Tip of the Week - 2/7/2025

There Are No Shortcuts to Implementing AI

It’s all too easy to focus on “the art of the possible” — chasing new technology without a clear focus on measurable, practical outcomes. This approach often leads to overly complex systems, misaligned goals, and an overwhelming influx of data that may cloud decision-making instead of clarifying it.

One report estimates that up to 80% of AI projects fail due to: • Lack of clarity or miscommunication about the problems AI is intended to solve. • Inadequate data quality or accessibility to train AI models effectively. If you want to deploy AI effectively, then there’s a specific, systematic path to follow.

AI’s success demands an outcomes-based strategy that begins with identifying a specific business problem, formulating key questions, and building a strong data foundation to support precise, actionable insights.

Here is an Outline of Four Essential Steps to Ensure Successful AI Results:
1. Define Your Business Problem and Key Questions That Must Be Answered
 • Identify a problem that needs to be solved within your organization. Choose a specific issue that can be measured and tracked over time.
 • Outline the questions that your AI solution needs to answer to address it effectively.
2. Pinpoint Required Analytics and Data Inputs
 • Analytics: What tools, techniques, and processes are needed to analyze and interpret data?
 • Inputs: What datasets need to be fed into analytics tools so they can be examined?
 • Data: What specific pieces of data must feed your data inputs?
3. Assess Your Data Readiness
 • Where is your data located?
 • Is your data clean, relevant, complete, and accurate?
4. Implement the Technical Solution
     • Expertise in Your Industry
     • Transparency About Data Ownership
     • Easy-to-Use Tools
     • Trial Option

The steps outlined are meant to be repeatable. When you find a new business problem that AI can solve, you can start again. “You have two options as you pursue AI,” says Taylor. “You can put tools in place immediately and get really fast, high confidence, bad answers — or you can move at the right pace, take the right steps, and be sure that, when the answers do come, they’re accurate.