With the hype surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) today, almost everyone in the analytics and data science space has been asked about AI by their business partners. Unfortunately, during these conversations it often becomes apparent that the business person really doesn’t have a clue what AI really is or what AI is best able to solve. The initial reaction by many analytics and data science professional is to correct the business person and try to set them straight. As explained here, that approach can be counterproductive.
Can You Use AI To Solve This Problem For Me???
It happens all the time… You’re having a discussion with a business executive about a current project and suddenly the exec gets quite animated. After expressing how much AI is of interest to him or her, the exec excitedly lays out a current business problem for you and then asks the question, “Can you use AI to solve this problem for me?” You quickly realize that the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with AI and would best (and very easily) be solved with other, more basic techniques. How do you respond?
A few months back, I was speaking with a friend who said that he will try to educate the exec as to why AI isn’t really applicable in that situation and what other approach is more appropriate. I expressed to my friend my concern that going that route is a challenging path to take for a couple of reasons.
Don’t Rain On The Parade
Sure, correcting the exec sounds like the right thing to do. However, your job isn’t to make sure everyone fully understands the way algorithms work. Rather, your job is to help your organization get the most value possible through the use of algorithms. Furthermore, it is your job, not a business executive’s, to know what algorithms are available and when to use each of them. The business executive, on the other hand, owns the business problems that you must address.
From an academic perspective, it seems correct to set the executive straight. However, from both a political and business impact perspective you can only hurt yourself. The executive has initiated a discussion about a current business problem and how you and your team can help solve it. That is a terrific thing - he or she is excited by the prospect of using analytics to improve business performance. By correcting executives, you’ll just make alienate them and they may well shut the discussion down. Worse, they may decide not to begin a discussion with you at all the next time they have a problem.
Focus On The Positive
Overlook the executive’s misunderstanding of what AI is for the time being. Instead, focus on the business problem that’s been posed. In the end, the executive really only cares about having that problem solved. The discussion may be in context of AI because that’s what’s on the executive’s mind, but never forget that they really just want their problem solved. Think about it... Would the executive be happy if you used AI where it didn’t make sense and you didn’t solve the problem? Of course not! Would they be happy if you solved the problem but didn’t use AI to do it? You bet!
The key, therefore, is to embrace the opportunity to engage in the conversation about the executive’s problem. Be happy that you are the one they’ve come to and show your enthusiasm for the discussion. Embrace the opportunity to get involved and solve the problem while resisting the urge to correct the executive’s semantics. Stress that you are confident that you can solve the problem and that you’ll certainly consider AI as you lay out a solution, but you will explore other methods that might be just as effective and could possibly be deployed more quickly. The executive will be happy, your relationship will grow as a result, and your team will put some points on the board.
Deliver The Results
When you return with your solution, don’t lie to the executive and tell them you that AI was part of the solution if it was not. Simply say, “I’ve got some terrific results to share with you. We didn’t end up needing to use AI, but we got exactly what you need. Let’s walk through the benefits this solution can deliver.” The executive will then be focused on the results and really won’t care that you didn’t use AI (if it is even recalled that AI was requested in the first place).
The moral of the story is to accept any opportunity you can get to engage your business partners in a discussion about their business problems. Don’t get hung up on the semantics they use or how they misstate how algorithms work. Simply focus on helping them and being a good partner. Let them call it AI or anything else they want to call it. As long as you can solve the problem, that’s all they’ll really care about. And you can certainly tell them you’ll explore more advanced approaches, including AI, as the current solution evolves or when they bring additional opportunities.
Pouring cold water on their excitement up front will only sour your relationship and lead to your team and the broader organization missing opportunities in the future. This same approach of not correcting executives when it isn’t necessary can be used in the future for the next hyped up topic as well.