Embracing AI When Your Industry Is in Flux

One of the great challenges we have seen businesses face in recent years is how they approach data and analytics (and now artificial intelligence) when their industries are undergoing major transformation. It's hard enough to create a data-driven culture, compete on analytics, develop data-driven products and services, and so forth under normal business conditions, as we noted in our March column about the newest NewVantage Partners survey on big data and AI. But doing it while your business and industry are transforming -- the old line of changing out a jet engine while the plane is flying through turbulence at 35,000 feet -- is really tough. It's so difficult, in fact, that we always have our doubts when executives claim to have done it successfully. We are much more trusting when we're told that the organization is simply making progress toward the goal.