Enterprise AI in the Cloud

6Developing an AI Strategy and Portfolio

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

This chapter transitions from mere ideation and vision, as laid out in Chapters 3 to 5, to translate that vision into a compelling business case. Even the most exciting AI ideas will not gain traction, the necessary resources, or the support in your organization unless you have a robust, strategically aligned business case.

In addition to the business case, this chapter crafts the AI strategy that guides the direction, scope, and approach for your AI initiatives, thus setting the stage for planning the pilot and building the team (see Figure 6.1). By the end of this chapter, you will have a well-defined business case and a comprehensive AI strategy aligned with your organizational goals.

LEVERAGING YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

This section discusses how you can leverage nontechnical aspects such as business, governance, and people to execute your AI transformation effort. Note that you do not have to address all these capabilities at once. You can identify which ones you want to focus on based on your needs. You can decide based on what you discovered during the maturity levels assessment of those areas during the Align phase. Chapter 21 covers conducting an AI maturity assessment.

You can classify your company's capabilities into business and technical categories. ...