Three Key Perspectives for Incorporating AI into Your Strategy

Recently, I led a strategy seminar where I encountered a commonly asked question: What do you find to be the top three priorities for organizations on their strategic agendas? Taking a moment to reflect, I hesitated to offer a ‘one size fits all’ response. However, I gathered the courage to highlight the three main topics that appear to be at the forefront of most organizations’ strategic agendas these days:

• Sustainability: How should our organization address sustainability? Are we aiming simply to meet market expectations and comply with reporting requirements and standards, or should we leverage sustainability to gain a competitive advantage?
• Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion: How do we approach DEI, and what are our ambitions? Do we aim to be perceived as compliant, or do we see DEI as a means to attract, retain, and develop talent, fostering diverse perspectives in our organisation?
• AI: Organizations are increasingly grappling with the challenge of navigating Artificial Intelligence. Is AI a potential threat, or do we discern opportunities for growth, innovation, better customer service, and cost reduction?

In this article, we will explore three straightforward yet powerful approaches to incorporate AI into your strategy. And when I say incorporate, I strongly advocate the importance of integrating AI into your overarching strategy, aligning it with your vision, strategic objectives, and key focus areas, rather than developing a separate and standalone strategy for AI.

Begin by meticulously mapping the customer journey and all interactions customers (or end users) have with your organization. You can do the same if you are in the public sector servicing citizens.

Then, identify pain points throughout the customer journey, from the initial consideration of your product or service to post-sales service, pinpointing areas where customers or end user encounter frustrations or irritations.

Next, explore how AI solutions can streamline or eliminate these pain points, whether by reducing waiting times, enhancing communication clarity, or simplifying contracts and terms.

While addressing pain points is crucial, do not overlook opportunities to enhance the overall customer experience. That is, how can AI be used to create customer value? You could argue that this is just the opposite of reducing or removing pain points, but it is also about exploring new opportunities. How can AI provide more precise answers, provide new services or products, or personalized services?

Once again, scrutinize your entire customer journey in detail and evaluate where AI can add significant value.

Examine your organization’s major cost drivers and identify opportunities for cost reduction through AI implementation. Often, visualizing your cost structure can help identify specific processes where AI-driven automation could yield efficiencies, such as bookkeeping, logistics planning, designing presentations, or handling customer inquiries.

Consider utilizing the Value Proposition Canvas, developed by Alexander Osterwalder, alongside mapping your customer journey. This tool can help you understand and map customers’ pain points and gains, creating a link to the solutions AI can provide.

And remember the magic trick, if you are unsure about your customers’ pain points or desired gains: You can ask or observe them!

In conclusion, the integration of AI should be approached as an integral component of your organizational strategy, rather than a standalone initiative. By aligning AI initiatives with strategic objectives and customer needs, organizations can harness its transformative potential to drive innovation, efficiency, and value creation.

Attached is a template of the Value Proposition Canvas to guide your AI integration efforts. Should you require assistance in this process, do not hesitate to reach out to me for guidance and support in incorporating AI into your strategy.