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By Elizabeth Tobey, head of marketing, AI & Digital, NICE
January 1st is fake.
A senior leader at my organization said this to me mere weeks before the end of 2023.
This statement guided me to find my mission for 2024. It has become my North Star for this year, which I am certain will be known as the year of AI. We are witnessing new technology reach critical velocity (much like with the advent of the Internet) and seeing how AI is changing our existence.
As we approach a new year, we break down projects into sizeable pieces to get a clear view of what we need for success. We define challenges, identify KPIs, and decide on the best outcomes that will determine if our strategy — and execution — has hit the mark. From the macro to the micro, we must embrace the fact that the old ways of doing things need to be turned on its head, re-evaluated, and recreated to fit with today's landscape of how we live.
AI dominated the landscape in 2023
AI, specifically generative AI, became the talk of the town this time 12 months ago. In the following months, business leaders across every industry grappled with executive mandates to quickly build and implement a new AI strategy. In addition to managing the anxiety and glee at what AI could do for consumer and employee needs, we also had to juggle the new KPIs and goals that this era of AI unlocked for their business.
So here we are, one year later, and it's time to put the education and planning from the preceding year into practice. But if AI is now everywhere, promising to do everything for everyone, from every vendor you meet, how can you parse what will work for the specific problems your organization faces?
What are the crucial factors in choosing the right AI solution for your business?
The first and most important aspect of selection hinges on trust. With so many AI solutions, it's imperative that as you explore different options, you can trust both the AI being offered and the partnership you are forming. Some AI is better than others — but being the best doesn't matter if the technology doesn't work for your problem statement or can't deliver on your specific KPIs and desired outcomes.
Only you understand your industry's nuances and your organization's specific strategy. Not all AI will be specifically tuned to the requirements you need in an AI solution. Do not compromise. Without trust, any AI solution will falter in delivering the results your employees and customers expect and deserve.
As important as trust, a good AI solution must be accurate. In general, all solutions are built with the goal of accuracy — but what is built and tested is not the same as what is deployed and used in the real world. Any AI solution you want to champion must be accurate every time, the first time, in any challenge you give it. Without that, you might add more confusion and misinformation to an ever-increasingly complicated ecosystem.
AI solutions in 2024 have incredible potential to automate tasks to make work more efficient, answers more accessible, and reduce cognitive overload. Without the right AI to provide accurate, trustworthy solutions for your organization, pulled from your brand language and internal knowledge, you will create more friction and churn despite your best intentions.
The technology must be complete to successfully implement an accurate, trustworthy AI solution. That means any solution must be adopted and embraced by the front-line worker who uses it daily to the executive guiding the organization to success this year. It means the solution integrates with the workflows, processes, and tools you already have — and eliminates or streamlines existing integrations, requiring less effort and context switching. In short, your AI solution must be wholly integrated into and adopted by your organization, no matter how targeted or broad the use case. A purpose-built AI for your business needs can accelerate and simplify your tech stack and human-led processes, making work clearer and more efficient with less overhead. The most effective and successful AI can do more with less — so the people in your organization and your customers expend less energy to reap greater rewards.
I leave you with two parting thoughts as you begin 2024 in earnest. First, challenge the norms you've come to know. AI allows us to rewrite the rules to suit our business to meet today's needs better. Second, by adjusting your judgment, you can find a North Star that will guide you to a simpler, more effective, AI-empowered way to take your business into the future.
Get help choosing the right AI solution for your business.
This post was created by NICE with Insider Studios.