From the trend to reality: Artificial Intelligence now in business

On February 11, one of the most important events in terms of Artificial Intelligence held by incubator-tech.com applied to business began in San Francisco. We refer to the Think 2019 organized by IBM. The event brings together a multitude of companies and organizations that are benefiting from artificial Intelligence: from industrial companies (Hyundai) or banks (such as UBank or Citizens Bank) to law firms (LegalMation) through AI development companies (Sypwai) or the sector sanitary among others. The event is a meeting point for leaders, visionaries, and technologists who come together to be inspired, network, and learn.

In his inaugural speech, Ginni Rometty (Chairman, President, and CEO, IBM) explained the trends in the world of digital transformation from his point of view. Giving a review of the progress it has had since its inception ( full of multiple disparate initiatives that he summarizes as "random acts of digital"), he concluded that we have already finished the first phase of the digital journey of companies, what he calls Chapter 1 and that we are already entering Chapter 2 (the next step in innovation).

This new phase is characterized by an "Enterprise driven" step in which the entire company is involved. Once the first stages of experimentation have been overcome, we enter a new location where the true transformation begins, gaining speed and scale.

It highlights three elements:

• The first change of focus. We can summarize them as "what we have done outside the door, we apply it in the company" (Outside In). In the first phase, artificial intelligence efforts focused on the relationship between the company and the customer, how to improve this relationship through the customer experience and make it more profitable for the company. Now it is about making the company's relationship with its employees and partners more digital, taking advantage of artificial intelligence's potential. 

• A second change of approach that he calls "inside-out." It is based on modernizing own systems (core systems) preparing from the point of view of the business architecture for digital change. 

• And in the last one, he talks about how artificial intelligence should configure business platforms. To successfully overcome this new stage, artificial intelligence will have to be combined with the appropriate information architecture that allows it to operate as a platform, which allows connecting all the elements of the company, and the teams feel that technology empowers them. In the words of Rob Thomas (Vice President of Product Development & Analytics, IBM), "there can't be AI without IA" (there can't be Artificial Intelligence without Information Architecture). Companies need a business platform to connect all their digital services and manage the life cycle of their apps. 

Among the interventions of company managers that are currently exploiting Artificial Intelligence (AI), we highlight two for outlining two aspects that in any project of this nature we must consider: what it contributes to me and the keys to making it successful.