Most of us can agree that we live in fascinating times. Everywhere we look, we see signs of significant change all around us, affecting social, economic, and many other areas. Out of curiosity, I recently used an online calculator to find the equivalent buying power of my salary in 1991. I earned around $30,000/year, considered very good for a kid just three years out of college with a BS degree.  It seems unbelievable to me that to have the same buying power now, it would take over $72,000. 

Beyond social and economic shifts, we are witnessing a remarkable wave of innovation. The Internet’s impact, the proliferation of smartphones, and the rise of generative AI are transforming our world. Whether you actively use AI or simply observe its development, its influence is undeniable.

AI is not just a trend, it’s a force that is accelerating just about everything. If it has not impacted you, your company, your municipality, or life in general, it will. We are already seeing AI assistants for writing social media posts, AI assistants built into our Google searches, and AI pretty much everywhere there is a platform for information storage. AI has already heavily embedded itself in software development, manufacturing, healthcare, marketing and design, manufacturing, and scientific research.

There is a race in the business world to create enough processor chips and build enough data centers to house the computing power for AI.  Right in our backyard here in Wisconsin, Microsoft is building a 3.3-billion-dollar data center to house some of its AI operations.  If we follow the money, AI is here in a big way.

With all of this in mind, how do we prepare for AI? Large businesses and government bodies can make huge expenditures, but what about those of us who don’t have enormous budgets?

Here are 5 steps to prepare your business for AI:

1.Get control of your data.  Much of the power of AI comes from analyzing your data and being able to report on it, classify it, and use it as a knowledge center.  If your data is spread everywhere: in file cabinets, in the basement, in people’s email, on their PC, it is inaccessible or difficult to expose to an AI platform.  Capturing it in a single repository or a document management system (we recommend Laserfiche) will allow you to have a clear single source for records.

2. Clearly map your work process. We all have a way of doing our daily work, but it often is a bit stuck.  We do it the way we always have, and maybe not the most efficient way.  We keep doing it that way because we don’t have time to step back and think about what we are doing.  Sometimes, we have multiple people doing it in different ways, and sometimes, what we believe is the process is no longer the process, due to poor training of new team members or just time changing things.  Spend some time mapping out the workflow for critical systems. There is huge value in having everyone on the same page.  There is also huge cultural value in bringing everyone involved in a process, defining that process, and being on the same page.

3. Apply automation technology to repetitive daily work. Once you know your process for a given task, you can begin to think about applying automation to that work. This is where the real value comes in. Automated forms, workflows, and approvals really impact daily operations and can reduce the mindshare needed to track a process, reducing the level of anxiety in tracking daily work.

4. Invest in your team and train them. People are our most valuable resource.  Despite knowing this, it is very easy to keep going forward, trying to keep the wheels on the bus and keep things going without paying attention. Some of us resist change, yet when presented with the opportunity to learn, most people are challenged to grow.  There are many ways to get training on business process, automation tools, data organization and more, and many are free in today’s online economy. Ask someone in the know what they recommend for learning.

5. Experiment or Pilot.  Once you have your data together, have identified your business process, have applied some automation tools, and have your team tracking toward learning new things, it may be time to experiment with AI or run a pilot.  Try out some of the free offerings and see what they can do.  Reach out to a consultant for advice on your business’s next steps.

The possibilities of AI are not just huge, they are transformative and expanding every day. Putting yourself in the position to take advantage of this new technology is the right next step for future growth and application of this exponentially growing technology.