AI’s technical challenges
Some engineers and executives worry that a lack of AI-related skills and knowledge could hold back their progress.
Embracing innovative technologies helps drive an organization’s success. However, when presented with a range of emerging technologies, survey respondents cite AI as one of the two technologies that their organization is least prepared to integrate into their operations.
AI’s rapid growth has caused many engineers and executives to feel like they are falling behind the skills curve. Both groups cite a lack of internal knowledge and experience with AI as the reason they will struggle with integration.
The other technology that organizations feel least prepared to integrate — 3D printing — has been a commercially viable option for much longer than AI has. Given the importance of AI in transforming the innovation process itself, it will be interesting to see whether integrating AI remains a challenge for organizations for as long as 3D printing has.
TE Takeaway
"When introducing any new technology into an organization, sometimes you have to go slower to go fast. If you do the hard work up front, subsequent steps should go faster and it becomes easier to scale your solution. Artificial intelligence is no different. Before implementing AI, leadership needs to ask a few important questions: What problem or question are we trying to solve? Do we have the necessary data to solve it and the talent to use what we build? What outcome or value do we expect to get from this effort? Having this sort of discipline in the early phases is so important because undoing mistakes later on will be extremely hard. AI will be game-changing for companies that do it the right way and apply it to the right opportunities. The organizations that do the hard upfront work in its implementation and maintain the agility to evolve with this rapidly changing technology will win. Achieving the promise of this exciting technology will take time, perseverance and a lot of hard work."
Joseph Eckroth
Chief Information Officer