“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.”
THE GOAL OF AI should be to take human ingenuity and to attach a rocket to it, blending technology with ethics, accountability and inclusive design to empower as many people as possible. AI should benefit society, not dehumanize it. That’s why it can help to think with a “humans-first” approach. If it’s not adding value to humans, you have to ask yourself why the AI exists in the first place.
To get started, I recommend following this simple five-step process:
DEFINE THE STRATEGY: Identify what you hope to get from AI and how you plan to implement it, as well as any resources that will be required along the way.
RECRUIT AND TRAIN: This stage involves hiring the staff you need to make your vision a reality whilst simultaneously training existing staff to take advantage of new systems.
OPERATIONALIZE: Prepare to launch your new AI-based systems by making them a part of your operations. Ensure that all of the systems, tools and processes are in place and understood by all employees before they go live.
DEPLOYMENT: This is the stage at which your new AI-based systems go live and begin supporting physicians and serving patients. This is where all of the hard work starts to pay off and to deliver results.
OPTIMIZE: One of the main benefits of using digital technologies like artificial intelligence is that they can provide metrics and analytics that are designed to help you to further improve your systems.
Define the Strategy
With this structure in place, you’re ready to start developing your AI strategy. Remember that the strategy that you work on now will essentially form the foundations of the company that you’ll build. Developing your strategy is one of the most important things that you can do and so don’t be afraid to invest your time into it.
By now, you should have a good understanding of the opportunities that AI has to offer. The next step is to identify your focus, which is the technical way of saying that you need to find solutions that marry human ingenuity with the smart use of technology. Perhaps you’re learning from imperfect data through the smart use of natural language processing. Perhaps you’re using AI to interpret text, voice and images. The strategy that you develop will ultimately be informed by what you’re trying to achieve.