Unlocking business innovation and impact with AI

A new era has dawned, during which humans will be increasingly augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) resulting in increased productivity and capacity. 

Workforces will be able to automate the mundane and focus on more meaningful work, although cognitive labour will compete with increasingly capable AI as intelligence is productised and becomes a commodity.

Embodied AI (robots) will improve and AI will design both AI systems and robotics—and eventually, a capable robot will cost the same as a dishwasher.   

This will be an age of exponential change and the impact is just starting to be understood. Take Klarna, the Swedish fintech company, as a stark illustration of AI’s transformative power.

By deploying an AI assistant, Klarna has revolutionised its customer service, handling 2.3 million chats in just 1 month—the workload of 700 full-time agents.

This AI initiative not only enhances efficiency and customer satisfaction but also signals a profound shift in how businesses operate.

McKinsey research reports that “AI leaders” are already generating total shareholder returns that are 3 to 6 times higher than those of “AI laggards”.

As an entrepreneur and investor, I have seen firsthand the transformative power of embracing new technologies and strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

In this era of exponential change, businesses that fail to adapt risk being left behind, while those that proactively leverage AI stand to gain a significant, and probably permanent, competitive advantage. 

Catching up will be difficult and differentiation and innovation using AI-driven technologies will be critical when everyone has access to hyper-scale AI platforms and the ability to be creative and code given that the new coding language will be natural language.

It is important to future-proof your business to prevent your products, services, and strategy from meeting head-on competition by a raft of companies trying to monetise a very thin layer of additional functionality of features, on top of publicly available AI platforms.

You still need to have a moat, which may simply be your ability to evolve and execute at speed to leverage recursive technological advancement.  

It is equally important to start building an AI-assisted organisation by assessing your current level of AI adoption across key functions, which may be embedded in applications you already use.

Then map where AI that is already available can improve processes or workflows and augment your workforce. 

However, automation is a process that can be compared to the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs). While the transition from manual cars driven by humans to fully autonomous vehicles is happening in steps, as the technology evolves and regulators and society learn to accept it.

Identify how you can accelerate revenue growth, engage prospects in new ways, delight customers, optimise costs, and extract new insights from data.  

By integrating AI across functions, you can create a powerful flywheel effect that drives growth, differentiation, higher margins, increased profits, and business valuations. 

You will also be better placed to compete for talent as the best talent will expect you to augment them with AI so that they can focus on more meaningful work and add more value to the organisation and its stakeholders as well as enjoying enhanced job satisfaction.

Another opportunity, that is low-hanging fruit for anyone, is to use personal AIs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT+ or Anthropic’s Claude Pro as a sounding board, strategic adviser, or even virtual focus group to test your ideas.

The new ChatGPT-4o model elevates conversational interactions to a new and level of human-like engagement 

This should be done within data policy, but all senior leadership should have an AI sitting at the table, even if only to analyse and provide feedback, summaries, and actions from all meetings. 

However, achieving AI-driven innovation is not without its challenges. Businesses often face obstacles such as skills gaps, change resistance, and data quality issues when adopting AI.

To overcome these hurdles, it’s essential to invest in AI training and upskilling programs, foster a culture of experimentation and collaboration, and establish robust data governance frameworks. 

Creating AI sandboxes (both technical and strategic) and partnering with experienced AI experts can help you navigate these challenges and accelerate your AI adoption journey.

In many organisations, nobody “owns” AI yet. Make sure that this is not the case in yours to ensure that the necessary resources are allocated, the return on investment (ROI) is captured, and the outcomes from trial and proof of concepts are disseminated. 

As you embark on your AI journey, it’s crucial to prioritise responsible and ethical AI development. This means embedding principles of fairness, transparency, and accountability into your AI initiatives from the outset.

Develop clear policies and governance structures to mitigate bias, protect data privacy, and ensure that AI benefits a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

By proactively addressing ethical considerations and sharing your approach, you can build trust with your customers, employees, and society at large.

The potential of AI is truly limitless—the impact will be greater than steam power, electrification, and the internet. AI will help humans to solve nuclear fusion so that we have unlimited and cheap energy to power the data centres that power AI. 

Quantum AI is poised to unlock even more transformative applications in the near future.

By staying attuned to these developments and investing in the necessary capabilities today, you can position your business to capitalise on the opportunities of tomorrow. 

The AI revolution presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine your business and your approach to strategy and customers.

Large organisations can now also hyper-personalise which will lead to a battle for the middle market between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Now is the time to seize this moment and champion AI-driven innovation within your organisation.

Embrace the power of AI to optimise processes, uncover hidden insights, innovate, and create new revenue streams.

Be bold in your vision and relentless in your pursuit of AI-driven transformation and value creation.

Humans evolved in a linear world and some struggle to understand exponential change and I am often told that AI is good, but that it can’t do something. My response is always, “yet”.

AI can super-power your ambition and it will evolve in ways we can’t yet imagine.  Look at the OpenAI Sora “text-to-video” model compared to what was possible just 6 months ago.

It has resulted in film studios cancelling investment in new sound stages.   

Do not fall into the trap of thinking about the future as linear when it will be exponential.

Remember, AI today is the worst it is ever going to be. Learn to understand it, embrace it, and implement it.