A tool to help you navigate your AI transformation with the human context in mind

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The Context of AI

The potential of artificial intelligence for growing businesses is irrevocable. With cloud, cyber-security, and big data, AI is considered as a top priority for technology investments in 2019. Converging more and more with other technologies in place, AI is driving the next generation of businesses by being at the forefront of almost every digital transformation. With 9 out of 10 executives from around the world describing AI as an important tool in solving their organizations’ strategic challenges, the rush toward the golden promise of exponential growth is real.

Despite being one of the most active advocates, the AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio himself recently issued a warning against the blind pursuit of this shiny new technology. Short-term thinking in AI development without any form of regulation and consideration of its potential systemic effects may lead to unforeseen implications in social, ethical and political arenas.

As the technology is still in its infancy, it’s hard to predict the impact in terms of job losses or displacement — McKinsey Global Institute suggests that by 2030, intelligent agents and robots could eliminate as much as 30 percent of the world’s human labor in a recent two-year study. Whatever the extent, it’s the responsibility of business leaders to ensure that its development is guided, at each step, by concern for its effects on humans. Before embracing it mindlessly as if it was a “silver bullet”, initiators of change need to make sure that they are solving the right problems where machines can bring real value, and doing so in a way that elevates human capabilities rather than displace them. Instead of looking at it as an isolated part of the organization which the core function is to optimize the process in place, we need to approach it as the new foundation of an interconnected set of elements that needs to be coherently balanced to truly bring meaningful value.

These long-term thinking and systemic mindset are not just nice to have in a time when agility and speed are the fundamentals of modern businesses, they are factors of success. Indeed, another recent study from McKinsey reported lack of strategy, before lack of capabilities, as the biggest challenge towards AI adoption.

“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers which can’t be questioned” said the physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman. A strategy process always starts with questioning: questioning to help us gain perspective, questioning to overcome potential cognitive biases, questioning to make sure we don’t jump to the solution before we really understand the problem.

How might AI help you with the problem you are trying to solve?

What are the limits to what we can do with AI?

What tasks do humans do best vs machines do best?

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In this time of rush and rapid change, never before has it been so important to take the time to pause. Considering what the effects of introducing AI to humans would do, is a good place to start to help define your overarching vision and the first steps to implementation.

Why this canvas?

Identifying how to use AI in order to provoke change in your organization or consumer experience is a complex challenge if you are starting in this field with no tools or established roadmap. The opportunities of applicability are wide and prioritizing where to take action first can feel overwhelming without a clear starting point.

Whether it’s your employees, your customers, or your external stakeholders, the intention of this tool is to invite you to reflect on your AI transformation from the point of view of the people who will be impacted first. Use it as a compass to guide you on this journey, by revealing the ripple effects of your transformation in the broader context of your organization and provoking conversations about the implications of designing a self-preserving, resilient and well-balanced AI system.

AI is bringing structural change to the way companies operate that expands far beyond technological considerations. Developing a design mindset with this canvas should help you anticipate how digitalization powered by AI will impact the constructing parts of your organization. Hopefully this canvas will also facilitate approaching AI as an interdisciplinary field, by creating a common language and serving as a starting point for discussion that expands beyond computer science and engineering disciplines.

With cultural and behavioral challenges being at the top of the list of the most significant barriers to digital effectiveness, inclusivity, transparency, and openness are indispensable requirements when designing new digital models. Companies have the responsibilities to educate and engage their employees to avoid any forms of ignorance that could raise uncertainty or misunderstanding about the value of AI, which I hope this tool will facilitate.

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse.” — Paul Rand

How to use it

This canvas is composed of 10 building blocks. Start by defining who will be the audience you are trying to solve a problem for (“Designed for”). It might be your customer or a specific department within your organization. Once you have picked the people whose perspective you will be doing this exercise for, you will be able to work your way through the canvas from the top-right to the left, ending with the three boxes at the bottom.