When planning a digital transformation for your business, there’s a lot to take into account. From initial research and planning to development and implementation, many companies find that they need to utilise external sources as well as members of their own team in order to successfully complete the project. Although this is effective, hiring external consultants can be expensive and, is not always necessary. 

Digital transformation is the art of harnessing the power of digital technology to enhance and transform your business processes and systems. With that in mind, it makes sense to make use of the latest technology in the early stages of the project - including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and learning. No longer the stuff of science fiction, AI is already being used across the world in customer service, sales, marketing and government initiatives and, is an increasingly vital way of businesses gathering and understanding data.

A new way of thinking - literally

There are a number of ways in which AI can be used to implement your digital transformation, including the generation of the transformation itself. In order for this to work effectively, you need to look at your entire digital and IT infrastructure before even planning your digital transformation. For this to be effective, your corporate strategy will need to be redesigned to combine your digital and AI strategies.

Needless to say, for such a technical and long-term project, you’ll need to make sure that your IT team is up to the job. In many cases, a project such as this will require an entire IT and data overhaul which means that you may have to retrain staff or, employ an external consultant to get the ball rolling. You’ll also have to make sure that you communicate the changes to all employees, not just the technical ones. At this stage, you’ll need to conduct extensive research to make sure that you know the financial and manpower costs of the project. You’ll need to make top level executives aware that this is unlikely to be a ‘quick fix’ and may take several months to implement.

It’s said that, by the end of this year, 40% of all digital transformations will be carried out by AI - which means that all effective IoT systems will need to be supported by AI capabilities. 

The dream team

Once your AI capabilities are in place, they will, effectively, become a new member of your team - quickly and efficiently managing data, making intelligent predictions and communicating these in an easy to understand format. This does, of course, mean that your IT and technical staff will be more important than ever and, training will need to be continuous to ensure that your team are always equipped with the latest information. This is one of the times when outsourcing may be the most sensible option as, expensive at is can be, it can also be more cost-effective than hiring new IT staff and training existing ones. 

In order for this new member of your team to integrate, you’ll need to develop a clear and straightforward communication strategy detailing how things are changing - this is particularly important if you have older, less tech-savvy employees.

Reality - as we should know it

AI has a tendency to often go hand in hand with VR (virtual reality) opportunities. Although many businesses are still wary of the benefits of VR, when integrated with larger enterprise solutions, it can be used really effectively to help get your digital transformation in place. Once in place, VR can also become an integrated part of your company’s system in order to streamline the way you design and manufacture products and executive daily tasks. 

Whether we like it or not, the future of business lies in the technology that we use and master - and the earlier a business gets on board with assets such as AI and VR, the easier it is to move with the times as this technology continues to evolve.