[For Professionals in Europe] Generating AI ROI – Best Practices and Frameworks

Most of the questions of our executive readers at Emerj.com ask can be boiled down to one theme:

“Where is the ROI of AI in my sector?”

Applying AI is challenging, mistakes are costly, and seeing a return on investment (ROI) from AI projects is something that every business leader and consultant is looking for.

ROI is being measured incorrectly – because of this – most companies are setting themselves up for a failed first initiative.

This can be especially challenging for professionals in Europe, who need to deal with additional regulatory concerns and limitations on the use of data.

Most AI Projects in the EU Don’t Achieve an ROI of Any Kind – and it Has Little to Do with Data or Data Science Talent

It’s true that some AI projects fail because the company didn’t have adequate data, or because it lacks the right data science talent.

However – many projects fail because the measurements of success were established incorrectly.

Most European companies set out to measure AI ROI in one way:

• Short-term financial return (an amount of money saved or made)

While this approach can be helpful – and not all aspects of European conservatism are negative – if measurements are not established well from the start, it is woefully incomplete.

Artificial intelligence requires a firm understanding of strategic advantage, of how AI capabilities (data infrastructure, teams, and skills) can be improved.

Without a tie to long-term advantage, many attempts at AI ROI turn into what we call “toy applications” – individual instances of AI that exist as experiments but add neither financial value nor significant learning and skill to the company who spends money on them.

European business leaders who are deciding on AI projects and initiatives want to:

• Understand the ROI potential of an AI project before sinking money into developing it
• Avoid regulatory issues, and use data and algorithms in responsible ways – while still improving the bottom line
• Leverage each AI application towards long-term AI agility and AI advantage (in addition to short-term measurable results)

And that’s exactly what the new Generating AI ROI for European Professionals report provides.

How Nontechnical Leaders Can Set Up AI Initiatives for Success

Most leaders don’t know how to establish expectations, measurements, and frameworks for AI ROI because they simply haven’t had the chance to try.

AI is new to many sectors, and most pilot projects are barely getting started – so actual experience with reliably rolling out AI is a skill set held by a limited number of experts around the world.

Our Generating AI ROI for European Professionals report draws from over 50 interviews with such AI experts from across countries and geographies. These experts fall into three broad categories:

• AI Leadership in Established European Companies. From retail banks to pharma giants, from manufacturing companies to trucking conglomerates – our interviews and research span sectors for AI case studies and adoption into established existing businesses.
• AI Leadership at Top Tech Firms: We’ve interviewed AI leaders and experts at Facebook, AirBnb, Google Deepmind, and other tech firms. We don’t expect most companies to be able to fully transform into tech unicorns – but many of the best-practices of applying data science in unicorn companies can be easily applied to more mundane companies once those best-practices are understood.
• PhD AI Consultants with Startup and Enterprise Experience. Most AI “consultants” are amateurs, but some have been at it for decades, and have hands-on experience transferring true data science into business value (often in business environments where it’s incredibly hard to get AI off the ground).

The objective of our ROI research was to determine the frameworks and steps involved in predicting and ensuring AI ROI in the short-term and the long-term.

Ultimately, we aim to give leaders the ability to see real traction with AI projects, while most of their competitors waste time and money on chasing the wrong measurements, without a grounded strategy for delivering AI value. Balancing this value with the regulatory concerns and varied laws of Europe is a delicate balance – but it will be critical in deciding winners and losers in the market.

If you’re to have the best chance of a short-term financial ROI from an AI project – this report will be remarkably helpful.

If you’re looking to leverage AI for a long-term strategic advantage – using each new AI initiative as momentum for winning in the marketplace – then this report will be absolutely essential.

A Structured Guide to Delivering Financial and Strategic ROI with Artificial Intelligence for European Business Leaders

The ROI report provides a set of frameworks to set an AI project up for success – breaking down the complex process of AI ROI into “strategic” and “measurable” components.

European leaders, innovation and strategy leaders, and cutting-edge consultants want maximum business impact with minimum fluff – and that’s how this report is structured.

This compact 28-page report is broken down into five key chapters:

1. Effectively Framing the ROI of AI – Discover the most critical hurdles to near-term ROI, and best practices for deciding on AI projects based on their ROI potential.
2. Achieving Strategic ROI – Position an AI project to deliver long-term results in line with core business priorities. In this chapter, you’ll learn three strategic ROI exercises to align AI initiatives to an AI advantage now – and into the future.
3. Achieving Measurable ROI – Use the six categories of measurable ROI as anchor points for any AI project – and set yourself up to overcome many of the early hurdles that AI initiatives face.
4. Making ROI Happen – The Critical Success Factor – Team collaboration and alignment steps for nontechnical executives, including a walk-through of key team collaboration points across the six phases of AI deployment.
5. Unique European Considerations – Working around GDPR, developing international strategy, and carefully considering data use are unique considerations for EU firms, and this report includes a bonus chapter to guide leaders through these challenging topics with confidence.

Purchase your copy of Generating AI ROI for European Professionals.