Why Board Directors And CEO’s Must Become AI Literate?
AI’s impact in the big data landscape is unfolding in quantum leaps. IDC reported that worldwide revenues for big data and advanced business analytics will reach more than $203 billion in 2020. Research and Markets project that the US market alone will reach over $105B by 2027.
The rapid growing market and interest in AI is being driven by the accelerating cloud and data traffic, much of it from: mobile, the Internet of Things (IoT) and increasingly business leader’s recognition that digital transformation is an imperative to remain in business.
We have already seen the explosive growth of technology giants from: Accenture, Amazon, Baidu, Facebook, Google, Intel, and Microsoft, in particular, that are lined with deep pockets, actively investing in acquiring talent and releasing open AI hardware and software as the race to stay on top marches feverishly foreword. Some of the larger firms, like Accenture, already has over 4,000 AI and Advanced Data Science resources to support client needs.
Data Scientists are consistently one of the most sought off technology skills, and most highly paid. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects the job market for data scientists to continue to grow at a rate more than triple the national average. Glassdoor also ranked data scientist jobs as the best in the United States in 2019, marking the occupation’s fourth consecutive year where Data Scientists was the job at the top.
In addition to these market, dynamics, the venture capital industry has not slowed down too much, despite Covid-19, in its investments in AI related startups. According to the USA National Venture Capital Association, AI funding in the USA 2019 easily surpassed $19B, with investments in over 1,500 companies, Already in Q1, 2020, close to $7B has been invested in USA start-ups. Having been a former venture capitalist, the enormous impact that AI and machine learning (ML) technologies can have on a diverse range of industries, VC’s are confident that AI companies that have a strong vision on digital transformation and solving use cases of value are worth betting on.
Research and Markets also reported also that “over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is generated every day globally. Data is created by every click, swipe, share, search, and stream, proliferating the demand for big data analytics market globally.”
So, what does this mean to board directors and CEO’s?
In a nutshell, it means AI digital literacy should be top of mind. Six question areas to help lead your organization foreword are outlined below, and are based on AI relevance, AI value, AI methods, AI talent and AI risk:
1.) AI relevance: Does your company have an AI strategy to modernize, products, services, or operational practices? Do you need one and what is its relevance/value to your business? What are your competitors doing? How can you differentiate against your competitors to have a unique customer value proposition?
2.) AI value: What is the value of having an AI strategy and what are the use cases that would benefit your company investing in?
3.) AI methods: If you are pursuing investing in AI enablement’s, what infrastructure, operating processes, and practices are needed?
4.) AI talent: Do you have the right talent that is required to advance our strategy, and if not, where can you best recruit this talent, and how do you validate talent’s AI technical knowledge to solve the use cases/challenges to enable your strategy execution?
5.) AI value: How can you continue to promote the value of AI driven initiatives, and at the same time measure the potential impact on job losses, as well as invest in new skill development(s) to remain competitive?
