AI has been spoken about for quite a while and you hear people say that ‘they have not yet seen the benefits’.

As with all new technologies, there is often a period of ‘over-hyping‘ – but for organizations that have been investing over a period of time, they have generally come through the period of disillusionment . To me there is no question that AI is starting to, and will continue to have a major impact on all businesses.

Below is a link to a great report by Deloitte colleagues looking at the State of AI by country.

https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/cognitive-technologies/ai-investment-by-country.html

A key thing for me is that in most situations, I don’t believe you can afford to be a fast follower when it comes to AI. Sure, for some of the simpler or ‘commoditized’ processes it might be ok to not be first.

But to truly gain competitive advantage in your core business from AI, there is a requirement for considerable investment of time and resources  – ensuring the right data structures, algorithms, evolution of machine learning and determining how the results can be applied.

And while I am not a fan of the word exponential , there is no question that there is an exponential improvement in the benefits that accrue once an organization ‘gets it right. An organization that has truly started to reap the benefits in their core business will be difficult to catch.