CHAPTER 1
Overcoming the Inertia

I'm no Elon Musk or Peter Thiel. I'm not a Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) or even close to the geniuses who created neural networks or Watson and DeepMind. I'm not here to preach or prosecute on all the glories of artificial intelligence (AI), nor am I here to give you a technical dissertation on its intricacies. I'm not an academic or researcher, nor do I get paid to write code or promote vendors or tools.

I'm simply a practitioner who worked her way up through the corporate ladder—one who worked relentlessly with blind determination not knowing exactly where her career would go, one who eventually made it to the C-suite as the Chief Data Officer, Chief Analytics Officer, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, and Chief Data and AI Officer for many Fortune 500s, one who accidentally fell into the world of data in the early 2000s and into artificial intelligence in 2011 when I helped IBM launch Watson.

I never thought that doing AI deployments, I would face so many unexpected challenges, but the reality is that you can take a licking along the way because transformations involve change, and well…people are generally averse to change. This is why I have the scraped knees, bruised elbows, and wounded pride from my experience in real-world deployments. Over the years I've tried multiple approaches, implemented numerous strategies, and have had countless alignment discussions selling, convincing, aligning, conceiving, designing, deploying, training, monitoring, and measuring the successes and failures—trying to figure out the art of AI deployments and how to balance the messiness with the possibilities. The approach I share with you in this book is practical and realistic, and it's based on real failures and successes where I've captured the lessons learned over the years.

I believe in the “crawl, walk, run” approach because I've seen what happens when you try to run without crawling first. What I will share with you is very pragmatic and grounded. There will be no selling or advising on anything that pushes you too far, and nothing in this book is based on theory, heresy, or academia. I will be realistic with you about what artificial intelligence can and can't do (right now), and I will help you sift through the hype.

This book is intended to help you start your AI journey and succeed, while familiarizing you with and minimizing the friction points that I have experienced. Many books you read will mention that you need a strategy, you need to pick a use case, you need data, and you need governance. I will outline for you, step-by-step, how to select a strategy, how to ideate, and how to select a use case, and I will provide you with an “essentials lists” rooted in real, roll-up-your-sleeves work.

I know how to do AI deployments because I've had the tenacity to take on early, unproven, and questionable projects that disrupt the status quo. I think and do things differently, and I'm perfectly fine with pushing boundaries and pushing people who lack imagination. Building the reputation of a “rogue executive,” I developed intuition, an innate ability to see the “art of the possible” and the “art of the practical.” This, combined with my relentless pursuit for progress and need to make an impact, has brought me to this point. It wasn't easy; it came with many sleepless nights where I doubted myself.

Furthermore, where I am today in my career has nothing to do with how I started my career. I was in sales at first and then became a project lead. At one point I was even a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley (Series 7 certified and all). Somehow in the early 2000s tech found me, and I pivoted. The real change occurred, however, when I helped IBM launch Watson in 2011. I fell in love with AI and have been doing deployments for some very prominent companies, since.

I'll be the first to tell you I'm technical but not a “techie.” I'm business minded but not the president of a Fortune 5 company. What I am, however, is an executive who doesn't mind rolling up her sleeves and getting into the details while also playing a strategic thought leader. I can pivot quickly between the two worlds. I pride myself on having an entrepreneurial spirit and pushing boundaries where few have the energy. Over the years and through the trenches, I've built a backbone versus relying on a wishbone. I'm not afraid of the work or the challenges, and I stay grounded in my successes because I believe you're only as good as your last innovation.

With that, I will pass onto you the knowledge I've gained over the years. This book will give you real frameworks, techniques, how-tos, and approaches to make your AI journey a success beyond the hype of what you have read elsewhere. It's grounded in experience and from someone who has not been afraid of the work.

While some executives focus on self-promotion and preservation, I've focused on trying what most don't dare to do. I hope you like reading what I'm about to share!

Inertia

Like riding a bike, some things must be done before you can learn how to do them. You can read all the books and manuals you want, but nothing prepares you better than jumping in, trying, falling, and trying again! This is how AI is done. This is how life is done! AI is not a silver bullet! It's not a light switch that turns on! It is not a magical solution nor a quick fix. In fact, it can uncover some unpleasant realities about your business, its operations, your employees, and larger issues at hand.

I've been a business leader in the AI game since the days when flip phones were cool. From triumphs to face plants, I've seen it all. Learning AI for business? It's just like learning to ride a bike. It seems wobbly and impossible at first, but once you start pedaling, the most difficult part is done.

As mentioned earlier, I transitioned from a no-name project lead to an established C-suite executive (four times over) and fell into this space accidentally. I didn't study computer science or mathematics, and I sure can't write sophisticated code. However, I learned the ways, and you can too.

This entire book is crafted for you if you're:

• A business leader wanting to explore the benefits of AI without all the messiness and failures I've had to go through
• A business owner who thinks it will benefit the organization but don't know where to start
• A practitioner who wants to make a case for AI but doesn't have the experience of developing a strategy.
• A person who just wants to get into AI but doesn't know where to start
• Someone curious who just wants to be informed and educated about how it's done

Regardless of your role and reasons, just know that 70% of the success of your AI deployment has nothing to do with the technology. As a matter of fact, the tech is the easiest part of the lifecycle. Most of the work is dealing with human capital and relationships, aligning with goals, overcoming fears, picking the right strategy, picking the right use case, and finding the ambition, the energy, and the rogue in you.

It's also important to note that this book is not a guide or a manual for:

• large technology-based companies that are already deeply involved in AI innovation,
• nor is it for the researchers who are shaping the future of cognitive computing and machine learning.

Instead, it is a call to action for business leaders, business owners, practitioners, and the curious, who serve companies where technology has played a supportive role rather than a leading one. This book will be your compass and serve as your call to action.

There will be less emphasis on technical know-how and more emphasis on business acumen. Together we will explore the different types of AI deployments and how they will amplify and accelerate your everyday work, regardless of your maturity.

As you progress through the book, consider each chapter as a building block. The book is structured in a way to discuss different facets of deploying AI in the following manner:

• Chapter 2 is about leadership and finding the rogue executive within you. You must dare to be different to do this! There's a memoir of how I got started; I share with you my story so you know my humble beginnings and gain confidence in knowing that if I did it, you can too.
• In Chapter 3, we'll progress into some key principles I learned along the way about bending the rules but not breaking the spirit. It's focused on how to introduce AI into your company by following these steps: 1) asking yourself why you want to do this; 2) learning to pace yourself through better forecasting; 3) thinking through a strategy; and 4) thinking big, starting small, and scaling quickly.
• Chapter 4 is where we get into the weeds of things. It's long, it's detailed, and it will walk you through every step of an AI deployment. I felt getting into the details early in the book would be of value to you.
• Chapter 5 is about knowing your biggest project killer: your team. We will discuss how to build one from scratch and how to work with people you've inherited. We'll talk about the virtues you want in people on your team, as well as the 10 AI archetypes of people you...