Anyone remember ads of elves baking pies?
I recently consulted for a business who wanted to use AI applications to better serve their client base. More specifically, their goal was to use several GenAI applications to provide multiple forms of “inspiration” to their client base, in support of their creative work.
Their MVP demonstration was certainly interesting; but for all the money in the world, I could not understand why it took 20,40, 70 minutes between “prompting the system” and getting, what most would have categorized as, a “solid usable return”. If using GenAI was meant to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the business model, there was something amiss.
One careful look at their business process and setup, and it all became clear. They had trained a few employees to manually prompt into, process, and edit the results of upwards of four GenAI applications in order to generate one final product. It was like watching one of the old Keebler commercials where Ernie makes a great pitch to the audience, and the team behind him is doing heroics to produce, and they did produce, a tasty treat.
The business’ result was solid, the process steps made logical sense, but there was zero integration between the applications. That is the message for the day - GenAI or not, please take the time to integrate your business processes and technical applications.
Here are four recommendations to consider as you bring GenAI (or ANY new technology) into your current business tech-stack:
Lead with the business’ needs, not shiny apps.
Unless you are playing GenAI buzzword bingo with your BOD or employees, keep focus on running the business for efficiency and effectiveness. If you add five GenAI applications to your tech-stack, but now require three additional FTEs to do the work, you might want to use a mulligan and start again. You’d be better off not using GenAI in your company, than adding random and disjointed apps all over the organization.
2. Don’t just assign the integration to IT.
I said what I said, and you’re welcome IT. While it is essential to have IT representation, adding new technology is a project best led by a business operator and stakeholder. Preferably someone who has worked or led multiple functions and has a great system’s view of the business. Adding GenAI to the business capabilities is not an issue of technology, but one of business process and efficiency. You can integrate anything to anything (try me). The more important questions are “how much”, “where”, “when”…
3. Don’t force your team to use one “super” GenAI or “ecosystem” app. Using micro / narrow apps is Ok!
We owe API engineers a big “thank you!” Because of their work we are not limited to the AI capabilities that are being built into biggies like Salesforce, Office, etc. If the native GenAI capabilities built into your stack are not exactly what your team needs - you can get a “narrow” application to get exactly what you need, how you need it, and when you need it. Spoiler - You are likely to get better results integrating applications that were specifically designed to do the very thing you need.
4. Don’t try to integrate everything to the Nth degree.
While AI is cool and trendy, it still has ways to go. At times, the business process may call for a “check point” that may require logic too burdensome to implement. You certainly don’t want to have a swarm of “Keebler elves” at work to get everything done, but you don’t need to design Skynet in order to approve a sales quote. Right?
Integrate people, process and GenAI for efficiency and effectiveness, not for buzz.
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