Moving the needle: AI in Action use cases favored by leaders

How leaders choose to adopt AI might be one of the most crucial decisions made by an organization in the near future. The role of AI in this ever-changing innovation-driven market is unmatched to any other influence on a business. It is now more important than ever companies make the right strategic decisions to implement AI capabilities. 

AI is the path to value for organizations and is exemplified in the recent AI in Action 2024 report. The report explores this path and gives specific examples of what is possible when AI is put to the test. 

The report, which surveyed 2,000 organizations from around the globe, discovered there was a small subset of organizations (just 15%) that rose above the AI buzz, called Leaders. These Leaders look beyond the AI hype and seek out ways to interject AI in the most pragmatic way possible. One of the many factors that goes into the Leaders success is in part due to the use cases they choose to focus on.

Shobhit Varshney, Vice President and Senior Partner, Americas Gen AI IoT Leader, IBM Consulting, shares his insights in the report and suggests organizations to identify use cases by emphasizing impact instead of convenience. 

“It’s tempting to start an AI journey with what’s quickest to implement,” said Varshney in the report. “But Leaders uncover big meaty opportunities that are going to move the needle.” 

In other words, the 85% of organizations surveyed and referred to in the report at Learners should be focusing on implementing AI not where it’s easiest but where it might be the most impactful. Varshney recommends focusing on end-to-end workflows as a starting point. 

The report showcases four use cases across four industries as examples of AI Leaders reaping the rewards of integrating AI technology into their organizations. The survey data found organizations prioritize the following use cases, improving customer experience, IT operations and automation, virtual assistants for external applications, and cybersecurity.  

“Leaders are approximately 80% more likely than Learners to invest in the top 4 use cases,” according to a statistic from the report. 

But the question is why these use cases? A deeper dive into each one can start to answer this question and help organizations better understand the great value that AI can bring to their business. 

Every business, regardless of industry, is selling a digital experience and competing with companies that are redefining consumer expectations through hyper-personalization and other ultra-intuitive experiences. 

A recent report from the IBM Institute for Business Value found worldwide, 62% of executives believe that generative AI transforms how their organizations create experiences, with personalization being central to this change.  

One key example is health and beauty retailer, and pharmacy chain Boots UK partnered with IBM to transfer their legacy programs over to IBM Cloud®. The company needed help with transferring its legacy programs to a more modern e-commerce world and meeting the needs of the customers of today. The two companies worked together for over a year by using the Red Hat® OpenShift® on IBM Cloud container platform to build, replicate and test the digital environment. Black Friday, a peak event, was handled with ease and the company saw the average basket size exceed anything the team might have forecasted.  
 
A separate but other notable example is IBM’s partnership with All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which hosts the most affluent tennis tournament in the sport, Wimbledon. While the two have been partnering for more than three decades, this year the team enlisted the help of IBM watsonx™. This portfoio of AI products was used to create a Catch Me Up feature that was available on the Wimbledon app. The feature created summaries for every single player that detailed what happened during their matches and upcoming matchups.  

The future of customer experience is likely going to lean into hyper-personalized interactions, by using advanced analytics and machine learning to anticipate customer needs in real-time. The evolution of these technologies will drive businesses to create seamless, engaging experiences that enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction across all touchpoints.

Investment in IT operations and automation requires a significant mindset shift for organizations. Technical debt is a leading impediment for companies looking to accelerate transformation with generative AI. Recent findings from the IBM Institute for Business Value research found a typical organization spends just 23% of its technology budget to drive revenue. 

But AI is the game changer, with 75% of IT executives reporting that the value generated from gen AI will be redirected toward new investments that promote business innovation and growth. Leaders, as characterized by the report, aren’t looking at tech upgrades as a series of isolated costs, rather they are looking to connect these tech capabilities to a broader business strategy.

IT operations and automation is the top AI use case for the telecommunication and manufacturing industry as any downtime for maintenance or network failures is time and resources spent away from customers. In telecommunications, AI is used for predictive maintenance and network optimization, enabling operators to identify and resolve issues before they impact service quality. This automation enhances operational efficiency and reduces downtime, allowing companies to deliver a more reliable and responsive experience to their customers.  
 
A recent IBM Institute for Business Value survey of 300 global telecom leaders found that most communication service providers are assessing and deploying generative AI use cases across multiple business areas. An example being Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) and IBM® Consulting. When two of the top telecom providers in India merged, the company knew it needed to consolidate while keeping any disruption to service to a minimum. That is when Vi turned to IBM to execute the massive digital transformation, which included consolidating and integrating projects seamlessly.  
 
The teams worked together to consolidate IT systems and to determine which enterprise applications might best support the newly merged organization. In addition, IBM worked with Vi on its network domains and delivered its first major production milestone for core network functions on its open universal hybrid cloud, which is powered by IBM and Red Hat. With the platform, the organization’s IT and network applications can run on a common cloud architecture.

