Transforming your data, operations, systems, tech and talent

Pearls of wisdom from Episodes 76-80 of the AI & Intelligent Automation Network podcast:

Competitive differentiation through data, system integration brick wall, agile pace of change, diversity of thought for your bottom line and different tech capabilities changes everything.

Competitive differentiation through data

Episode 76: Jamie Campbell, Bud

"We're really passionate about building our own kind of aggregation service. We knew we wanted to control our own security protocols because we wanted to be the data owner of all of that information. Because ultimately, we knew that we were going to be accountable and we were the responsible ones in this equation."

Bud is a FinTech company, a disruptor. In a few sentances, Jamie outlines myriad reasons why the company wants to own the data. He mentions security and accountability explicitly but if you read through the lines he's talking about the customer experience. What data are you currently capturing to compete today? What data do you need to capture to compete tomorrow?

System integration brick wall

Episode 77: Brian Waites, Fidelity

"Having a good platform to move on- whether it's structured BPM, processes- are very important starting points. Having some senior buy-in and tech buy-in to what you're trying to do is an imperative."

The platform matters. And that of course is table stakes. We know that senior-level buy-in is important and when you have it, everything moves more quickly as there are fewer questions to answer and more dollars with which to work. But tech buy-in as an imperative has been something we've been trying to work around for the past few years. Brian poitns out that if you go with technology led by business, it's only a matter of time before you hit the system integration brick wall.

Agile pace of change

Episode 78: Jaime Bolivar, Office Gear Investments

"You are going to have to work on agility. Many of the big entities that didn't want to talk about this six or seven years ago, now they are all adapting this way and working."

We've all been talking a good game about adopting agile methodologies. But if it's still simply a theory and not a plan that is in action, you're officially behind. It's not going to matter what technology choices you make if your enterprise can't operationally keep pace with change.

Diversity of thought for your bottom line

Episode 79: Delphine Bernard, Uber

"The key is to build a different type of talent that you need, depending the function of what you're building. Have a mix and be sure that you're diverse. Diverse from every aspect, but really coming from different background, different race, different gender. We need to have a different flavor and input."

We've always done it that way is the worst reason to do it that way now. And so, that seems to be the case in terms of diversifying your team as well. Of course without diversity you will feed bias into artificial intelligence ensuring that whatever data that comes out doesn't help you. In addition to that, how much of the total addressable market are you leaving on the table if you only have a certain type of individual represented in your team?

Different tech capabilities changes everything

Episode 80: Lee Coulter & Jon Theurekauf

"AI is nimble. It has different capabilities than the things that we've seen before. You have low/no-code type technologies available that we've not had at our disposal which infers speed of deployment being measured in weeks, not years. And that changes everything."

The going mindset is that AI has the opportunity to change everything about your enterprise. But you have to do the basics to ensure that this is the case. Know your data sets. Realize an operating methodology which can propel your enterprise forward. But most of all, know where you're going. It does you no good to use technology you think your competitors are using so you can simply catch-up to what they might be doing. No matter where you are on the journey, make sure that you're headed to an enterprise that delivers for your future customers.