Embracing AI in business whilst not letting it distract you from your core business needs and challenges

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is shaping up to be a central feature across all aspects of business technology, including recent advancements made across Microsoft's own Copilot AI tools. For those unsure about AI's implications on society and business, it's clear that the era of AI integration is here to stay and we are now tasked with adapting to this new norm in both our personal and professional lives.

Embracing AI from a pragmatic approach to build a competitive advantage

From a business perspective, now the hype around AI is starting to 'normalise' we can start to more accurately and impartiality filter out some of the mere noise vs. the genuine useful tools that can have a meaningful impact on generating efficiencies for businesses.

We spoke recently to someone who attended a conference around AI where the keynote speaker commented that “we aren't actually at risk of losing business to AI, however, are at risk of losing it to a competitor who leverages AI.”

This comment resonated with us, as it helps shift the perspective around AI from a perceived threat to a valuable ally in business, emphasising the need for companies to embrace it to remain both sustainable and competitive.

Sticking to the core fundamentals and the underlying need for the correct integrated technology stack for your business

Despite AI’s growing influence, the core fundamentals of business remain largely unchanged and have sustained businesses for well over a century and continue to be critical for success.

In its most simplistic form, all businesses, regardless of size, industry or application, still really only have three basic core functions, namely their ability to get work, do work and handle the financials. In a world filled with a lot of noise and ongoing technology changes, its easier than ever to get distracted and caught up in the hype around trying to keep up with it all.

As business's look to find ways to move their systems into the cloud to streamline processes, automate tasks and reduce reliance on key personnel, getting the base technology architecture and foundation right, remains crucial for business leaders wanting to be able to scale with future AI enhancements, many of which probably haven't even been conceptualised yet. One example of this being that with the addition of Copilot into Microsoft’s Power apps solutions, it opens the door for businesses to develop their own Copilot tools based on their own unique data sets in the future.  

The role of Microsoft Copilot in your business

For those new to this technology, Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered assistant that enhances processes across the entire Microsoft technology stack, including Dynamics 365 and the three core components Adaptable Consulting specialise in being Customer Engagement, Business Central and the Power Platform.

Although some of these new features offer great benefits to the right users and industries, it's important to keep them in context that they are refinements only designed to make the overall business machine work faster and more efficiently, and not let ourselves get too caught up in the hysteria around AI and distract ourselves from our core business objectives, goals and challenges.

Balancing AI integration and moving forward with digital transformation

It's hard to dispute that AI tools can help businesses speed up many tasks and automate processes to create efficiencies, but without the right technology setup and automated data flows many of these efficiencies can easily be made in isolation, resulting in only partial gains much less than their overall potential. 

The initial scepticism around AI is starting to give way to a more balanced view, offering business leaders a variety of tools to choose from based on their specific needs, goals and challenges. As the AI landscape continues to evolve, it’s important to focus on the tools that can genuinely enhance your businesses operations and avoid distractions from core objectives.

AI undoubtedly offers significant advantages, but without the right technology setup and automated data flows designed around your core business fundamentals, many of these efficiencies can easily be made in isolation, resulting in only partial gains much less than their overall potential. 

Check out the video below for an overview of how we can help your business succeed along the digital transformation journey and if keen to book a time with one our team to discuss your businesses core functions and technology stack in more detail please contact us.