Selling Artificial Intelligence To The Business: Keep It Clear, Keep It Simple
Many business leaders are enthusiastic about artificial intelligence, but when it comes to investing in the technology, they may be bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. It doesn’t have to be this way. We canvassed people who work closely with AI solutions and asked them to share their experiences on the best approaches to sell AI 00 the right AI, at the right time, to business leaders.
For starters, it’s imperative to “show ‘cognitive courtesy,’” advises Bjorn Austraat, senior vice president and head of AI acceleration at Truist. “Invest time and effort up front to translate difficult technical concepts into plain English. Likewise, create a compelling, properly framed vision for all project participants to ensure alignment and productive collaboration.”
Austraat explains that he uses a “simple phrase” to advance the vision of AI. Ask: “’Whose life is going to get better, by how much and how do we know that?’” he says. “If you can truly answer that question, you have covered all the bases from framing, to deployment, to value proposition, to political air cover.”
This clarity of vision is strongly advised by other industry leaders. “The key to selling AI lies in clear, simple explanation of the business case,” agrees Ben Hookway, CEO of Relative Insight. “With consumer data flooding in from all directions, much of this is text-based. All of this qualitative text data can – and should – have strategic influence on brand strategy, product development, customer care, marketing, communications, and more. Much of this data is real-time and extremely valuable in helping to boost true understanding of exactly how customers feel.”
In Austraat’s industry, financial services, “explainability trumps model performance,” he adds. “In particularly sensitive areas such as credit underwriting, banks and other financial services institutions must balance the desire to innovate and use cutting-edge AI with the reasonable regulatory expectations around explainability, robustness and fairness. The hottest solution doesn’t always win, especially if it’s too much of a black box.”
It’s also important to impress upon business leaders that successful AI can take the business in new — and potentially positive — directions. “Businesses are not looking to buy sensors, cameras, or AI solutions – they look for a total solution that solves a business problem,” according to Ken Mills, CEO of EPIC iO. “If you are trying to sell sensors or video cameras to businesses, my advice is to team up with consultants or solution providers who can deliver complete answers to business problems.”
AI is all about making processes easier,” says Umesh Sachdev, co-founder and CEO at Uniphore. “Whether it’s solving customer problems, eliminating manual tasks or making more accurate predictions, AI supplements human effort so humans can work, interact and innovate more efficiently.”
It goes even further — with the rise of far-reaching AI solutions such as conversational AI, providing “customers and employees access to elevated problem-solving capabilities, the world as we know it will change fundamentally,” writes Robb Wilson, founder of OneReach.ai in his latest book, Age of Invisible Machines.
