Event Recap: Best Strategies for Making the Most of AI

Last month, The Information and the Boston Consulting Group hosted a Women In Tech Leadership Summit on the topic of customers of the future. In one lively session, a group of experts discussed using the power of artificial intelligence for personalization. Here are some key takeaways:

• Expect projects to fail but keep trying. “The reality is the majority of AI projects fail. Overwhelmingly, 60% to 85% of the projects fail. So you have to really be committed to that iterative process and say, ‘OK, failure’s not really an option here. We’re going to figure this out,’” said Heather Akuiyibo, vice president of sales, growth, startups and commercial at Databricks. “Often, finding the best people for the problem is the key to success in the startup work.” 
• AI can be especially helpful when your audience grows. Jaleh Rezaei, CEO and co-founder at Mutiny, noted that the company’s attempts to optimize its advertising and PR weren’t working until it started working on connecting its data to different buyer segments and treating each one differently. 
• Talent is key. As AI becomes more widely adopted, there’s growing demand for teams dedicated to AI performance.“I’m noticing huge demand among what’s sometimes called sales assist teams or product specialist teams, which are like user-oriented customer success folks. They’re coming in and trying to figure out this scaled way to communicate with thousands or hundreds of thousands of individuals,” said investor Allison Pickens.

The Information’s Women in Tech: Customers of the Future Leadership Forum was held in partnership with BCG.