“We are a <non-tech> company, not a tech company” is something I have heard a lot of lately across multiple industries when talking about AI. There is a fear of getting AI into your business because is sounds difficult, expensive and without a clear use-case for increasing the bottom line. And that is fair.
But consider for a moment that none of those companies are electricity companies, or internet companies or mobile companies. Yet they will not be able to run without electricity, they have homepages, emails and all kinds of internet communication, and they most likely have an app or two.
Today, you would not run an e-com site without a recommendation engine to increase potential basket size – and tomorrow’s consumers will also start to expect you to have embedded AI solutions for more personalized experiences, better / faster customer service and much more.
Such solutions will quickly become plug-and-play, but offer no competitive advantage since it will be the industry standard.
Today is the day where you should look at your strategy – at your becoming. Where do you have a competitive edge today, and how can you improve that using AI.
If your competitive edge is your brand how do amplify that? Is it better tooling and insights for creatives, faster iterations on brand messaging, where do you have speed bumps that can be removed.
If you are in the hardware business and have a large install base, what can you layer on top of that in terms of “intelligent” services that will differentiate your product?
If you are in the skincare industry how does your products match with others in a consumer’s regimen, what are useful and harmful interactions?
If you do affiliate marketing on social media, what tools can you use to gain insights into what creates good leads and what is wasted content creation — optimizing your media strategy.
My point is, you don’t become an AI / tech company because you start to utilize AI. But you do need to educate your organization, hire people that have some AI / tech literacy to help you steer, call bullshit and place bets. Think of it as building digital literacy for the AI age – just as every company needed to develop digital capabilities in the internet era, not to become tech companies, but to remain competitive and relevant. The question isn’t whether to adopt AI, but how to adopt it in a way that amplifies what makes your business unique.