Three steps to take with governance and culture to catalyze AI success
Companies are catching up in the field of AI. The rapid pace of AI in general, and generative AI (GenAI) in particular, has given us an extremely powerful new tool as we are still learning how and where to use it. We’re impressed by the technology’s capabilities, but now we need to start thinking seriously about the real-world business impact of AI. The question is: do we know how?
Skills, governance and culture are essential to make GenAI a success. A recent IBM survey found that while CEOs worldwide realize the need for GenAI governance, only 39% say they have good GenAI governance. Yet they are driven to take risks and make significant GenAI investments even without understanding its full value. This is because there would be a greater danger of falling behind the competition and missing out on the potential profits this could bring.
Meanwhile, hackers continue to target employees with AI, generating smarter phishing emails, text messages, and even deep fakes. In one of the largest corporate frauds known to date, a finance executive transferred more than $25 million to scammers who used deepfake technology to pose as a company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) during a video conference.
Creating guardrails and governance around the safer, more secure, and more effective use of GenAI, while cultivating a culture around AI is essential to GenAI’s success in business. Here are three steps you can take to develop governance and culture in your organization that will pave the way for success with AI.
Chief Information Officer at Zebra Technologies.
1. Establish an AI governance structure
This first crucial step is how we started our AI journey. It’s tempting to jump straight into new technology like GenAI, but it’s wise to take a step back and structure how to deploy it across your organization.
Effective AI integration starts with a solid governance structure. To achieve AI governance, you need to define a set of core principles that reflect your organization’s values and include aspects such as data privacy, security, and ethical AI use.
An administrative or executive steering committee defines guidelines on how to deploy GenAI safely. This group should be cross-functional and include top executives from business units across your organization, including representatives from legal and security. Together they determine the best tools, platforms and standards for your organization, and establish the security, privacy and legal foundations to guide your GenAI journey.
Without a governing body, your company won’t be able to address any privacy, confidentiality, or data breach issues. For example, imagine employees using GenAI ‘x’ and entering valuable or confidential company information as part of their job. Unless this risk was identified, assessed and mitigated, that corporate information could be used to further train the GenAI ‘x’ algorithm and potentially leak private corporate information publicly.
Legal risks are another growing business problem. Lawsuits against AI companies whose models may contain confidential, copyrighted or proprietary information are on the rise – and companies that use infringing services could also face liability or prosecution. A governance model ensures that legal protection exists. For example, ensuring that your agreement with an AI service provider includes strong damages in your favor can help limit your risks if you are sued based on your use of a service provider’s AI solution.
Before embarking on an AI journey for your organization, it is critical that you create a governance team or steering committee to oversee the process. The risks – and rewards – are too great to leave the use of GenAI to chance. Remember, governance is not about stifling innovation. It’s about creating an environment where employees can leverage GenAI for greater efficiency and innovation – in a secure way. The focus should be on aligning with your organization’s values and creating a safe environment for your AI journey.
2. Operationalize AI excellence
Once the ground rules are set, the next step is to put into practice the fundamental governance policies, tools, platforms and standards for generative AI. A working committee, or center of expertise, can bring GenAI to life and continually improve its use throughout your organization.
A working committee develops a common architecture, framework and use cases that the entire company can use within the guidelines established by the governance committee. Ideally, your AI platform should align with the other technology platforms that are standardized within your organization. By following this approach, you can develop custom GenAI tools so that everyone in the organization can use AI securely, keeping all information within our walls; Our organization’s information is not used by external entities to train AI models.
This approach democratizes the use of GenAI. The nature of technology is such that whether you are a business user or an IT team member, you can be highly skilled in AI based on the nature of the tools made available within an organization.
Translating AI principles into actionable policies that organizations can follow effectively and responsibly is a significant challenge. Governance develops the guiding roadmap and the working committee delivers AI platforms, tools and use cases. But when it comes to ensuring employees embrace GenAI tools, culture comes into play.
3. Build an AI culture, bottom-up and top-down
It is the human touch that brings the AI culture to life. Companies should strive for a complete AI culture, where people from every level of the organization share their passion and knowledge about AI.
Senior leaders should join in and lead by example, learn about and leverage the GenAI tools, and encourage their teams to do the same. In addition, every employee must receive GenAI training. This will help employees improve their skills, build a foundation of knowledge, reduce fear of AI, and adopt internal AI tools more broadly.
It is important to foster a culture that supports learning and innovation when it comes to GenAI. Empower those using GenAI to share their experiences working and learning with new technology and provide learning and training opportunities to your AI evangelists. In this way, an AI culture is built as more and more employees use GenAI and know how to get the most out of it.
GenAI for the generations
GenAI in business isn’t just for data scientists. Its capabilities can be used by every employee within your organization. As AI technologies become more prevalent, it is critical that employees are equipped to meet the opportunities and threats that come with them. A governance structure and working committee can provide the GenAI roadmap that brings people together as they successfully delve into this technical journey.
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