By Nancy Marino, Associate Partner, Columbus Consulting
Most companies are dipping their toes into the AI pool as slow progress towards widespread adoption is likely due to cultural and organizational barriers. But leaders who effectively breakdown these barriers will be best placed to capture the opportunities for the AI era. AI can address skills gaps for new and current workers more efficiently than traditional learning methodologies, improving knowledge retention and worker productivity. AI also provides powerful ways to capture knowledge of workers, especially important as companies address the need for greater transparency and worker productivity.
The number of companies considering and deploying AI has steadily increased, with AI solving business problems and delivering real value in the process these companies and their partners have developed. Driving the development of best practices to navigate AI deployment from concept to execution as a competitive advantage. Consider the confluence of trends taking place now that is pushing AI front and center. AI presents enterprise-ready solutions ranging from accessing digital content to capturing knowledge and expertise and sharing that with other workers, all of which keep frontline staff connected and productive providing the right information at the right time, to make informed decisions, supported by detailed analytics.
Starting and Moving Company Forward with AI:
The six-step process helps envision, start and scale your AI deployment:
- Identify and understand the problem: What problems are to be solved as it allows for a clear understanding of the need and the benefit. Furthermore, understanding the problem or opportunities also leads to an understanding of the interdependencies of the technology, people and process that surround the problem. A careful analysis will reveal the requirements to realize the value with AI.
- Define the business case, impact, and expected KPI’s and ROI: Having identified and understood the business problem, the next step is to define the business case and impact, KPI’s and ROI utilizing a structured process to set clear goals, organize and outline how AI will be deployed and monitored.
- Establish KPI’s in alignment with business goals and how the company expects to create value once these goals are met. What should AI deliver – ranging from time saved, improved communication, customer satisfaction, efficient training with a KPI that is focused on business value. What are the projected cost savings upon achieving these goals?
- Estimate and measure business value and ROI as important and critical parts of the process. AI will deliver high ROI via business efficiencies and cost reductions if the KPI’s are defined and measured correctly.
- Establish organizational buy-in and key stakeholder alignment. As AI affects multiple business units in different ways, establishing buy-in is a critical piece to a successful deployment. This entails involving members from the C-suite to the line-of-business executives and leaders and in some cases customers.
- Think big, start small and scale rapidly. If the true benefits of AI are to realized key decision makers and stakeholders need to clearly understand how AI fits in the overall strategy of business transformation to increase productivity, and profitability and become more resilient. Once the business strategy is understood and the roadmap created a phased approach needs to be deployed to ensure minimal business disruption.
Change Management Considerations:
Successful deployment of AI requires a bifurcated approach to change management. One track focuses on the teams and the other focuses on organizational change and governance. The first challenge can be attributed to employee’s natural reaction of how AI could displace their jobs. However, AI is not a replacement but a tool to complete their task. Likewise, an employee is necessary to fulfill the job function and will need to understand how AI benefits their performance allowing for improved workflow, collaboration and efficiency.
From the workers perspective, new tools and processes that change how they work on a day-to-day basis are disruptive to their work environment and it is critical that clearly defined roles and responsibilities are communicated with adequate training on the newly deployed tools. There will likely be organization capabilities that are missing that will either be outsourced, or internal competencies built. Business processes and operating procedures need to be documented and communicated as the teams utilize AI and understand the benefits and ROI.
To understand the company direction and the problems solved with an AI deployment the teams need to thoroughly understand the business – how it works, the who, what, why, where and how. This is why having the business problem, KPI’s and ROI all defined ahead of time is critical. With clear communication not only will employees become more receptive of AI but also enthusiastic about its usage and promise.
ABOUT NANCY MARINO
Nancy Marino is an Associate Partner at Columbus Consulting with a proven track record of successfully leading retailers and brands for implementation of processes from design to delivery and development of their Go-To-Market strategies. She is respected for her leadership skills and project management oversight for executing system initiatives and international acumen having managed global sourcing and buying offices in over 50 counties. Nancy is a decision leader and change management expert. She is an adjunct professor at FIT and is pioneering leadership in the PLM AI retail space.
ABOUT COLUMBUS CONSULTING
Columbus Consulting delivers solutions that drive true value and have been transforming the retail and CPG industries for over two decades. We are a retail consulting company of industry experts. Our approach is simple, if you do it, we do it. We are more than consultants; we are experienced practitioners who actually sat in our clients’ seats. We understand the challenges, know what questions to ask and deliver the right solutions. Columbus offers a unique, consumer-centric approach with an end-to-end perspective that bridges functional & organization silos from strategy to execution. Our specialties include: unified commerce, merchandising & category management, planning & inventory management, sourcing & supply chain, data & analytics, accounting, finance & operations, people & organization and information technology. Let us know how we can help you. To learn more, visit COLUMBUSCONSULTING.COM.
