2024 Pacific Lake Conference: Becoming AI Serious
Nearly 2 years after the release of ChatGPT, many companies are still wondering how—or if—they should be incorporating AI into their business.
Icon is not one of these companies. Icon is a communication and resident engagement platform for senior care communities, aimed at improving quality of life and operational efficiency. For the last few years, Ryan Galea has been proactive in identifying high value use cases for AI within Icon. In his discussion with Pacific Lake’s Kevin Oxendine and Scott Barstow, Ryan walked through some of these use cases in the context of four key elements of a strong AI strategy:
Industry Context. The impact and urgency of tech disruption will vary from industry to industry, so every AI strategy should be grounded in a specific industry context. How at-risk from AI is your industry’s value proposition? How are your competitors positioned on AI? Are the highest value use cases customer-facing product enhancements (i.e., for digital services businesses) or internal productivity improvements (i.e., for physical services businesses)? In Icon’s case, Ryan saw 2 key trends in his industry: an opportunity to differentiate by using AI to more efficiently implement Icon’s software, and an opportunity to push Icon’s functionality ahead of competitors.
Enhance Productivity. Based on this industry context, companies can identify opportunities to enhance productivity using AI. This could range from day-to-day efficiency improvements to reimagining entire workflows. Icon has done this across a variety of functions, including rolling out GitHub Copilot to all engineers to enhance productivity and using Salesforce Einstein AI to automate aspects of customer service including ticket classification.
Strengthen Customer Value. The third pillar of an AI strategy moves beyond the four walls of the company to external, customer-facing value creation. Companies should ask themselves if AI enables them to create even more value by solving previously unsolvable problems. Once again, Ryan shared a few great examples of this in action. For instance, Ryan’s team built an AI-driven tool that automatically generates a resident profile by listening to a natural language onboarding interview, solving a highly manual pain point for customers. This tool and other AI-driven features have enabled Icon to win several large customers and have allowed Icon to position itself on the cutting edge of their industry.
Company Strategy & Hold Outlook. Finally, CEOs should consider AI’s impact on overall company strategy and hold outlook. CEOs and Boards should regularly examine these items in the context of market risks and disruptive forces, and AI is no different. Consider the timeline, likelihood, and impact of AI’s disruption on your market, and decide whether and how to respond.
