Is Your Business Actually Ready for AI? 5 Key Considerations Before You Dive In
By Azahara Corrales, AI Consultant & Digital Transformation Leader
We have moved past the time when AI felt like just the latest fleeting trend. By now, you’ve probably realised that AI is here to stay. You might even be feeling a creeping sense that you, or your business, are being left behind.
If that’s your current status, don't worry. You are far from alone. According to Forbes, only one in six UK organisations has embraced at least one AI technology, and that figure likely counts someone simply using an LLM to polish their email copy. There is still a very long way to go before we see full integration of AI into daily operations across the board. The challenges and opportunities are still being drawn up for businesses around the world.
But if you’ve read this far, you have a genuine interest in introducing AI into your business. Before you take the leap, here are some essential points to consider.
Don’t just "figure it out"; find out first, then add it.
A staggering 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing. Why? Because operations managers, CEOs, and leadership teams are introducing AI simply for the sake of it, driven by the immense pressure and hype surrounding the technology.
Don’t do that.
The first step is to analyse your actual business needs. Look at your workflows and how your employees are currently navigating them. A simple survey, an observation session, or a team sharing session could give you invaluable ideas about where AI is needed most. Start building from there, solving real problems instead of chasing shiny tools.
Don’t take for granted that everyone knows what AI is or how to use it.
This might apply to yourself if you are a freelancer, or you might discover it within your team once you do that survey. You may find that:
- Not everyone is on board with integrating AI.
- People are afraid of it, or they believe they lack the knowledge to use it effectively.
- They might even think it’s not allowed.
You must be able to answer all these concerns. Provide training where necessary and establish clear policy guidelines that tell your employees exactly when and how to use these tools safely and effectively.
You may not actually need it.
There is absolutely no shame in this. It is perfectly okay not to integrate the technology if it doesn’t make sense for what you do. If it’s not saving you time, if you don't have the capacity to review its performance, or if the cost is simply too high, then don't force it.
Understand your business deeply and only integrate AI when you can clearly see a tangible benefit from doing so.
It may have an extra cost attached.
Yes, the technology is becoming quite accessible, and almost anyone can use it. However, as a business, you need to look beyond the free versions. You may need premium subscriptions for LLMs to protect your privacy and that of your clients.
Similarly, introducing automations into your workflow will have costs attached, not just for the platform itself, but also for the time required to set it up. While it's true that it's easier than ever to create an automation, you still need time to build it and someone to supervise it in the future to ensure it continues running properly. It may require an upfront investment of time and money, but the savings in the future could be highly relevant for your business.
That specific tool may not be for you.
Just as being honest about whether you need AI at all is crucial, the same applies to the shiniest latest tool on the market. With so many options out there, it’s easy to get confused and end up paying for 10 subscriptions you don't really need.
Do a little research. See if it’s genuinely worth the money and what concrete benefits it presents to you. You might even question if it’s worth developing a solution yourself. One of the latest trends we are seeing is businesses developing their own internal LLMs, training models with their own data to make them safe and highly relevant for internal use.
Like any successful endeavour in life, everything starts with a plan. Taking a step back and analysing the needs of your business and the current stage of AI use within the company will save you from many headaches in the future.
Reading through these considerations is an excellent first step. It means you are approaching this with curiosity, one of the most important skills to have in the AI era. By now, you know what to consider, the workflows, the training, the costs, but executing it is a different challenge.
If you are ready to move beyond the trends, make sure you are strategic about it. Keep an open mind and remain adaptable, recognising that what you integrate today you may not be using in a year. And crucially, ask for help when you need to bridge the gap between strategy and execution. This new wave of technology is here to stay, but you don’t need to confront it alone.
