In the past few years, AI (artificial intelligence) has grown at a rapid pace for many organizations. Now many are considering what comes next as the speed of adoption of all these emerging technologies and the IoT (Internet of Things) continues to pick up.
Grand View Research suggests the global artificial intelligence market size was valued at $62.35 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand to a growth rate of 40.2% through 2028. Deep learning led the market and North America dominated, accounting for more than 40% share of global revenue in 2020. In 2020, software solutions led the AI market and accounted for more than 38% of the global revenue, according to Grand View Research.
In the first half of 2021, IDC suggests AI applications accounted for 47% of spending, followed by AI system infrastructure software, with 35% share. In fact, IDC goes as far as to predict that by 2024, 40% of large enterprises will expand the use of AI and ML (machine learning) across all business-critical horizontal functions like marketing, legal, HR, procurement, and supply chain logistics.
All this to say, AI will be the way forward in the future—and in many cases is already here. Do you have a solid strategy for how to leverage it at all levels of your organization?
Since 2019, Microsoft’s AI Business School has helped business leaders approach AI in a way that is strategic and responsible. The online leadership series helps executives learn how to create an effective AI strategy, all while enabling an AI-ready culture.
I recently had an opportunity to sit down with Nick McQuire, director of enterprise AI and innovation, Microsoft, to talk all about the AI Business School—and the way forward for organizations that want to leverage it.
“Now, the learnings come in three important areas as well. I can break these down for you. I mean, they’re really important in terms of the context and the trends that we’re seeing,” he explains. “The first is how you organize for innovation, what we’re calling organizing for adaptability. And here we look at, how do you set a company-wide vision? How do you set the right practices in place within the organization to help foster innovation more widely?
“The second area looks at culture. So how do you cultivate an innovation mindset? (That) is what we’re calling it. And this looks at ways in which you can establish a culture of collaboration, which really supports innovation. Now that collaboration piece is absolutely crucial.”
During our conversation he pointed to several examples of how organizations can foster that culture of collaboration and innovation mindset. For those that do, the result is a very data-rich environment.
“And the final piece in the learning path that we’re looking at here around innovation is what we call co-innovation as well,” he says. “So, what we’re saying is that successful organizations need to think beyond just the four walls of the organization. Think about how you work with external partners, how you work with customers, how do you bring in institutions, and ultimately the communities that you serve as well to address some of the big societal and industry challenges that many companies are facing as well.”
McQuire says it is these three areas: culture, the organization, and the co-innovation piece that are really the core aspects of what Microsoft is looking at now when it comes to sharing some of the learnings in AI Business School around innovation.
Perhaps now more than ever we need AI to do the heavy lifting in our organizations. With geopolitical conflicts, supply-chain disruptions, and worker shortages, AI can step in and give us the information we need to do our jobs more effectively. The time is now, but only if we take the time to act.
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