Reality-Checking AI Hype: Two Things You Should Know

Beware the "Magic Bullet" Hype Train

There’s a lot of hype about artificial intelligence (AI). Maybe you’ve heard that it can triple, quintuple, centuple your productivity overnight; it can replace every employee in your organization; it can solve your problems with the slightest (automated) flick of its finger. But that’s not reality. AI is a tool, not a magic bullet.

In 2021, the McKinsey Global Survey polled thousands of business leaders across industries and found that the businesses seeing the highest earnings boost from AI are also those spending the most efficiently on AI.

AI adoption is growing: “56 percent of all [McKinsey Global Survey] respondents report AI adoption in at least one function, up from 50 percent in 2020.” As a result, simply “having” AI is no longer a competitive advantage. Businesses that not only “have” but also use AI cost-effectively and efficiently are the real market winners.

How to Recognize Innovation

If your business hasn’t yet adopted AI (or tried and failed in the past), then the question on your mind is probably something like, "How do you recognize what's worth your money, and what's not?" It’s hard to tell without experience, and mercenary vendors won’t hesitate to sell you hype with a price tag marked, "innovation.”

That’s why Synaptiq created  AIQ™, "Artificial Intelligence Quotient", a score that determines your organization's readiness for AI and overall data maturity to help companies succeed with their AI initiatives. You can read more about AIQ on our blog, or take our AIQ assessment now in order to quantify your organization's AI readiness.

BUT! Although AIQ is a valuable metric, raising your organization's AIQ shouldn’t take priority over other business objectives. It's important to remember that AI is not a magic bullet. It won’t solve your problems overnight—especially if those problems sound something like, “We’re broke because we over-invested in AI hype!”

Here are two things to keep in mind:

#1. Low AIQ Is Not Necessarily Bad

Sometimes, it means a blank slate: the perfect foundation for building something better. Unlike IQ, AIQ can increase significantly with strategic change. No business is “born” with a genius AIQ!

If your business has a low AIQ, don't start trying to raise it right away. First, it’s essential to consider whether or not (and why)  a future AI endeavor is worth the investment. The following questions are a good place to start:

• How will AI help you achieve your near or long-term business objectives?

• What will the cost of raising AIQ be versus the benefit?

AI is the future, and the future is approaching—fast. But it won’t arrive tomorrow. If your business is better prepared to raise its AIQ three months, six months, or even a year from today, then wait. Committing wholeheartedly to AI readiness in the future is preferable to a half-hearted effort now that could lead to failure. The consequences of a poor initial attempt could breed AI paranoia, potentially hindering your organization for a prolonged period.

#2. High AIQ Does Not Guarantee Success.

Imagine a track athlete who stumbles at the final hurdle - that's the challenge of AIQ.

What's this last hurdle in AIQ? It's about utilizing your AI readiness effectively. Consider the case of a fictitious high-AIQ business, which we'll call Smartly. It excelled at all the elements of AIQ, especially data sourcing: a key component of AI readiness. Consequently, Smartly's leadership expected smooth sailing to AI implementation.

But, as Smartly was about to launch its first AI project, it made a critical error. Overconfidently, its implementation team swapped their excellent external data out for inferior in-house data. The result? Smartly's AI project failed.

The issue was implementation. Despite its high AIQ and data sourcing expertise, Smartly didn’t apply these strengths in its project. Its team reverted to old habits, using subpar in-house data instead of the superior third-party data they had. The takeaway is this: If your business has a high AIQ, make sure to leverage it fully!

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

About Synaptiq

Synaptiq is an AI and data science consultancy based in Portland, Oregon. We collaborate with our clients to develop human-centered products and solutions. We uphold a strong commitment to ethics and innovation. 

Contact us if you have a problem to solve, a process to refine, or a question to ask.

You can learn more about our story through our past projects, blog, or podcast.