IT ISN’T MUCH ABOUT AI BUT CULTURE- by Elo Onyia

If you’d ever lost your smart phone it somewhat feels like an integral part of you was lost and you just can’t get through the day as usual for awkward reasons. There are ‘thousands’ of things you can get around with using your phone. Perhaps, you’d set morning alarm and reminder for important meetings. You may also have scheduled a round trip on Uber to drive you round the town or work. While in the taxi, you may decide to pay bills or make some bank transfers to creditors. If you are like me, you may take a snoop on news feeds or check traffic on your route using Google map. Whichever way, your mobile device is just the perfect personal assistant of a sort. The enhanced functionalities of the modern mobile devices as a mini-computer and personal organizer challenges the rationale for companies to continue hiring personal aids for the top executives. This demonstrate how simplest technology can colorate an existing practices and culture in business. To understand why and how organizations pursue certain policies it’s key to also understand their core values and general cultural framework. The question is, what happens to an antiquitous cultures that are directly impairing changing business ecosystem and dynamics. At the heart of every business is to create an efficient processes, products and services that isn’t just profitable to shareholders but is also systemically sustainable. This essay is an attempt to demonstrate how today’s businesses and communities are changing the narrative and leveraging digital technology in artificial Intelligence, cloud and virtual reality to solving big problems in such an extraordinary way — that the paradigm shift isn’t about technology anymore but culture.

To put this in perspective, imagine asking “Siri” or Google assistant to help you reserve a hotel accommodation. Siri will in real-time place a telephone call to your choice hotel to secure your booking and have confirmation details delivered to your email. This AI solution is already causing a major disruption in the hoteling and protocol services industry — forcing a massive attrition in the size and strategic value chain of the traditional travel and reservations industry. In Dec 2016 Amazon launched AmazonGo. An automated end-to-end shopping experience that uses computer visioning and deep learning algorithms to create an automated shopping experience for its customers. They achieve this by littering thousands of AI cameras on the roof of their store and customer image visuals to identify shopper’s cart and then calculate the bill and debit same to your credit card instantly. The idea is to let customers walk into any amazon store, shop and walk away without going through payment queue or interact with cashiers. If you are not an AI-powered organization the temerity to achieve a strong advantage of introducing bots to streamline customer service, take some pressure off help desk and optimize HR and marketing processes usually lack the desired support.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) across industry and business sectors are twitching fast. One of the most orthodox assumptions marketing firms have made in recent years is that satisfaction alone will guarantee customer loyalty. Our research thematic questions this assumption. We explored the correspondence between customer satisfaction and loyalty, and found as many as half of the “satisfied” customers to be predisposed to switching service suppliers. This satisfaction‐loyalty gap reflects the fact that different components of service quality drive satisfaction versus loyalty. Satisfaction is driven more by “technical quality” while royalty is “subjective quality”. Major indicators on consumer behavior bothers on the fact that customer satisfaction isn’t just about how clients generally feels about service. Clients are also more concerned about deliverable conveniences and speed of service. The amount of time it take businesses to deliver service and the ability to tailor such service to client’s specifications and taste is a unique market analytic intelligence AI-powered companies are leveraging.

A recent study shows that consumer’s perception about big brands are shrinking big time. This is partly because more consumers are now exposed to resources and insights on alternative product options. To remain in the game companies must embrace smart-tech innovations and big data to scale competition and drive market share. You must be bullish and understand the “Silicon valley effect” and how the game of disruptive pitching have become the next big thing. Vusi Thembekwayo is a South African based business developer and a venture capitalist. He is the author of the book “Vusi: Business and Life Lessons from a Black Dragon”. In his book, he portrayed the wolf picture of the Wall Street and the game of disruptive modeling of the post twenty-first century in the business ecosystem. According to Vusi, it’s either you are disrupting or you’re being disrupted. The catch is, organizations must find a way to create new leads and influence the market place — otherwise it will be dissipate by competition. Harvard Business Review in a recent publication suggest that tomorrow’s businesses will have to invest ten-times more resources improving IT security and automation to remain competitive. Digital assistants, chatbots and every other kind of artificial intelligent service are taking up significant space in the business world. Though AI has been around for years but adoption has slowed in some clime. There’s still a large amount of cultural apathy to artificial intelligence especially in developing economies where the work force are largely mid-tier with barely little exposure to AI capabilities.

My aim is to show you how innovation especially in AI and machine learning are redefining cultural construct and business dynamics — the attendant pressure it places on people to adjust behavior and re-think existing values. As a complex whole, cultural shifting isn’t such a concept with flexibility in a constantly fast paced business climate. So far new technology and products continue to tweak and twitch there are concerns that today’s workforce will likely face much pressure adapting to l new technologies in AI. Before now the big question in the mind of most tech companies for new product launch has often centered on market acceptability. However the table has turned and there a strong push back forcing culture to adapt.

Elo Onyia is business analyst, customer relationship and business strategist with a drive for new challenges and opportunities, a Corporate Banker with one of the leading banks in Nigeria. He currently consult for start ups and empowering young leaders.

Author Profile

Lawrence Obi

Lawrence is a Cards, Payments, Project Management and Sales Expert with over 16years in the Financial Sector. He is passionate about Excellence, Leadership and Innovation, currently chasing interest in digital Payment solutions, blockchain technology, financial Inclusion & tech startups.
Author of the book, Discover, Develop, Deploy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083PSNRYY

Lawrence has founded several businesses including a Licensed Fintech in Nigeria. He loves writing and sharing knowledge with his audience.
You can reach him on any of his social media handles for enquiries and collaborations.