Those who know me tell me that I use the word elevate far too often. I’d interrupt a meeting and say “hey, can we elevate for a second?” And by that I mean that I think we’re missing the big picture, that we’re in the weeds. So sure enough, what I want to do now is elevate of where we are in Generative AI.
Generative AI in 2023
First, 2023 is the year we got out of the gate (yes, I know the tech has been cooking for much longer). Everyone is racing to capture opportunity. Startups are out like wildfire. Big tech is flexing its muscle not wanting to leave this wave to new entrants. Enterprises are careful buyers of tech, but they’re leaning in to learn and to setup their platforms and factories for building Generative AI at scale. Also, many organizations are trying to craft regulation to put in guardrails for responsible use.
If anything this is the year of the races, the learning and the foundations. And boy, one of a lot of excitement.
Let me double click on this: why do I say it’s the year of foundations? Large companies are setting up their strategies for AI, creating organizational structures, carrying out pilots, and working through piles of compliance. This is what’s needed to scale up in 2024.
We haven’t yet seen the competitive dynamics that will play out in industries. What happens when two companies that are evenly matched but one manages to deploy a technology a couple of years earlier than the other exacting an advantage. Say this tech lets them:
- a. have twice the productivity in some depts,
- b. market in a much more effective way,
- c. deploy much more impactful customer assistants.
We tend to see this competitive dynamic a lot in the tech industry. A new entrant comes in with a new winning feature and this is studiously and carefully replicated by the leaders in the industry in record time. Staying new for long is hard in tech, but how will this play out in other industries where companies tend to be somewhat slower in playing competitive catch-up.
Some recommendations for 2024
I reckon 2024 is going to be the year we start seeing GenAI at scale and a lot of competitive dynamics of fast followers for the most impactful implementations.
So given this elevation, what is the recommendation going forward?
- Do the homework others are doing in 2023. Don’t fall too far behind the pack.
- Remain curious. Talk to many. Learn, learn, learn.
- Try to bring your techies a bit closer. The tech is moving fast, and you want those that know the foundations to be close.
So what do you think? Do these first principles resonate?
As always, these write ups are my own and unrelated to my employment.
#aistrategy #genai #ai