Pillar 1: Strategy & Vision
Strategy and Vision is the first indispensable pillar of any future-ready enterprise AI strategy.
Why this Pillar Matters
Simply ‘wanting AI’ doesn’t cut it. So, our Strategy and Vision pillar sets forth five dimensions which begins with vision, extends to creating the actionable roadmap and architecture necessary to actualize that vision, and finally establishes the programmatic elements necessary to drive that vision to fruition. These dimensions help organizations formulate and take action on their big ideas.
Executive vision
Technology adoption fails when not driven by executive vision. Adopting AI is simply too challenging for most organizations to do when absent of long-term vision supported from top-down.
The data platform obers a mastered single source of truth for the most mission-critical data domains; data is addressable by AI and aggregated from diberent sources as part of our data platform; AI is deployed consistently and with governance guardrails in place.
Actionable roadmap
Strategy without action is like the rule of law on a deserted island.
AI strategy should offer immediate value to the organization beyond specific AI-driven workloads because the nature and value of these workloads will remain unclear for some time. In other words, make investments in modern data platform technology that will pay dividends not just in AI but in analytics, business intelligence, search, etc.;
AI strategy must be flexible: able to absorb tomorrow what we don’t fully grasp today. It’s wise to plan 24 months in advance, but it is equally unwise to assume that you’ll not be regularly revising those plans as things evolve.
Ecosystem map
An ecosystem map is a high-level architectural diagram of an organization’s cloud ecosystem, and something that every organization ought to create at the start and continuously evolve as they progress on their AI journey.
Thinking of an organization’s cloud ecosystem as a city, we then conceptualize the next-level-down component parts of the ecosystem as ‘neighborhoods’ … Like cities, ecosystem maps are constantly evolving and changing.
Programmatic Rigor
With an executive vision, actionable roadmap, and ecosystem map in hand, it’s crucial that the organization institute the programmatic rigor required to navigate that roadmap and bring its vision to fruition.
Regular peer reviews, relevant testing, and comprehensive documentation must be standard practices … Being future-ready does not mean deploying every conceivable capability just in case it might be needed.
The Center for Enablement
The Center for Enablement (CFE or C4E) concept is a departure from IT organizational concepts of old, representing a shift from controlling processes to enabling people.
Success Checklist
Success signals: every stakeholder can articulate the vision; a live roadmap guides decisions; the ecosystem map is the north-star; disciplined execution is visible; the C4E is the go-to hub.