When you take a road trip, you can’t get there without a plan and the tools (car, gas) to get there.
It’s the same with running a business. You can’t achieve your goals without the appropriate materials, as well as an understanding of how to use them.
If you plan to begin an AI initiative, it’s important to create a strategy for its implementation to serve as the blueprint for its use in your company. Not only will it give you a plan to work from, but it will also allow you to practice responsible AI. When you have a strategy in place, your colleagues and clients will be more likely to trust your plan.
In this post, we’ll outline a list of actionable steps you need to take to create an AI strategy that aligns with your business needs. We’ll cover the following:
- Define your business goals.
- Determine what tools and/or resources you need to achieve those goals.
- Research AI tools that can meet those needs.
- Compare off-the-shelf vs. custom options.
- Make your choice.
- Track your progress and refine as necessary.
1. Define Your Business Objectives.
What do you hope to achieve by incorporating AI into your workflow? Is it more website traffic? Higher open rates? Increased “add to cart” selections?
Get clear on the metrics you want to track and the ultimate purpose of your campaign, whether that be to increase awareness or generate sales and revenue. When you know what you want to achieve, it will be easier to understand where to focus your energy.
HubSpot recommends setting SMART goals for your business. This means setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. This will give you a framework to shoot for.
For instance, this is NOT a SMART goal: “Increase website traffic.” It’s vague and undefined.
This IS a SMART goal: “Increase website visitors by 16% over the next month by creating informative, SEO-optimized blog posts aimed at our target audience.” Notice how this sentence is much more specific and concrete.
See the difference? Although seemingly unimportant to some, the specificity in the SMART goal makes all the difference when it comes to meeting your targets for the upcoming month, quarter, or year.
2. Determine what tools and/or resources you need to achieve your goals.
Now that you have your goals written down, it’s time to think about what tools you need to achieve them. For example, do you need more time and talent to generate content? Do you need help with responding to customer inquiries? Do you need an efficient method of analyzing your data?
Your business needs will greatly influence what kind of AI solution you would look into. For instance, generative AI is great for speeding up content creation tasks, such as brainstorming ideas and making content schedules. AI chatbots are perfect for answering basic customer questions and relaying other inquiries to humans, and smart analytics tools are fitting for data analysis.
Once you know your need(s), you can find the right AI solution(s) to match them.
3. Research the types of AI tools that can meet those needs.
By now, you have an idea of what needs you want to fill. So, you can focus on comparing options within your category of needs.
For example, if you’re looking for content help, look into ChatGPT, DALLE, Midjourney, Google Gemini, and other free or low-cost generative AI tools to accelerate your content creation process.
If you need help with customer service, look at CRMs with built-in AI features (such as Zoho CRM or Breakcold) or AI customer service chatbots. Some CRMs are more analytical (such as Zoho) and some are better suited for fast-paced outreach (such as Breakcold), so the decision you make will depend on your desires.
If you’re looking for analytics assistance, check out Google Analytics and Google Ads’ “smart bidding” features.
All of these AI technologies can help you depending on what you need.
4. Compare off-the-shelf vs. custom options.
Once you have determined which options would be helpful to you, compare your narrowed list of choices based on which ones are “off-the shelf” (i.e. purchase-able) vs. the ones that are custom (need to be built from scratch).
When determining whether to purchase an off-the-shelf AI app or create a custom AI solution, the decision hinges on speed, complexity, and competitive differentiation.
Off-the-Shelf AI Applications
Off-the-shelf AI applications give you the immediate advantages of faster deployment and lower upfront costs, making the transition both quick and cost-effective.
They would be best for common use cases such as chat, document processing, and analytics, which don’t need a lot of customization to get you started.
Some limitations of off-the-shelf AI applications include deep customization and personalization capabilities. In addition, scaling AI can be more difficult with off-the-shelf solutions.
Keep these potential drawbacks in mind when thinking about your long-term needs: do you need a simple, small solution, or a more complex tool?
Custom-Built AI Solutions
On the flip side, custom-built AI solutions offer you the ability to work with unique workflows or proprietary data. They also give you stricter control over your work and a competitive advantage in the market.
However, they come with a higher upfront development cost, as well as longer timelines, so consider your budget and time restraints when evaluating custom-built options.
Hybrid Approaches
As an alternative to the options mentioned above, you can use pre-built AI as a foundation with custom enhancements and integrate multiple AI services into it, if you have the resources available to do so. This could give you the customization opportunities offered by custom solutions with the ease-of-implementation that off-the-shelf applications provide.
5. Make your choice.
After reviewing all of your options, make the choice that feels best to you and stick to it. Don’t be afraid to ask your team members for their opinions: you never know what perspectives they may bring to the table, or what questions or concerns may surface.
6. Track your progress over time.
An AI implementation strategy is not a linear or one-and-done process. Rather, it’s a long journey of adoption, experimentation, and reiteration. Pay attention to your KPIs throughout the process and see if you notice any significant changes— for better or worse. Use the data to inform your approach.
A big part of being strategic is using data to see what is working and what is not and acting accordingly, so this step is vital for obtaining and sustaining success with your customers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, creating a business strategy for your AI process is a smart decision. It allows you to make a thoughtful choice based on your company’s and customers’ needs and pain points. It will also make it easier for you to convince C-suite executives of the benefits AI can bring your company, such as hours saved, costs cut, or ROI increased.
By thinking through your goals and weak spots, you can determine which AI solution, if any, would serve you best.