adopt and customize these resources according to their needs.
As Prags Mugunthan, co-founder and CEO at Pangea.ai, a company that helps brands connect with leading software development businesses, explained in a recent conversation, “We often think of AI as one big thing, but in reality, technologies like machine learning, analytics and big data, voice recognition, and research-level AI all require different types of expertise. As a result, you don’t typically get ‘all in one’ AI companies. Instead, you see specialist partners who each focus on a core area of expertise. They work together through partnerships to provide personalized solutions that combine various types of AI based on client needs.”
This means that when a business pursues AI partnerships, it won’t just be working with one programmer or software company. You will likely need to engage with multiple partners to achieve the specific results you need. The good news is that the AI industry as a whole has largely embraced partnerships to better offer custom solutions.
Rather than looking for a “one size fits all” partner, businesses should look for AI partners that have a strong vendor/partner network of their own to gain access to specialized expertise. In this scenario, each partner is able to use their expertise to provide much higher-quality results for your specific application needs than would be possible from a generalist.
Partners Optimize Performance And Learning Opportunities
Working with more AI partners may feel like more relationships to manage. But in reality, a strong partner network can lead to significant improvements in your own use of AI. As a recent report from the Harvard Business Review explains, the use of partnerships is directly linked to a company becoming a “leader” in successfully using AI:
“Leaders, however, worked with a wider range of partners, and more intensively, in order to maximize speed and learning. […] Analog Devices, a semiconductor firm, collaborated with MIT to develop a novel MI quality-control that allowed it to identify which production runs and tools might have a fault. This meant that company engineers only had to review 5 percent of the process data they had to before. Leaders, despite their higher capabilities, actually relied more on external partners to further accelerate their learning and time to impact.”
Strong partner networks also enable your business to create more “internal stakeholders” for AI use. These partner networks make it easier to train your team members on the skills they need to take full advantage of the resources made available via AI. Strong partners can also guide you into more clearly defining which problems you want to solve with AI and how you want to solve them, so you can achieve more effective solutions.
By developing tools that are specific to your organization’s unique needs, you can ensure that employees across a wide range of departments have access to resources that will help them save time and make better decisions to improve their own performance.
Naturally, this entails providing AI data that is relevant and useful to their position. Not every position within your company needs access to every piece of data. Quality partners can help you establish governance systems for AI-procured data so that everyone gets an appropriate level of helpful (and compliant) data.
Partners Help You Make The Most Of Your AI
While AI can be a powerful tool for your business, it is only as powerful as the partners you choose to implement it. Strong AI partners don’t just help you streamline your operations. They ensure that your team has the data and capabilities to improve their own work processes. They help your team learn how to best take advantage of available AI tools so they can increase their own impact.
Strong AI partnerships are ultimately much more than automating some processes so you can take a “set it and forget it” approach. With the right partners, you can ensure that AI adoption has a direct impact on your ability to achieve KPIs.
