Maximising Return on Investments in AI
Maximising Return on Investments in AI
By Tom Nicholls, Chief Commercial Officer
When organisations talk about AI they often think about the art of the possible, frame it as innovation, and discuss how they can push the boundary of what is possible. Noble ideals, and valiant dreams – but does this return the value required to justify the initial investment?
We would argue not. Yes, you need a bold vision - no one ever made a big change, or followed anyone, unless there was a compelling vision they could buy in to, but none of these people expected to realise that vision in the short term.
Achieving a vision is a journey. Value is realised along the way—short-term wins justify immediate efforts, while their cumulative impact reinforces the need to keep moving forward.
This should be the same mindset adopted when approaching AI.
The steps to AI success
The steps to AI success
In our experience there are some fundamental building blocks / principles that businesses should followed to ensure success with their AI intitiatives.
1. Set the Vision
What is your vision for AI in the business, and how do you envisage this transforming the organisation. This vision will be driven by the goals and objectives of the company, and the priorities within the business strategy, but none the less there should be a vision for what AI can deliver to the business.
2. Develop the Roadmap
Now the vision is clear, what are the steps that need to be taken to get there, and in which order should you take them? Understanding the value opportunity for AI across functions and processes is an imperative, and can be achieved by following a value chain mapping approach to identify opportunity hot-spots. Utilising a balanced AI scorecard can help weigh up and compare the different opportunities in order to form a priority sequence, from which a delivery roadmap can be formed.
3. Build and Iterate
Start quickly and learn fast. Identify the minimum viable product (MVP) required to unlock enough value from the priority opportunity to justify and win supporters in the wider business for continued AI investment. This first foray is as much about 'moving forward' as it is about learning what works and what doesn't. Each business is different; different processes, different people, and different technology, so what works for one might not work for another, hence you need to learn about your data, your change culture and your risk appetite as you go.
4. Reflect and Improve
As you build out your MVP and deploy it into operations don't forget to step back and evaluate the journey ahead, what do you know now that you didn't know before? What interdependencies are there that you should consider to ensure that any future development enables a cumulative benefit effect, with additional functionality, and additional solutions building on the value delivered to date?
5. Measure and Celebrate
Don't forget to have a clear benefit measurement approach, assessing the expected value and benefits of your AI initiatives, ensuring they contribute to a greater overall impact. As success is realised and value is unlocked you should celebrate these milestones, build the sense of achievement, and develop momentum for what you are doing wider in the organisation.
Sense Check What You Are Doing
So if you are embarking on an AI programme of work, or perhaps have one in flight, then we recommend you ask yourself the following questions:
Is my AI strategy / vision aligned to, and underpinning our business strategy, and helping to achieve our business goals?
What is the expected value of our AI initiatives, are they in the order of £100k, £1m, or £10m?
How will you measure the benefit you expect to realise from your AI initiative?
Do you expect the benefits you get from your AI initiatives to be cumulative, and for the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts?
Sense Check What You Are Doing
It is the cumulative effective of AI initiatives, realised in the pursuit of a broader vision and reason d'etre that justifies AI investment.
Moreover, in our experience organisations that follow this approach tend to realise an increased return on investment than those that pursue the chase of new / ground breaking solutions outside of any coherent strategy, or alignment to business goals.
