Companies who have some success with their initial AI projects are seeking ways to accelerate adoption to deliver more value to the business. One researcher has defined an AI Adoption Maturity Model that presents a roadmap for accelerating AI adoption. The first stage of the six-step AI adoption maturity model is the digitization of work, turning work in the physical world into digital processes that can be tracked and recorded as data, suggests Dr. Michael Wu, chief AI strategist for PROS Holdings, providing AI-based software as a service for pricing optimization, with a focus on the airline industry. "This stage is all about getting the data, which is the raw material for AI," stated Wu, in an account from ZDNet. "If you are on the digital transformation bandwagon, good for you. You are already in Stage 1 of this maturity curve."

When David Stinson finished high school, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1977, the first thing he did was get a job building houses. After a few years, though, the business slowed. Stinson was then twenty-four, with two children to support. As he explained over lunch recently, that meant finding a job at one of the two companies in the area that offered secure, blue-collar work. "Either I'll be working at General Motors or I'll be working at Steelcase by the end of the year," he vowed in 1984.