AI for People and Business

Chapter 6. The Importance of Why

Why is AI valuable for people and businesses? Why can AI improve human experiences and business success? Why should AI be pursued with caution? Why do some AI initiatives succeed and others fail? And lastly, why do we need a new framework to help plan for and maximize AI initiative success.

It all begins with why. This chapter centers on the importance of defining the why for any AI vision and strategy, as well as the ability to generate a shared vision and understanding among key stakeholders using the why and great leadership.

Start with Why

It is critical to understand and be able to explain the why of things before focusing on the how and what. Nobody illustrated that better for me than Simon Sinek in his seminal book, Start With Why,¹ and his related TED talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”.

He argues that every business knows “what” they do and, sometimes, “how” they do it. But rarely do businesses and people know “why” they do what they do. This is a deep concept, and as Mr. Sinek points out, the why isn’t a result or outcome like increasing revenue (which is more of a goal or objective). The why is the belief, the grand vision, the true meaning.

Think about it. It can take companies a very long time, even with a lot of people involved, to come up with messaging around a company’s vision, mission, and value proposition. I’ve been through the process of developing all of this multiple times with different companies (including my own!), ...