Don't Become a Dinosaur

In today's rapidly evolving landscape, most organizations are jumping on the AI bandwagon to avoid the risk of becoming obsolete like the dinosaurs of old. According to NewVantage Partners survey- 83% of companies have appointed a CDO or chief data and analytics officer (CDAO) and are increasing their investments in data, analytics and AI. However, these improvements have resulted in less than expected results and even retreats in some cases. Digging deeper it's evident that underlying challenges are- human (culture, people and process) rather than nonhuman (technological like modernization, data products, data quality, AI, architectures etc.). The central idea lies in recognizing that mere adoption isn't enough: successful execution and a shift in mindset are paramount.

As organizations continue to overdo the nonhuman aspect, I call it the science part, market is continuing to be flooded with quick customize data tools, products and demos. Executives flood the management with decks, presentations, over promising and under delivering. When ROI goes south the blame is on nonhuman (tools, modernization and data quality), as we are living the buzz and not prioritizing the human side, I call it the art part. "Don't overdo the science and keep rehearsing the art."

AI thrives on data, ensuring clean relevant data is the bedrock of successful implementation. Therefore, there is no doubt these things are important and need to be revamped, at same time its true a skilled data scientist can generate valuable actionable insights from imperfect data with fair degree of confidence. Execution leaders should be willing to test and execute and learn from semi baked uncertain ideas and create the feedback loop to clean the data and assumptions. However, this requires investment in human literacy and culture modernization. "Good data driven culture will trust imperfect information and bad data driven culture will always question the data."

In this tech-driven era, let's not be tech dinosaurs: let's be tech pioneers. The future belongs to those who adapt strategically, execute relentlessly, and evolve their mindsets.