Article

Get started on your AI journey with an AI readiness assessment

April 8, 2024 · Authored by Jordan Anderson

With 76% of IT leaders agreeing that generative AI will be significant or transformative for their organizations [1] the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) has become not just a trend, but a necessity for organizations to remain competitive and relevant. However, the journey towards AI implementation is not a simple one – AI readiness requires careful planning, strategic alignment and a comprehensive understanding of your organizational landscape.

Organizations must not only consider the technological aspects, but also focus on how AI will be deployed, adopted and used within their workforce. Your AI strategies must enable quick pivoting to adapt to evolving social, technical, economic and political trends in real-time. As AI accelerates change and disrupts industries, organizations must transition from outdated contingency planning models to a philosophy of readiness for constant change.

Embarking on or advancing your journey in AI begins with a pivotal first step: conducting a comprehensive AI readiness assessment.

Five Dimensions of AI readiness

Consider the following five key dimensions of AI readiness:

1. Opportunity discovery: Identify where AI can add value within your organization and develop a strong business case to justify investment into AI initiatives.
2. Data management: Understand the current state of your data landscape to identify key systems and datasets to leverage for AI.
3. IT environment and security: Evaluate your hardware, software, licenses and security controls to ensure a safe environment for AI deployment and usage.
4. Risk, privacy and governance: Implement a robust risk management framework, data privacy controls and governance processes to ensure safe data usage and compliance with regulatory frameworks. Certify that content created by AI is subject to governance processes including review prior to being released externally.
5. Adoption: Leverage effective change management practices to enhance data and AI literacy, create shared understanding, build trust and drive cultural alignment to democratize the use of data and AI and foster understanding within your workforce. Your workforce should be using AI tools to make their jobs easier, serve customers better and fuel your innovation engine going forward.

Of these five dimensions, there are three overarching components organizations need to consider:

1. Data and technology – Do you have the right systems, datasets, controls and governance in place to leverage AI in a safe and responsible manner?
2. Organizational alignment – How are your AI initiatives strategically aligned to your organizational goals?
3. People – How can you deploy AI so that your workforce understands how to responsibly leverage the technology to accelerate the pace of their work to become more efficient and innovative to ultimately create more value for your customers?

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[1] Generative AI readiness is shockingly low – these 5 tips will boost it, CIO