Last week I wrote about how too many vendors position AI as the fix for every organizational problem. To them, AI becomes the hammer, and suddenly everything looks like a nail.
(If you haven't seen that post, it might be worthwhile scrolling back and reading it first.)
Some may have taken that message to mean I'm AI-agnostic, or even anti-AI. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm genuinely excited about AI; its usefulness, its accessibility, and its potential to create real business value. After 30+ years in technology, I've seen waves of innovation come and go, but I've never seen anything move this quickly or with this much transformative potential.
In 2017, Google researchers published Attention Is All You Need, the breakthrough that made modern large-language models possible. Fast forward to November 2022, when ChatGPT introduced the first broadly accessible LLM. Today (just three short years later) the landscape is crowded with capable models from dozens of providers, with each release bringing new capabilities that until recently felt like science fiction.
Modern AI can engage in interactive text and voice conversations, answer questions based on your private knowledge bases, generate high-quality video and music, and even assist in advanced areas such as drug and materials discovery. The recent emergence of AI agents has pushed things further, enabling systems to orchestrate complex, multi-step work such as writing and debugging code, handling customer service workflows, or managing sales leads. Entire industries and processes are already being reshaped, and we're still just at the beginning.
Next week, I'll share where AI can be introduced into your business in practical, meaningful ways. There are quick wins available, but the real value often comes from taking a thoughtful look at your processes to see where AI can integrate into and streamline (or even completely replace) existing workflows. Part of that discussion will also cover the caveats: AI can deliver tremendous upside, but it also brings risks and pitfalls that leaders must understand.
And finally, a brief disclaimer. Yes, I'm writing these posts because I'm passionate about the potential of AI to transform businesses, especially at a time when productivity, quality, and cost management are more critical than ever. But I'm also writing to raise awareness of the advisory and knowledge-transfer services I provide to businesses who don't have the time or resources to develop in-house expertise.
If you're interested in exploring how AI could improve your business, I'd be happy to have that conversation with you.