Collaboration is Key for AI Integration

AI is impacting businesses across multiple departments and functions. To effectively implement it, you’ll need a cross-functional team. We’ve previously discussed how seperate siloed approaches to AI can create risks. To avoid these risks and capitalize on AI’s opportunities, collaboration is crucial. A recent Heidrick & Struggles article discusses this, suggesting that technology, HR, and finance leaders are key players necessary to capture AI’s value. These leaders need to have important conversations about where AI can be useful and which applications don’t live up to the hype. The article notes:

“Cross-functional conversations about how AI is actually changing operations, and how the organization is coping with change, can help leaders cut through the noise and hype of AI to understand their real—and realistic—opportunities for long-term performance improvement. These will certainly include new products and services as well as internal productivity improvement. With a clear understanding of resource and timeline constraints, organizations can then prioritize how to move forward.”

AI cannot do everything. However, it can be useful. Identifying what AI’s useful applications are and building systems around them is key to capturing value. To do that, you’ll need representatives from across the company weighing in. Technology, HR, and finance are great places to start, but you’ll likely need to engage leaders from legal, procurement, operations, marketing, and any other department that might benefit from AI integration.