The inaugural MM+M AI Deciphered event, in conjunction with sister brands Campaign US and PRWeek, kicked off with a keynote address from founder and CEO of Women Leaders in Data and AI (WLDA) Asha Saxena.

Saxena touched on the key pillars that can help marketers define success in all the new AI endeavors they’re embarking on.

She highlighted the statistic that only 30% of AI products are succeeding, “meaning 70% aren’t, and they’re either being shelved or delivering underwhelming results,” she said.

Much of that has to do with the ongoing disconnect between tech leaders and business leaders. Starting out as a database analyst herself, Saxena noted she’s well aware of the gap.

“We were taught to build the best technology, but we weren’t taught how to build the best business,” Saxena explained. “The fall happens when business and tech leaders aren’t speaking the same language.”

The ‘AI flywheel’

So how can businesses make it to the “30% club”? Saxena said she relies on a several-step process to ensure the best results.

The first step is to assess your business based on four power quadrants for data-driven companies. The first quadrant is boosting business through M&A, marketing and sales — what she calls “extender.” Then there’s disrupting old business models and inventing new ones (multiplier); reducing costs and increasing efficiency (optimizer); and emphasizing research and new product development (innovator).

Another step is data readiness, and developing organizational maturity and internal competence. Then there’s prioritizing the “power zone” based on what your business’ biggest unsolved problems are, the quality of your data and where the highest potential value is.

Finally, it’s crucial to measure your impact and eventually feed the data into what she calls the “AI flywheel.”

The key takeaway, Saxena stressed, is to “stay focused, start with something small, create a win and then create an AI flywheel — a cycle of building the win over and over again.”

Becoming lifelong learners

Everyone remembers the rapid emergence and popularity of ChatGPT last year. But the AI tools with which we’ve just started to familiarize ourselves are already transforming into entirely new technology.

As a result, “it’s made all of us lifelong learners — it’s made us kids again where we have to go back and learn,” Saxena noted. “Tech is changing so fast now, we have to make sure we’re investing in learning and encouraging the environment in which we work to learn.”

She suggested initiatives such as “Learning Fridays” where everyone talks about what new tech they’re learning about. As a group learning session, it can help cover the vast variety of new emerging tools to ensure everyone is trying them out.

Using AI responsibly

Another key takeaway from Saxena’s keynote — and nearly every panel at AI Deciphered — is that guardrails on AI are needed for ethical, regulatory and privacy concerns.

That’s because of the potential for the data to be biased. Saxena brought up a story about Tay, Microsoft’s teenage chatbot unveiled in 2016 with the goal of gathering research on conversational understanding. However, very quickly Tay began reflecting racist and discriminatory input and was taken down by the company within 48 hours.

“She was so bitter,” Saxena said. “The data that we have has a lot of good but a lot of bad in it. That’s going to impact how AI engages with all of us.”

Much of that governance comes down to the human element — the need for AI to always be watched over, or regulated, by humans.

Toward the end of the keynote, an audience member asked how marketers can develop truly unique and individualized content when everyone is using the same AI tools. The answer, again, came back to humans being involved.

“AI cannot do it all — it needs human intervention,” Saxena explained. “To be successful, you don’t need IQ anymore [because AI can provide IQ]; you need emotional intelligence to understand what problem you want to solve and how you want to solve it. Creativity is in your hands.”