AI is rapidly reshaping business but navigating its potential feels like a quest – sometimes absurd, often unpredictable. This reminds me of one of my favorite movies, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
You have businesses scrambling to discover and unlock AI’s potential, much like King Arthur and his knights fumbling through absurd trials in search of the Holy Grail. Just like the many bizarre obstacles in this classic film that our knights faced, many companies - desperate to harness the goodness of AI for their business - also face unusual roadblocks such as data privacy concerns, skeptical employees, lack of management agreement on the problems that AI should be used to help solve, and pressure from senior leadership to “figure this out” and implement AI faster.
For those of you who are also fans of Monty Python and this amazingly funny film, here are a few more parallels (and for those of you who may have never seen this movie, it is only a few clicks or voice commands away on your TV or device):
- The Black Knight: This is the stubborn executive who does not want to be an early adopter of AI, insisting AI is a fad – right up until they’ve lost both arms in the battle for digital relevance and competitive advantage.
- The Bridgekeeper and the Three Questions: Technology solution providers and AI consultants asking businesses increasingly convoluted questions about data governance and infrastructure, or who cloak their supposed AI expertise into a veiled product sell for their product, service or solution.
- The Killer Rabbit: That deceptively simple AI tool everyone thought would streamline operations and enhance customer service… until it wreaks havoc and creates frustration among management due to a lack of clearly defined use cases and objectives.
Ok, enough “Holy Grail” references. From a macro perspective, different industries are adopting AI at different speeds. Some of the leading sectors include financial services (fraud detection, risk assessment), healthcare (patient diagnostics, administrative automation), retail (AI-driven shopper insights, inventory management) and manufacturing (supply chain optimization).
Let’s talk about the restaurant industry, where I have spent 20+ years as a supplier partner including four years at Microsoft. When the conversation around digital transformation would come up, many times I heard enterprise customers tell me, “We’re not going to be first, but we will definitely be a fast follower”. The interesting thing about the topic of AI is restaurant operators know it is coming, but there is a lack of certainty around what to do with it, and how to make a positive impact in their business. Case in point - here is a quote from a wrap up story from last month’s Restaurant Leadership Conference by the good folks at Nation’s Restaurant News:
“Also, a lot of people talked about AI on the show floor, but in the context of what to do with it, acknowledging that this question should be answered sooner rather than later because AI is coming in hot.”
AI is indeed “coming in hot”. I wanted to double click on this dynamic a bit more, and recently attended a webinar hosted by Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Business entitled, “What’s Next for Restaurant Tech?” The content shared was from a survey of 600 restaurant operators and I found their feelings about AI to be very interesting:
- 51 percent of respondents are “interested” in AI but have not yet implemented it
- There is a fair amount of skepticism out there, with 27 percent of respondents stating they are hesitant about implementing AI in their business, citing concerns like data privacy, unclear ROI and implementation complexity (see parallel to the Quest for the Holy Grail above). Some operators also view AI as overhyped or unnecessary for their industry (Black Knight reference)
On a positive note, there are early adopters in this industry and the survey called out applications where AI is being implemented as well as potential use cases for consideration:
- 21 percent of operators use AI mainly for marketing, customer service and order taking
- Survey respondents are most interested in the following use cases: inventory management (51 percent), labor optimization (47%) and forecasting sales (45%)
While King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail ended in failure, that does not need to be the case in the quest for successfully integrating AI into your business. To help navigate your AI journey, here are three keys to success:
- Identify and align yourself with a trusted, credible partner who can provide “non-partisan” training and deployment support. My experience from my time at Microsoft and in speaking with many restaurant operators is that businesses who attempt to take the generative AI journey on their own, e.g. trying out ChatGPT, are quickly going to be disappointed, disillusioned and frustrated.
- Creating effective prompts is the secret weapon for unlocking AI’s full potential. Great prompts shape the conversation with your AI Assistant of choice, guide responses and help you maximize the usefulness of an AI Assistant. A well-crafted prompt is like giving AI a precise map – it eliminates vague detours and gets to the core of what you need. And remember, the content that is generated is intended to ASSIST you in whatever it is you are trying to achieve.
- Finally, defining clear use cases is the foundation for successful AI proof-of-concepts and pilot programs. Too often, businesses dive in to AI initiatives without a precise goal, leading to wasted resources and underwhelming results. A well-defined use case ensures resources are allocated where they will drive operational efficiency, revenue or competitive advantage
Arthur and his knights learned the hard way that chasing a goal without a strategy leads to chaos. Don’t let your AI journey end like theirs – lost in confusion. Approach your quest for AI success strategically and your business can avoid the obstacles, rickety bridges and dangerous rabbits lurking out there and make the most of AI for your business.