AI is growing at an unprecedented pace, with 92% of organizations planning to accelerate adoption within the year. But how will they unlock its true value across their people, processes, and operations?

In June 2024, we hosted our first School of Innovation event in Poland on the theme of ‘AI: From Strategy to Execution’. A collaborative community of Avanade specialists, clients, and third parties, including universities, came together to discuss AI’s implications and foster a culture of innovation.

AI: Driving innovation with purpose
At its core, innovation introduces creative and tangible ways to add value. As initiator of the forum, I posed the central question: How do we ensure AI innovations deliver impact in the real world? Drawing on Joseph Schumpeter’s ‘creative destruction,’ I highlighted how innovations tend to render previous iterations obsolete, leaving enterprises struggling to keep pace with change. With AI, organizations face a make-or-break opportunity: To revolutionize the future of work or miss the moment and risk being outpaced by competitors.

Human factors
Dominika Bettman, Microsoft Poland’s General Manager, emphasized that innovation requires spirit, energy, and engagement. It takes people. Success hinges on organizations recognizing and acting on this. Leaders who empower their people with AI tools will start seeing results fast.

AI needs to function in symbiosis with humans, and this requires balance between bottom-up applications and top-down support. Establishing ethical-use guardrails is crucial, in tandem with change management processes built on continuous learning and iterative improvement. The Stanford AI Index 2023 Report illustrates the importance of these factors in expanding innovations company-wide and boosting performance with AI.

Adopting and innovating with AI demands explainability and accountability in the tools and systems used. Microsoft’s Responsible AI principles guide ethical AI deployment, ensuring fairness and transparency as organizations move from strategy to execution.

Delivering digital transformation with AI
When people are empowered to innovate, AI has a significant impact. Accenture’s Country Managing Director (Poland), Agnieszka Kubera, sees AI as a value generator. She pointed out how organizations across Europe are using pioneering consumer support and process modernization to fast-track their digital transformation.

Increasingly, the worlds of business and technology come together to identify the value and competitive advantage in new services and processes. And AI is itself advancing digitization as it drives businesses to adopt interdisciplinary approaches, democratized data access, and integrated cloud solutions.

In healthcare… Human expertise is critical in customizing AI solutions to specific medical needs, workflows and patient outcomes. Successful adoption relies on healthcare leaders understanding the healthcare context alongside AI’s scope and applications. There is notable progress in healthcare research, where synthetic data is used to train models, design personalized treatments, and develop new medications.

In telecommunications… AI is streamlining network operations by predicting maintenance needs and elevating customer service with personalized suggestions and smart chatbots. Such applications are raising service standards and customer satisfaction levels.

Game-changing generative AI
Roberto Chinelli, Avanade ICEG’s Data & AI Solution Area Lead, gave an overview of generative AI developments and the role of AI pre and post the advent of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. He explored how content management is being revolutionized with quality and personalization, and highlighted the emergence of new roles like Prompt Engineer. He discussed how tools that come supercharged with AI capabilities, including Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, are simplifying business adoption challenges and enhancing operational processes.

Concluding with the transformative power of AI
Renate Strazdina, Microsoft’s National Technology Officer (Central Europe), wrapped up the event with a focus on Microsoft’s mission to empower through AI. She introduced the ‘BYOAI’ (Bring Your Own AI) concept and its impact on productivity before outlining how Copilot for Microsoft 365 boosts productivity as part of a ‘KY3C’ (Know Your Customer, Cloud, and Content) approach.

Renate also highlighted the importance of responsible AI principles including:

• Accountability
• Transparency
• Fairness
• Reliability
• Safety
• Privacy
• Security
• Inclusiveness

Avanade’s AI Readiness Report reveals that while 48% of organizations have Responsible AI guidelines in place, only 36% feel confident in mitigating AI risks and harms. Reflecting on this, Renate observed, “It used to be ‘BYOD’ – ‘Bring your own device’. Today it is ‘Bring your own AI’. To avoid risk, you need to offer an enterprise-ready alternative AI for all employees.”

Harness long-term value with AI and Avanade
Our first School of Innovation event in Poland illustrated how AI is a key driver of innovation and transformation for organizations worldwide.

With appropriate checks and balances in place, businesses are moving from strategy to execution by leveraging AI tools sooner and avoiding the risks of taking a ‘wait-and-see’ approach in a fast-paced digital world.

With our Center for AI Research and track record in delivering value across 6000+ projects, we offer unmatched AI expertise at Avanade.

Talk to us to learn more about harnessing long-term value with AI.