Establish Clear Objectives

To get the most value from integrating GenAI into your business, you need to start with the following question: What problems are you trying to solve with AI? Understanding your challenges and critical needs will make it easier to identify where GenAI can be of use and provide you with the most value. It’s the foundation that allows you to build out a road map that aligns with your business’s larger strategic goals.

Having specific objectives in place will also help you establish measurable outcomes from the outset, and allocate your resources (time, money, and people) more efficiently for minimal business disruption.

Choose the Right AI Tools to Fit Your Business Objectives

According to a 2024 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, 67% of businesses surveyed plan to invest more in AI over the next three years. The supply of AI tools and capabilities continues to increase to meet the demand of more businesses adopting GenAI at an increasingly rapid pace. With more tools on the market, it’s more important than ever to do your research to choose tools that align with your needs once you’ve established your objectives.

When choosing which tools to use, you’ll also want to consider existing integrations to ensure they’ll play well with your tech stack and current platforms. If you’re overwhelmed with all the options, working with a trusted partner with deep expertise in Generative AI, like Innovative Solutions, can simplify the process. At Innovative, we offer helpful services and products like Tailwinds SaaS, a platform specifically designed to help product teams, technical teams, and business leaders streamline their approach to GenAI implementations. Tailwinds offers out-of-the-box integration with leading GenAI partners like Amazon Bedrock and industry-leading chat interfaces, including IBM’s watson.x assistant.

According to a 2024 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, 67% of businesses surveyed plan to invest more in AI over the next three years

Prepare and Refine Your Data

Whether you’re working with a partner on a GenAI solution, or striking out into the world of AI on your own, you’ll want to gather and refine the business data you have that is relevant to the tasks you want to automate. Depending on your industry vertical and GenAI use case, this could include: historical sales data, operational data like supply chain information, product and services data like descriptions or customer feedback, or employee performance reviews and team productivity data.

Having your data prepared in advance has several advantages, including:

• Improved AI model accuracy: The output you get from your AI tools will match the input of data. In other words, poor data quality will lead to poor results.
• Aligning AI with your business objectives: This is another reason why it’s crucial to understand your goals from the outset, so you can pull together the data that matches your objectives, and train your AI tool with the correct data to get outputs that help you meet your goals.
• Reduced bias and ethical AI practices: By preparing your data in advance, you’ll be able to minimize any potential bias that may exist. For businesses in industries like healthcare, for example, that may deal with sensitive patient information, eliminating bias and ensuring your AI model is producing accurate information is non-negotiable.

Test Your GenAI Solution on a Small Scale With a POC

As with most new processes and tools, testing your GenAI solution on a small scale first with a Proof of Concept (POC) allows you to work out any hiccups and minimize risk in advance. A POC also makes it possible to collect valuable feedback early on to understand your solution’s impact and ROI value — a must if you’re also in a position where you need to convince internal stakeholders and get the support you need for integration. Starting small is key to minimizing unnecessary disruptions and helps ensure a smooth transition once you scale.

Humach, a privately held CX solutions provider for companies seeking exceptional customer experiences, is a prime example of the benefits of starting with a POC. With our Tailwinds SaaS platform, Humach was able to rapidly POC their ideas, and quickly identify the value AI would have for their business. As a result, they’ve already seen an 18% increase in customer satisfaction and a 20% increase in call automation efficiency.

Train, Scale, and Optimize

Once you have validated your POC, and you’re ready to scale, you’ll need to train any internal team members using your new GenAI solution, so they know how to collaborate with it effectively. If your team understands its functionality, you’ll be enabling them to leverage all features and capabilities right out of the gate, maximizing efficiency and productivity and mitigating any unnecessary errors or misuse. Training also supports the improvement of your solution. A trained team can provide valuable feedback on performance and identify where changes need to be made.

GenAI isn’t a “set it and forget it” type of technology. As GenAI evolves, and you continue scaling your solution’s capabilities, you’ll want to be measuring and optimizing performance along the way. Doing so ensures that your solution remains a tool that adds value to your business as it grows. Regularly monitoring your solution’s performance will also help you catch any errors before they become more significant issues that could hinder operations. A GenAI solution optimized to grow and evolve with your business will continue providing the ROI you set out to secure in the first place.