• Francesca Odona
• October 16, 2020

Newsflash: everyone's getting into AI. If you've been doing AI for five years, you're on-time. If you're into AI but don't have five years' experience, you're late. If you haven't done AI, you're probably reading this article from the unemployment line. That's the reality. Get a grip on it, like how you're about to hold onto those food stamps for dear life. I'd recommend logging off now so you can focus on surviving the Thunderdome.

So everyone left reading is officially in AI - good. Let's roll through the plan for how to dominate your competitors with AI.

1. Rethink everything. Nothing is too sacred as to be unexaminable. Value comes from all places. Look high, look low, look medium, look sideways, look downways, look upways, look in crooks and nannies. Nothing should be off the table. Transportation problems with a long-tenured third-party logistics company? Consider a replacement with a better on-time record. Your company's been manufacturing auto parts for 75 years? Maybe not anymore. Maybe you make birdseed now. You have to follow the science, question everything, and leave no creative solution off the table. Nothing can be sacred.

2. Don't overthink things. You can't overthink things. You've done a lot of things right. That's how your business came to be the organization it is right now. You can't rethink everything. Stick to your guns. Sometimes the best AI is no AI at all.

3. Feel free to be wrong. Implementing AI is experimentationary in nature. There will be some hiccups. Sometimes your proofs-of-concept aren't going to pan out. Some data scientists will build things that are too bold and truthful for some stakeholders. Some people won't be ready for the blinding light of hallowed innovation and the sweet, sweet sound of the good word of machine learning. You must forge ahead at any and all cost. Identify and leverage an AI heresimach if you can.

4. Make only correct decisions, lest your company self-immolate. Make no mistake about it: the stakes are always high. With COVID-19 ripping through our cities like a Doritos Locos Taco in someone's intestinal tract, it's never been a tougher time out there. Vigilance is key. If you want to survive, no missteps are permitted. You need to make the AI work. If the results aren't coming out in your favor, just hire someone better to re-crunch the numbers, build a new model, and give you the results you want. You need go-getters, not bed-wetters. Make it happen.

Take these tips with you to the AI promised land. Go forth and create, drive, and secure value for your organization - or else. Make your competitors wish they'd gone into the arts or some other field with economic consequences that are similarly dire.