Artificial intelligence: Implications for strategic plans
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At this moment, many business leaders don’t need to understand the intricacies of artificial intelligence (AI) or how to interpret raw analytics to know that they need to invest in AI. The destabilization of the economy, ongoing geopolitical tensions, and the residual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are just a few of the circumstances that have forced us to let go of our preconceived notions about how the future will most likely evolve.
Strategic planning has always been a crucial aspect of business success, but in today’s rapidly changing landscape it’s more important than ever. Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the way we approach strategic planning. AI can help companies gather and analyze massive amounts of data, automate processes, and provide valuable insights that help inform decision-making.
Acknowledging the Reality of AI Technologies
AI is no longer a thought-provoking, futuristic concept—it has become an indispensable tool for many companies. One of the key advantages of AI is its ability to generate decisions and assess outcomes based on complex data sets. This makes it particularly attractive for leaders seeking to monitor strategic plans. Additionally, AI’s capacity for adapting to new rules and information means that it can continuously improve over time. Incorporating machine learning into existing information management systems can take data processing to the next level, resulting in even greater intelligence and insights.
Reflecting Upon the Nature of Strategic Planning
As companies operate in an increasingly dynamic and ever-changing environment, the traditional approach to strategic planning that relies upon periodic reports is no longer sufficient. Companies need to move beyond legacy plans and assumptions and embrace a more dynamic and data-driven approach to strategic planning. That’s why the use of AI technology continues to gain traction because it can help companies develop, track, and update strategic plans in a more efficient and effective way. In addition, continuously monitoring and updating strategic plans using AI enables companies to remain aligned with business goals throughout the year, instead of being constrained by periodic planning cycles.
Understanding Organizational and Managerial Implications
As we know, AI has the potential to streamline countless repetitive, low-visibility tasks in a variety of business units. By reducing the burden of these tasks, AI empowers employees to focus on higher value-added activities, ultimately driving innovation. Let’s consider additional organizational and managerial implications that come with incorporating this technology into developing, monitoring, and updating strategic plans. Here are a few aspects to keep in mind:
Organizational change: The integration of AI into supporting the development, tracking, and updating of strategic plans can require significant changes to the way work is organized and executed. As a result, organizations may need to update job descriptions, provide training, and potentially reorganize or form new teams to fully leverage the benefits of the technology. This is all in addition to securing the talent with the skillsets to deploy IA.
Managerial responsibility: Managers must assume new responsibilities when implementing AI to support strategic plans. While oversight and management of AI systems may be delegated to a unit or department, managers within each department must understand their responsibility for processes and data collection and management. This requires that they understand the technology, if even at the most basic level, and ensure that their teams understand it as well and how it relates to their roles and responsibilities.
Data quality: Given that AI relies on data to make decisions, the quality of the data can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the technology. Organizations must invest in data management and ensure that data is accurate, complete, secure, and up to date to realize the full potential of AI in strategic planning. This involves organizational investment and management’s ability to garner support, implement change, and lead by example.
Creating a Well-Informed Business Strategy
As the business environment continues to experience rapid, and at times unpredictable change, more companies are recognizing the importance of leveraging AI to develop, track, and update their strategic plans. By embracing the applications of this fast-evolving technology, companies can gain a competitive edge by making better informed decisions and keeping up with market dynamics. With the ability to analyze complex data sets and generate insights in real-time, AI provides a powerful tool for developing agile and responsive strategic plans. By continuously monitoring and updating these plans using AI, companies can ensure they remain relevant and aligned with business goals and prevent themselves from falling behind their competitors who have yet to embrace these new technologies.
Tuesday Strong’s company, Strong Performance Management, LLC, is approved by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency as a provider of continuing education for licensed professional engineers. Learn more here.