How 'Human-Kind' AI Can Reshape Your Business
As AI models mature, their impact on the economy is becoming increasingly profound. They offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Here's how. Here's how:
Traditional Businesses Maximizing Efficiency
AI enables traditional businesses to accomplish more with fewer resources. This is not just a theoretical concept; it's a reality backed by research and real-world examples. For instance, according to a study by IBM in the United States, automation, machine learning, and advanced analytics allow companies to streamline operations, optimise supply chains, and enhance customer service. Tasks that once required large teams can now be efficiently managed by sophisticated AI systems, reducing the need for extensive human labour while increasing productivity and accuracy. McKinsey & Company also supports this view, highlighting the transformative impact of AI on traditional business models.
The Evolution of Workforce Value Creation
As AI begins to take over mundane tasks, the role of the human workforce is evolving. Employees are no longer cogs in the machine—they're becoming value creators. The focus is evolving toward roles that require critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence—areas in which humans excel, but AI still has limitations. This shift necessitates upskilling and reskilling initiatives to prepare the workforce for new, high-value roles in an AI-driven economy.
AI-Driven Entrepreneurship
The democratisation of AI is not just a fad but a powerful platform for creating new businesses. With access to these powerful AI tools, entrepreneurs can innovate at a pace and scale previously unimaginable. These tools reduce the barriers to entry, allowing small teams to compete with larger, established companies. Likely, the next generation of unicorns—startups valued at over $1 billion—will be built by lean teams of around 20 people, not 20,000, leveraging AI to scale rapidly and efficiently.
High-Velocity Disruption
We are now in an age of 'high-velocity disruption', a term that describes the rapid and significant changes brought about by technological advancements. In this era, traditional organisations face radical change. Rapid technological advancement means that established businesses must adapt quickly or risk obsolescence. In this environment, the lowest risk option might no longer be to stick with a traditional corporate path. Instead, building a new business by leveraging AI and innovative technologies could be the safest and most lucrative route. This starkly contrasts with only a few years ago when entrepreneurship was often considered the riskier option.
Emerging AI Platforms and New Business Opportunities
The emergence of new AI platforms will spawn millions of businesses of all sizes, much like the search and social media giants did years ago. These platforms will provide the tools and infrastructure needed for entrepreneurs to innovate and scale their ideas rapidly. This proliferation of AI-driven businesses will further accelerate economic growth and diversification, creating a dynamic ecosystem of innovation.
A New Wave of Innovation
The convergence of AI and entrepreneurship creates an opportunity for massive innovation and value creation, ushering in a period of rapid and significant technological advancements and the subsequent creation of new products, services, and business models. As more people harness AI to develop new products, services, and business models, the potential for economic growth and societal advancement is immense. This new wave will drive economic expansion and address some of the world's most urgent problems, from healthcare to climate change.
Alyve's Framework for Embracing an AI-Driven Economy
After working with many businesses on emerging technology adoption, I identified a best-practice human-centric framework to help organisations navigate and thrive in an AI-driven economy. The approach is rooted in the ideals of flexibility and innovation, which we at Alyve call “human-kind technology." This approach combines the power of AI with a deep understanding of human needs and values, ensuring that technology enhances human experiences. As with any transformative technology, the hardest part is the human aspects, so every step in our model puts people first. Here's what goes into Alyve’s human-kind technology approach.:
AI Readiness Assessment:
Objective: Evaluate your current capabilities and readiness for AI adoption.
Process: Conduct a thorough assessment of your existing infrastructure, data quality, and workforce skills.
Outcome: Identify gaps and opportunities for AI integration.
Alyve's Touch: We ensure the assessment aligns with your strategic goals and human-centric needs, making the results actionable and practical.
Create a people-focused narrative. New technologies can be both exciting and intimidating. Developing a narrative that tells the story of how AI will improve your people's work lives is a critical step in gaining support early on.
Assess your organisational AI maturity. AI tools have been adopted exceptionally quickly, and many in your organisation already use them regularly. Rather than viewing that as “shadow IT” that needs to be shut down, use it to your advantage by getting people to self-assess their capability. Use the results to educate those needing training and engage the early adopters in innovation programs.
Identify cultural blockers and enablers. Adopting AI to create a competitive advantage is an exercise in organisational change management. Building a detailed understanding of the cultural blockers and enablers of change is critical. This is more important than investing in technology to deliver successful initiatives.
Pinpoint systemic issues that haven’t been addressed previously. Focusing on processes or issues not addressed before is the best way to create organisational alignment. Collecting and analysing large amounts of data that may have required input from many people is an excellent example of a process that can now be performed by a well-designed AI system. Solving an issue that most people in your organisation are frustrated with will rapidly create support and engagement.
Align internal innovators and leadership. Technology-driven transformations often fail because the organisation's leaders aren’t entirely supportive. You can reduce failure risks by demonstrating that the internal innovators and “AI champions” have the backing of the entire leadership team, no matter their function.
Create an organisation-specific education program. The AI world is moving fast, and although it's impossible to stay current in every area, you must continue to invest in educating your people. Helping your people develop a shared understanding and language about how AI impacts your organisation and sector will help you elevate capability and monitor external trends.
Create a “human-kind” innovation process for your people to engage with. Once you're past the early stages of AI adoption, a more significant impact can happen as your people spot more opportunities to drive efficiencies and improvements. An excellent way to support your team on that journey is to publish an innovation process that guides people through the steps to create a compelling business case that focuses on elevating the human experience. This is at the core of our "human-kind technology" approach.
Embrace the AI-Driven Future
AI is fundamentally reshaping the economy now. Although the benefits of AI adoption are significant, it's critical to be aware of the risks and challenges. Organisations and individuals must adapt, embracing AI as an innovation and value-creation tool. By taking the practical "human-kind" steps above, you'll set your organisation up to adapt to an increasingly dynamic operating environment.