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patrickhalford5

Strategic inflection points and Pioneers...


Why do different organisations, with access to the same free tools, choose polar opposite approaches to exploitation? Meaning on one pole they go all-in, whilst at the pole they languish in debate...


My curiosity was piqued this week after reading a bunch of articles about the number of restaurants now using ChatGPT to help create new recipes, make good use of leftovers, and a number of other practical purposes. Now, the tasty 'bot doesn't go off and buy the groceries, prepare the food, serve it, or clean up after, but it is apparently having a dramatic effect on the efficiencies and innovative approach to running this most complex of business operations.


I guess you could say that these restaurants are now AI-enabled. Credit to them in pioneering the utility of Generative AI's to help grow their business, especially after the dramatic period they have just emerged from.


That ability to recognise a strategic inflection point is a core competence of an entrepreneur. And by choosing to take commercial advantage of responses to their prompts from the 'bot, perhaps after a bit of a back-and-forth dialogue and a few regenerate commands, they have possibly set up their business for significant growth or cost savings. Restaurants are naturally constrained by physical capacity, but as many of us have witnessed over the last couple of years, they are more than capable of pivoting, utilising external platforms to reach more customers.


Pioneers don't have to be individuals or small businesses. They can also come from a collection of organisations whose combined histories reach far back in time. Consider the recent Position from the European University Association (EUA) on AI tools and their responsible use in higher education learning and teaching. It's a good, balanced read, and it sets the tone for what will undoubtedly be a period of complex and innovative transformation, requiring careful considerations against a series of rapidly moving targets.


I get inspired by stories like these. I also get frustrated by organisations that effectively set themselves up with a self-imposed commercial embargo by not taking advantage of the same free resources that those culinary entrepreneurs are exploiting. It's an interesting dichotomy, where as individuals we feast on AI and satellite navigation tech (to name a few) via our smartphones (is there any other kind these days?), yet certain business processes improvements that would yield significant time and cost savings can be very difficult to move forward.


However, I don't think that this will be a challenge for long. Those organisations that are dithering will find their options rapidly narrowed down by employees who just start using Generative AI's to get things done faster, customers and partners who expect things to be done faster and cheaper, and new competitors who come out of the blue to offer a platform service, in effect disrupting the incumbent.

Phew! There's a lot going on in that paragraph! I'm gonna run it through ChatGPTand ask it to summarise in layman's terms:


I don't think that some organisations delaying their adoption of Generative AI will be a problem for very long. Employees will start using Generative AI to work faster, customers and partners will expect quicker and cheaper service, and new competitors will emerge with more efficient platforms that disrupt the established organisations. Essentially, the companies that don't keep up will be at a disadvantage.


That's clearer!

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