Monday, April 16, 2018

AI - Develop, Outsource or Buy?

A recent Gartner survey showed that 4% of companies have implemented Artificial Intelligence and 46% plan to do so. That shows two things - AI is in it's infancy and interest in it is strong.

How they actually implement is an open question. They can develop it on their own, but that's really expensive and requires a major effort. Or they can outsource it from providers like Amazon or Google. A third approach is to buy it from their software provider, which involves waiting until they offer it, and then determining if it fits their organization.

The latter approach is bound to be quite popular for the larger organizations and many medium ones that use SAP or Oracle, because a great many do use one or the other of these. Also, typically SAP or Oracle as the case may be will usually have invested in learning about the needs of the company and can help develop solutions that will be most likely to be a fit.

Most companies will not build their own AI apps. So either of the other approaches, the issue will be how to establish a competitive advantage.  Forrester Research's Brandon Purcell has the answer to that issue, "Data will be the key source of competitive differentiation in the world of AI -- emerging data sources, innovative data transformations, and business-infused data understanding will lead to better models and ultimately better results from AI.

Once again, data rules the day.

For more, check this article.

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