Enterprise Artificial Intelligence Transformation

Chapter 11Activating Organizational Capability

Like all technologies before it, artificial intelligence will reflect the values of its creators. So inclusivity matters – from who designs it to who sits on the company boards and which ethical perspectives are included.

Kate Crawford, professor at New York University and researcher at Microsoft

Thus far, we have looked at the core processes and tools that a company uses to implement an enterprise AI strategy. However, it takes more than processes and tools to grow and sustain a company-wide AI capability; it requires organized people. Ali Ghodsi of UC Berkeley has said, “Only about 1% of companies are succeeding in AI. The rest are struggling with three problems, the first of which is getting people to work together and collaborate with one another.”¹ There are significant barriers to embedding AI within most organizations; some aspects of the company's operating model will have to be reconfigured to successfully implement AI at scale. To prepare the organization for using AI at scale, the company needs to help their management teams, business employees, and others to think in new and different ways. But even before this, the first thing that must be done is to achieve stakeholder alignment around AI.

Aligning Stakeholders

Successfully building an AI capability within an organization requires strong support from the board and the management team, something that is true for building any organizational capability. The trouble ...