AI is proving to be the transformational technology of the 2020s. Developing a compelling POV on it will be critical to most professional services firms.
Over the last 15 months no topic has grabbed the attention of senior business executives more than artificial intelligence. Yes, we had a long and protracted discussion about a recession that supposedly never came (but maybe it did?). And we’re living through a truly unique Presidential election cycle.
But if I had a dollar for every mention of AI since 2022, I’d probably have enough to fully fund a 3rd party candidate.
Calling the hype big is like calling Mt. Everest tall. That said. AI is, and will be, the transformative technology that shapes the economy over the balance of this decade.
AI is the Consulting Opportunity of the 2020’s
Over the last 30 years we’ve lived through several transformative technologies. The 1990s brought us the commercial Internet. The 2000s were shaped by mobile and cloud. And the 2010s were largely shaped by social media. The 2020s? AI is literally writing the narrative.
All those prior technologies represented massive markets for consulting services. AI is, and will, be the same. The first wave of spoils will go to the firms that develop the clearest POVs for how AI can provide better solutions to their clients’ most prescient, existing problems.
The second (much larger) wave of spoils will go to the firms who help their clients use AI to solve previously unsolvable problems. As an example, we’ve been working with Stantec for the last 15 months to market its AI-based software, Flood Predictor. The tool enables communities to model flood risks in days that used to take months. And it enables emergency response providers to model certain types of flood risks that were previously, largely unmappable.
Developing a POV on AI is Difficult
In the absence of a team of data scientists, developing a POV on AI can be quite difficult for 3 reasons:
- The technology is still nascent. To-date, 99.5% of AI implementations have occurred at the “execution altitude” of the business. Individuals everywhere are experimenting with different AI tools to make their job a bit faster. Or a bit easier. But very few organizations have fully operationalized AI to solve problems or drive efficiency across their business, cross-functionally.
- Traditional “best practices” research is less effective. As a result, finding the “leaders” in a typical leaders / laggards research study is incredibly hard. There aren’t that many of them. And logically they’re a bit quiet about what they’re doing with the technology if they’re doing it well.
- Pace of technology change. Of course, this isn’t a new issue. But it does seem that AI investments are happening much more quickly than we’ve seen in previous technology cycles. I recently finished a book, published in 2021, titled AI in 2041. The book offers 10 possible scenarios of how AI could be deployed across various sectors of society over the next two decades. Good read. Great premise. But, two years on, I’d argue that at least three of the suggested scenarios have already happened. For the thought leadership researcher, studying AI is sort of like “riding alongside a wave of light” as Einstein was said to theorize relativity.
Ways to Develop a Compelling POV on AI Right Now
All that said, I’m not arguing that firms are best served by a “wait and see” approach on this one. Rather, I think they need to go forward now. As I see it, there are three ways you can go about this.
- Launch a pilot program. A few weeks ago, BCG shared a window into its approach through an interview with The Wall Street Journal. In the interview, the firm’s managing partner on the project describes their approach as an “experiment” developed in partnership with Harvard Business School, MIT, and Wharton. They had 750 BCG employees work on four real client tasks with the aid of AI and compared the results against a control group of their peers. The goal was to learn when (and when not) to use AI and to understand how it can be incorporated into the firm’s project workflows. Ultimately, they learned the best tasks, for which AI was best suited as a human co-pilot. And, when a human / bot partnership degrades performance. Of course, they’re now turning these learnings outward.
- Draw from your master POV. For this, I draw from a recent issue of Future Focus, a weekly newsletter published by Dev Patnaik, CEO of Jump Associates. In it, he lays out a clear POV on what Fortune 50 companies need to be doing as it relates to AI this year, over the next 3 years, and over the next 10 years. In shaping the POV, Dev draws directly from the firm’s master POV on the need for large companies to apply a ”future focused” lens to their strategic decisions.
- Conduct in-depth, exploratory conversations. Here at Rattleback, we’re leveraging our podcast to understand how firms are using AI, what some of the leading technologies can do, and how other industry experts are thinking about the topic. To date, we’ve had conversations with investors like Tercera, established AI-fueled software platforms like 6Sense, and emerging AI tools like Knownwell. We’ve used each interview to lead to the next one. And we approach each conversation with an open mind to get a sense of “what’s going on” and shape our own POV on how AI can best be used to develop thought leadership and grow a firm.
Where to Start
About a year ago I helped my niece on her first post-college job search. Her initial approach was to sequester herself in her room and immerse in a healthy back-and-forth dialogue with Google. I suggested she take a different approach. Get out and talk to anyone and everyone she could. Shortly thereafter she landed her first career in a quality control lab.
Here, I offer the same advice. To start, talk to your five best clients. Ask them:
- What they’d like to learn from you about AI
- How they’re thinking (and feeling) about the technology right now
- Which business challenges they see as ripe for an AI solution
- Inversely, which business opportunities they are most excited about where AI could be an aide
- About any pilot projects they’re running internally or with their customers
Use those conversations to help frame the topic. As a firm, what business issue will you address for which AI holds the key?
From there, widen your aperture. Expand the conversation to include prospects you’d like to do business with. Then, bring in a research partner to help you identify and screen for high performers. Conduct structured, qualitative interviews with them to identify emerging solutions at the edge of the market.
Finally, translate everything you’ve learned into a clear POV on the business issue you’d like to help clients solve with AI as the catalyst. Publish your thinking as a foundational whitepaper. And, put your content and marketing teams to work driving the story into the market.
As always, we’re here to help if you need a nudge along the way.
