Ubiquitous AI
Democratized artificial intelligence (currently seen in OpenAI GPT, Microsoft Big AI, Google Bard/Gemini, etc.) can be a beautiful thing. At the same time, everyone has access to democratized AI, meaning there is little or no competitive differentiation. Business leaders and entrepreneurs need to think beyond the efficiencies and cost savings promised by AI.
Just before Generative AI was released in late 2021, a paper foreshadowed the future commoditization of AI, following the same path as previous generations of technology. The researchers noted how Nicholas G. Carr documented that “While the potential and ubiquity of IT has increased, its strategic importance has declined over time.” . AI is about to suffer the same fate as IT. In fact, the commoditization of AI has already begun. ”
Achieving competitive differentiation with AI and staying ahead of commoditization will require accompanying business transformation, researchers say. “They have a very strong top-down leadership model. They engage their employees by setting clear AI goals and encouraging them to drive AI efforts.”
The big picture idea, says Thomas Smale, CEO of FE International, is to “see AI not just as a tool for efficiency, but as a catalyst for strategic change.” “It opens the door to new markets and innovative business models.”
Tomi Vilcano, director of RELEX Labs, said that over $100 billion in investments and 24% of all corporate VC investments worldwide will go to AI in 2023, and that “AI will drive new business creation. It clearly shows that there is.” Part of that shaping comes from developing entirely new products and experiences, as seen in companies like Runway that are reshaping the world of art, entertainment, and human creativity. ”
Smail agrees that AI is “dramatically reshaping the landscape of business formation, going beyond traditional analytical methods.” “This provides startups with unprecedented insight into market dynamics and consumer behavior, effectively transforming startups from start-up ventures to market competitors, quickly.”
A key question every business leader and entrepreneur needs to ask is: How do I integrate AI into my company’s core operations and empower everyone to achieve more with AI? What should I do?’ Vilcano says. The second question is, “How can we make AI the core of the products and services we provide to our customers?”
Vilcano emphasizes that the answer to these questions is not AI per se. “The AI technology stack is rapidly becoming a commodity. Intelligence is becoming like electricity, easily accessible and easily switched to a better or cheaper provider. For most companies, the source of future competitive advantage will be the unique knowledge that powers their AI systems.”
Business leaders and entrepreneurs need to be aware of the critical role of AI in business idea formation, as investors prefer ventures that integrate AI for innovation and scalability. said Amrit Jasal, director and co-founder. “The impact of AI extends from the development stage, such as software design, to deployment, driving efficiency and product adoption.”
Consider the risks of relying on standard AI-powered solutions that are commonly used by many other companies. “Over-reliance on AI can lead to simplistic, one-size-fits-all approaches, where AI is misapplied to the wrong problems and can lead to poor outcomes,” Jassar says. . “Successful innovation with AI requires a comprehensive strategy that combines a deep understanding of the specific problem with thoughtful and balanced technology application.”
Therefore, the challenge to achieving competitive advantage is “figure out how to effectively capture, document, and organize all your domain knowledge in a way that best suits your unique AI system,” Vilkano said. says. “This involves identifying, capturing, organizing, storing, and providing access to all the explicit and tacit knowledge available to the organization.”
Another key component to competitiveness in a commoditized world of AI is the talent involved in building businesses using AI. “The opportunity in AI for business leaders is to involve employees in experimenting, innovating, and managing their AI systems,” said Rebecca Finley, CEO of Partnership on AI. “At the end of the day, AI is only as good as the humans who manage it.”
