It can be harder for an established company, especially an established company who’s already navigated technology revolutions in the past, to determine what their AI strategy should be.

In the past, companies grew because their teamwork improved.  Better collaboration led to more efficient and effective value propositions, which led to more customers served at a higher profit margin.

Oftentimes, the underpinnings of the better collaboration came from technology.  The internet, cloud file storage, email, mobile phones, and Zoom all enabled more collaboration faster and cheaper than before.

Why would it be any different this time around?

AI, at its core, is a tool to save humans time. It can do tasks and think.  We define it as “Data with a task” and we want to take all the boring work that humans do and give it to computers so that humans can focus on creating bigger, better value.

In your this AI strategy, we focus on just that.  Freeing up your humans so they can create bigger, better value in the marketplace.

If your company is creating better value for your customers, they will continue to grow.  Customers that grow because of you want to continue to grow with you.  If they grow with you, you can find new ways to create better value, which enables them to grow.  It’s a growth flywheel.

AI Strategy Step 1: Identify boring, repetitive processes in your business

The first step to automating boring stuff is knowing what to automate.

Don’t automate the creative, human-oriented work, automate the boring stuff! Data entry, follow-up emails, creating reports, prospecting, testing code, and updating excel spreadsheets.  Don’t worry if the tasks seem to “basic.”  Over time, as you go through this loop multiple times, more and more complex tasks will be identified as “boring” and “repetitive.”

We created the Activity Log as a tool to do exactly this.  You can download it here.

AI Strategy Step 2: Map those processes out in as much detail as possible

Once, we automated a very complex task. It took us weeks to automate it, then, when we turned the work over to the computer, it worked most of the time.  The problem was that we did’t know when it wouldn’t work, so we dropped the ball with a few clients.  We thought the AI was working properly and, it turns out, it was, but not for everyone.

This left us in the worst possible position: we needed to babysit the AI.  We didn’t know when it would work properly and when it wouldn’t, and so we needed to watch it daily.  In the end, we turned the AI off because we spent more time babysitting it than simply doing the task.

Mapping out the process means that you identify every step in the task, who does it, why they do it, and when they do it.  This is crucial to ensuring your AI works optimally, every time.  Usually, you’ll want to generate a process map as your output.

Once we went back to the task in question and mapped it out in as much detail as we could, we discovered the gaps in our original automation.  Now, that AI saves us 5-figures per year.

AI Strategy Step 3: Automate them

AI Strategy Step 4: Leverage your humans to create bigger and more human value

When your humans have time back that they didn’t have before, we call that a creativity space. It’s a space where they sit and think “what should I do now?”  It’s magical.

In that, they discover ways to be more productive and create bigger value.  Usually, this starts by cleaning up internal messes first.  Once those are cleaned up, the team looks outward, which takes you to step 5.

AI Strategy Step 5: Level up your client experience and service value

Freed-up humans lead to new offers and services and shortcuts for your customers.  It leads to better customer experiences, bigger customer outcomes, and greater retention.

At some point, the new experiences, offers, and shortcuts become standardized and part of the existing machine you’ve already built your business to be.  Then, it’s time to do another Activity Log.

Note that I didn’t put anything under Step 3 on purpose.

I’m Evan, I’m the founder of Teammate AI, and I’m the author of this particular blog post.

You are already an expert in your business. You’re already an expert in your client experience and in the new value you’d create if you had more time or more employees.  You already know your client’s fears and your strengths.  Why become an expert in AI implementation, too?

I don’t mean for this blog to be a sales pitch. It’s more a word of caution: we see lots of companies burn lots of money because they want to be experts in their business and AI experts.

The AI strategy of the future is the same strategy you have now, but faster and with better teamwork.  It’s a strategy that allows you to use your humans better and allow them to create better value for your customers.

When they create bigger and better customer value, they grow.  When they grow because of you, they bring you along into their future.  When you’re brought along into your customers’ futures, you grow.

AI strategy doesn’t mean taking over the world with driverless cars or complex predictive algorithms.  For most companies, ultra-advanced AI like that isn’t needed at this time.  What is needed, however, is to continue building great teamwork, great value, and great customer experiences.

AI is a tool to help you do that.