by Rod Bates
Across the business landscape, most companies either use AI within their products, or they have AI help make their employees more efficient and productive. Many do both.
In helping lead AI strategy at one of the world’s largest staffing companies, I know firsthand how fast an AI strategy can enhance a company’s capabilities.
At Insight Global, we’ve successfully developed and implemented proprietary AI tools that help our recruiters and account managers more quickly identify quality candidates for job requisitions. We also use AI to help us flag candidates who may need more dedicated care and attention during the onboarding process to ensure high levels of retention and contract completion. AI helps our people be better at connecting and helping people.
But I also know how fast that strategy can become outdated.
It’s vital to lay the groundwork for future AI implementations with an AI-ready strategy—a critical road map with no-regret moves that makes sure that, no matter where AI goes, your company is ready for it.
The Essence of an AI-Ready Strategy
An AI-ready strategy is not just about predicting the future but about laying a solid foundation that supports broader business goals.
Unlike a traditional AI strategy, which focuses on specific AI implementations, an AI-ready strategy prepares organizations for a range of AI possibilities. It’s meant to highlight the difference between trying to guess where AI is going, which is a tall order, and focusing on no-regret moves that will benefit the company regardless of AI’s trajectory. (We’ll get more into these no-regret moves in a moment.)
This dual approach ensures that organizations are not only prepared for the future but are also enhancing their current operations. Your AI strategy will inevitability surface use cases and implementations that help make your people productive and efficient. Your AI-ready strategy will help make sure that, no matter the use case or implementation, you’re happy with the foundation you’ve laid.
Must-Dos: No-Regret Moves for the Future of AI
The core of an AI-ready strategy is a list of “no-regret” moves your company can make that give you a good base, no matter where AI goes.
Here are some we’ve made at Insight Global.
Prepare the Workforce for AI
AI changes the way we work. It’s essential to prepare employees by providing a sense of security and guidance on how AI can enhance their roles. Let them know your primary focus is how it affects them! Naturally, this looks different across industries and even within your company.
How will the AI help them do their jobs better? How will you teach them how to use it? How successful are your current AI initiatives? What have you learned from them? What hasn’t worked? Addressing these head on creates a culture of transparency and continuous development.
No-regret move: Whether you have a fully developed AI strategy or not, be open and transparent with your employees about how this new tech affects them.
Focus on Human-Centric AI Capabilities
There’s no better way to prepare your workforce for AI than focusing your AI capabilities on helping your people be better at their jobs.
Our business model at Insight Global is inherently people-centric. We’re helping hiring managers and company leaders find great talent, get them productive, and make them successful. To our core, our people matter and drive our business.
Thus, all of our AI initiatives focus on enhancing our peoples’ capabilities rather than replacing them. By automating repetitive tasks, our people can focus on more complex, human-centric activities, like interviewing, developing talent strategy, boosting engagement, and more.
No-regret move: Focus your AI capabilities on helping your people become more efficient and better at their jobs—not replacing them.
Engage the Right Stakeholders
Finding and engaging internal and external stakeholders and partners when discussing AI is critical. You need to know who’s going to go on this journey with you, and who will help you along the way.
When looking externally—a partner who will help you build, a tool your employees or customers will use, etc.—identify vendors and stakeholders that share the same shared values and ethical standards you do. This might require extra effort, but it’s essential for a successful AI strategy.
No-regret move: Identify the right internal and external stakeholders and partners to help you execute strategy, and make sure they’re in alignment not just with your strategy, but with your shared values and ethical standards.
Get Your Data Management and Infrastructure Ducks in a Row
The backbone of good AI implementation is a robust data foundation. It’s a prerequisite for successful AI initiatives. But a well-designed and maintained data ecosystem benefits not just your AI initiatives but other parts of the business, too.
Your everyday business processes run better when your data is in good shape. The data becomes easier to access and interpret. Your people will have greater confidence in the data itself and the insights coming from it are strong and accurate. It’s clean.
Then, when the time comes to build out an AI use case, it’ll be much easier to train whatever product you create.
No-regret move: Get your data management and infrastructure into a good place.
Establish Legal and Governance Frameworks
The fun part of this article! Legal and governance frameworks are an important part of your AI journey. Establishing robust frameworks ensures that AI is used ethically and complies with regulations. This includes addressing potential biases in AI systems and ensuring they do not cause unintended harm. It may not only eventually be required by law, but these actions are also just the right thing to do.
We don’t know how strict laws will become, so it’s crucial to be proactive in this area.
No-regret move: Collaborate with your legal team on how to build flexibility for possible changes in the regulatory and legal landscape. As these changes come, there will likely be more scrutiny placed on AI implementations, so plan for potential increases in the short- and medium-term for your budget and headcount to work through that scrutiny.
An AI-Ready Strategy Should Inform Your AI Strategy
An AI-ready strategy is an “and”—not an “or.” It lives right alongside your AI use cases and plan to develop them.
By focusing on no regret moves, organizations can confidently navigate the evolving AI landscape. With them, specific actions we take today will have a high degree of payoff regardless of where the AI journey goes.
Rod Bates is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Insight Global. If you want to learn more about Insight Global’s AI capabilities and services, reach out to him on LinkedIn.
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