With AI, businesses need to be absolutely sure on use cases

Almost no one is immune from the lure of ChatGPT and its tantalising promise of producing in seconds what can take a mere human hours.

Complicated formulas, coding fixes, synopses of complex legal documents, all of these are a few clicks away. And 100 million users a week are now taking advantage of this one platform alone. Industry analyst Gartner estimates that 80% of businesses will have either used or deployed Generative AI solutions by 2026.

When faced with statistics such as these, it’s inevitable that many business leaders notice the hype and want a part of it. Indeed, it’s likely that nearly every large corporation already has at least one failed AI Proof of Concept (PoC) behind them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing - if you want your AI project to be a success, it’s crucial to identify the right business requirement.

It's hard not to feel like you'll be left behind when you hear that most organisations will be adopting AI in the next couple of years. However, it’s critical that you find the right use-case for the technology rather than just shoehorning it into your business strategy and hoping for the best.

Not only will the latter leave you considerably poorer, as AI projects don’t come cheap, but it may also deter you from using this highly useful technology in the years to come.

As with all new technology waves, the recommended course of action is to ride out the initial hype. Learn as much as you can, read up on how it can help your industry and understand what might be possible and then work out what pain points you have that AI can help with.

Don't be swayed by empty promises. If you can't quantify tangible benefits, it's not worth the investment. For many businesses, the current costs simply don't justify the outcomes

Let’s take another technology as an example. Metaverse technology was popularised by Mark Zuckerberg back in 2019, but it crashed and burned and in 2023. Facebook announced a move away from the metaverse to focus on AI. Many companies in 2020 and 2021 jumped on the Metaverse bandwagon and ended up with an expensive white elephant.

It’s not that the technology doesn’t work, it’s more that a strong business case wasn’t made for using it. The ADGM Arbitration Centre launched the world’s first ‘mediation in the metaverse’ service in November 2022, improving virtual mediation success rates by using the metaverse. Their data-driven approach demonstrated that the technology was valuable, but only when a true business need was identified.

Keep that AI roadmap handy

Working out when to implement an AI solution for your business requires long-term planning. Not having a clear roadmap for your business, is akin to setting out on a car journey to an unknown destination without consulting your online navigation.

Sure, you might get there but chances are, it’s going to take you a lot longer than if you’d just used the directions. Roadmaps help align your business and give a clear strategy for growth as well as helping you to know when and where to allocate your resources.

Generative AI can help you automate complex process, analyse and predict trends, generate new ideas or concepts faster and deliver high personalised customer experiences, however, it can only do that if you identify the need first.

Don’t fall for the hype and believe that you need to use Gen AI for the sake of it. Start small with a targeted PoC and even if it fails, learn from it.

Ask yourself, why did this project not give the expected results? Was the use case clear enough? Were you attempting to address a pain point in your business? Generative AI can be a powerful tool, but it needs human direction.