5 Practical Steps to Integrate AI into Your Business Operations

Businesses using AI are eating everyone else’s lunch.
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As a leader of a growing business, you need to find ways to do more with less. It's much easier said than done.
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It’s possible. One company implemented Chat GPT in their processes and saw a 56x return on investment, 31% increase in productivity, and an estimated added value of $33,000 per employee. (And those were their more conservative estimates.) 
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You don’t need us to convince you; you know integrating AI into your business operations has massive potential. The real question is how to implement AI. Let’s look at five steps you can take to start benefiting from AI’s productivity powers.

5 AI Business Integration Steps

1. Find the Right Use Cases
2. Take a Balanced Approach
3. Prepare Your Data for AI
4. Introduce AI in Phases
5. Establish Ongoing AI Management

1. Find the Right Use Cases

The most powerful tech in the world will have zero impact if you don’t apply it right. So where do you start? Any AI integration should begin with an evaluation of indented use cases, and how well the selected technology aligns with them. 

Tips for Matching AI Use Cases with Business Operations

• Identify time-consuming manual processes. Aim for tasks taking 4+ hours per week. The more time-consuming the task, the more time you can save by using AI to execute it.
• Map your business processes. Creating graphic representations can help you visualize the potential impact of AI. A comprehensive understanding of your operations will help you give effective instructions to AI models. 
• Assess multiple options and find where they fit into your workflows. This will help you identify the right technology for your intended use cases.
• Run small tests. Using AI technology on a smaller scale can give you an early indication that you’ve found a good technology/use case fit.

Example: Sales Pipeline Analysis

At Chief, we implemented AI to analyze our sales pipeline, identifying opportunities and risks before they escalate. Now, we can extract insights from our data, such as a deal stalling due to poor qualification or misaligned targeting. This allows our sales team to focus their efforts on higher-probability opportunities. Our team spends less time on work that won’t pay off, which improves operational efficiency. 

2. Take a Balanced Approach to AI Integration

Anyone who has dabbled in change management practices will know that a successful implementation takes time. Gradual, methodical applications of AI technology are mostly likely to yield the best results for your organization. 

Tips for Taking a Balanced AI Approach

• Use off-the-shelf AI for general tasks like drafting an email. These are areas where many existing AI technologies deliver good-enough results. So it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time evaluating tools for these use cases.
• Invest in customized AI for your core business functions. The more specialized a technology is for a specific process in your business, the more impact it can have on your operations.
• Maintain human oversight for critical decisions. Keeping a human in the loop will help you make effective and efficient decisions.

Example: Contract Management

Say your company implements AI to help with contract management. AI can analyze contracts, extract key terms, and flag potential issues or inconsistencies. Even when you add AI to these processes, you’ll still want to rely on experienced managers to use their knowledge and insight to review and adjust the AI's recommendations. This approach combines and balances the efficiency and data-processing power of AI with human expertise.

3. Prepare Your Data for AI

AI technology is only as good as the data you put into it. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say. Data quantity matters too. The more contextual information you give an AI model, the better decisions it can make. 

Is your data ready for AI? Read on for some practical steps for improving data health.

Tips for AI Data Preparation

• Use a central hub for all customer data. A single source of truth (SSoT) helps your AI models get as much context as they need—efficiently.
• Ensure data accuracy. Data management policies and procedures will help maintain the quality of your AI applications. 
• Employ proper data security and privacy measures. Your business’s proprietary data is its most valuable asset. Take precautions to protect it from theft or misuse. 

Example: CRM Improvements 

Your company could start by addressing inconsistencies in its CRM system to improve AI-driven insights. You might find that it contains duplicate records, missing fields, and inaccurate timestamps for deal stages. If you use AI on this data, you will get faulty analysis. To resolve this issue, you could conduct a comprehensive data audit, manually correcting errors and implementing automated validation rules to prevent future inaccuracies. You might also enforce stricter data entry policies by training sales teams on proper input protocols and/or deploying tools that prompt or validate entries in real time. 

4. Introduce AI in Phases

Implementing AI in multiple stages helps you mitigate risks, optimize resource consumption, and ensure alignment with business goals. A phased rollout helps you validate AI's impact before scaling to more complex applications. This approach ensures that data quality, system integrations, and team readiness are addressed incrementally, reducing disruptions and maximizing ROI.

Tips for Phased AI Implementation

1. Define clear phases and user segments. Carefully outlining phases and user groups makes for a more structured and manageable deployment process.

2. Monitor and analyze performance metrics. Continuously tracking key performance indicators at each stage helps identify issues early and make data-driven decisions and adjustments.

3. Maintain clear communication with stakeholders. Keeping all relevant parties informed about the rollout fosters trust and alignment.

Example Phased AI Rollout

Your phased rollout could look like this: 

1. Sales: you run a preliminary test by using AI to recommend pricing adjustments based on customer profile.
2. Customer Success: in phase two you use AI to generate health scores to predict and prevent churn.
3. Engineering: in the final phase, you use AI to automate code review to increase velocity.

This is an oversimplification, but it illustrates the basic structure. Your rollout will probably include more phases and use cases.

5. Establish Ongoing AI Management

Perform ongoing management of your AI implementations will help you keep your systems aligned with changing strategies and technologies. Continuous monitoring and optimization help you identify and address emerging issues, as well as adapt to changing market conditions. Ongoing management processes are crucial for maintaining and increasing the ROI of your various AI initiatives.

Tips for Ongoing AI Operations Management

• Regularly check AI performance and adjust as needed. Reviewing the performance of your AI applications will help you improve their results.
• Track the right success metrics. Monitoring cost, efficiency, and usage will help you align AI applications with overall strategy.

Example AI Key Performance Indicators 

• Task execution times: this metric gives you a good indication of the impact AI has on operational efficiency. 
• Adoption rates: this measurement will tell you whether your teams are actually using the intended AI applications.
• Employee overhead: this metric will help you quantify the financial impact AI has on your operations. Naturally, you want to see costs come down over time.

The Bottom Line: Find a Good Fit

You need AI projects that clearly move the needle, not just the latest tech trends. The most successful SaaS companies will combine ready-made AI technologies with custom solutions tailored to their specific operational needs. 
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Remember, the key to success is matching the technology to the right use cases. Without this alignment, you’re unlikely to see substantial impact to your business operations.
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If you need more help integrating AI into your business operations, schedule a consultation with us. We can provide you with 3 operational insights from a sample of your data. 

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