Everyone seems to be using the term AI or Artificial Intelligence, for everything. Every CEO, Board or Executive leader know they need to be doing something.
So what are the simple steps to create a rich picture of information and insights aligned with your strategy?
Three simple stages are outlined below to frame discussions within your organisation.
Historical Analysis
The easiest and most logical starting pointing is mining what you have. Most organisations will be surprised about the insights that can be derived from within. This could include insights about our customer experience and interactions, operational performance, product performance, achievement towards strategy etc. This requires asking the right questions and most likely bringing together data from multiple sources.
Predictive Analysis
Using historical data as the reference point, you can start to predict or simulate what might happen next. This often relies on looking at trends or patterns in the data. This could include seasonality, purchasing patterns, exception points that might trigger a response, customer and employee behaviours etc.
Prescriptive
This is where AI or machine learning really starts to kick in. The differentiating factor here is that based on historical and predictive analysis, what is the next best step, prescribed to a user, customer, employer or machine. For example:
Online shopper: Based on past views you might like this dress
Customer contact centre employee: this customer has called in three times over the last week and has raised a volume of credits due to order problems and therefore requires a priority response
Machine: this customer has unpaid debts and taken out two credit cards recently and therefore we should decline their credit application.
In addition to your own data, you can also mesh this together with external data sources (otherwise known as Big Data), to better predict results. For example a retailer could mesh its own historical purchasing data with weather data, to determine purchase pattern behaviours and predict what's next. Similarly an NFP supporting mental health can look at rate rises and call volumes into its call centre to predict future call loads when customers might be in distress.
There is no shortage of data. Start by figuring out the right questions to yield meaningful results. Then the data and technology experts can follow.
If you would to understand how data can better support realising your strategy, please contact me. Kristy@strategycoach.com.au