Similar use cases are likely to become more common as businesses begin to adopt these AI solutions into IT operations. The tech sector of a business is only going to grow in importance as time goes on and more advanced technology continues to push IT teams and the work they do on an every day basis. 

The current business environment is anything but straightforward. Organizations are faced with a laundry list of uncertainties, including inflation, rapidly changing regulations, geopolitical uncertainty, among others. But despite all these external factors businesses must recognize how crucial growth and profit expansion are in the finance world today. Finance leaders must adopt a new approach to financial management that uses the potential of AI technology. 

These leaders agree that generative AI can give companies a competitive edge, according to IBM Institute for Business Value research. CFOs tell IBM embedding gen AI throughout the enterprise will be “a top enabler of competitive advantage over the next three years. Virtual assistants for external applications as a use case is prioritized by Leaders in the finance industry due to the need for seamless transactions and quick solutions for customers wherever they are.  

Asteria is an organization that took a risk by piloting virtual assistants and partnered with IBM to do just that. The Stockholm-based fintech startup and IBM Business Partner’s mission is to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with access to cash management systems and give them the tools to achieve resilience in their business operations. Over the course of four weeks the firm and IBM teamed up to build and test the new virtual assistant: Asteria Smart Finance Advisor. The front end of the assistant is powered by IBM watsonx Assistant™, while the data querying capabilities are powered by IBM Watson® Discovery.  
 
The assistant was designed to be available in each bank’s online banking portal 24/7 and show SMEs an update on the financial health of their business and answer financial questions. The pilot is expected to expand and be implemented more broadly and is intended to help SMEs with profitability and financial stability long term. 

As we head into a new year shortly it’s likely virtual assistants become more intuitive, thanks to getting better trained and tuned over time. Advancing their capability of understanding and responding to complex human emotions and contextual cues. As they integrate with more external applications, these assistants provide a cohesive, personalized experience that simplifies daily tasks and enhances productivity. 

Cyberthreats have always been a concern for businesses in any industry but have become especially alarming given the rise of generative AI. The advancements in technology have given hackers more opportunities to use vulnerabilities and given bad actors a platform for new tricks. Yet, the solution to these cybersecurity threats from generative AI is generative AI. 

Generative AI tools are fortifying business defense through automated security processes and analyzing vast amounts of data faster than ever before. But implementation of these AI tools is going to be key to limiting risks. 

An IBM Institute for Business Value research report found 47% of executives worry that implementing generative AI in operations might result in new types of attacks aimed at their AI models, data or services. The majority are fearful that generative AI will make a security breach likely in their organization within the next three years. 

Leaders must understand their organization's AI vulnerabilities and help ensure that the entire AI pipeline is secured and their data is encrypted. Cybersecurity was the final AI use case highlighted by Leaders as a worthwhile investment. This is because without strict security measures an organization is putting itself and its users at risk, no matter the industry or size of the organization.

A great example of AI in cybersecurity investment is United Family Healthcare and IBM’s security solution IBM QRadar® SIEM. The company, which operates more than 10 hospitals in seven cities across China and beyond, needed a security operations center (SOC) platform to store and manage security incidents and generate reports of noncompliance.

The implementation of IBM’s security solutions allowed UFH team members with minimal formal security training the ability to view prioritized threats and engage in level- one investigations of them. In addition, IBM helped build a centralized log management system to help UFH manage compliance with local regulatory requirements by using automated capabilities. The SOC solution was deployed in less than a month and is running in UFH hospitals and clinics throughout China, thanks to mutual trust between the organization and IBM.

The AI capabilities are a double-edged sword when it comes to cybersecurity because in one way it is the cause of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, yet it’s also the solution. As cyberthreats become more sophisticated, AI systems will continuously adapt and evolve, providing organizations with robust defense against increasingly complex attacks.

The promise that AI brings for businesses is huge but requires a holistic approach and engagement from stakeholders across the entire organization. Leaders must consider the competitive edge that AI can bring and understand. IBM consultants understand the undertaking and immense pressure faced by business and technology leaders today. That’s why the new IBM Consulting Advantage platform is a game changer for an evidence-based scientific approach to consulting. 

IBM consultants from around the globe will now be equipped with role and domain-specific AI assistants to modernize consultancy approaches with deeper insights and improved efficiency. IBM Consulting Advantage can help organizations in many different domains, including finance and procurement, marketing, IT, cybersecurity, data transformation and hybrid cloud. 

The IBM AI in Action survey not only revealed the value of AI, but also the importance of the human touch and human experts that provide crucial input and bring it to life. AI has the potential to transform industries. But without the nuanced understanding and decisive expertise of human employees organizations might never become Leaders and miss what the AI landscape has to offer.