Embracing AI is a matter of 鈥渨hen,鈥 not 鈥渋f," but building an AI strategy in this ever-shifting technological landscape can be a daunting process. Missing the mark risks hobbling your organization's ability to select and optimize the right AI use cases while mitigating their risks. This comprehensive blueprint will help you expedite your AI strategy process to allow you to deliver the quick wins that will propel your organization forward.
The sheer number of AI vendors and use cases can be overwhelming, raising the risk of buying or building products that ultimately have a negative impact on organizational outcomes. We've surveyed the market to find those most likely to benefit your organization, and by quickly establishing underlying AI strategic principles, CIOs can focus exclusively on use cases that will support organizational priorities.
1. Know what you want to achieve.
To be effective, your AI strategy must be in seamless alignment with your overall organizational strategy. Your organization must first be completely clear about its forward-looking goals and objectives before turning to AI to help achieve them.
2. See through the hype.
Your organization鈥檚 AI needs are unique. CIOs must see past the trends and hype around solutions like ChatGPT to focus investment on AI that will drive and support business outcomes, not what鈥檚 popular in the moment.
3. Don鈥檛 be afraid to prioritize early wins.
Long-term thinking is essential when building an AI strategy, but that needn鈥檛 mean forgoing short-term benefits. Identify and prioritize use cases that deliver immediate operational benefits while also laying the groundwork for broader transformation.
Use this step-by-step blueprint to build a tailored AI strategy aligned with organizational goals
Our research offers multiphase guidance, templates, and tools to methodically design a rock-solid foundation for your organization鈥檚 AI approach. Use this comprehensive blueprint to build an AI strategy that embraces AI in a way that maximizes its value to your organization while effectively managing its risks.
- Establish the scope of your AI strategy to develop a vision statement, strategic principles, and organization-aligned goals.
- Assess AI maturity and identify use cases to draw up a candidate AI vendor list and identify challenges and risks for individual use cases.
- Detail and prioritize AI use cases and align them with organizational goals and capabilities.
- Develop your AI roadmap, prepare your communication approach, and present your strategy to senior management and stakeholders.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
9.4/10
Overall Impact
$72,560
Average $ Saved
32
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
City of Wetaskiwin
Guided Implementation
10/10
$40,000
20
Pittsburgh Pirates
Workshop
9/10
$13,600
10
Areez had a well laid out plan and moved quickly through the process, but covered the topics well.
BK GROUP PLC
Guided Implementation
10/10
$40,800
90
Encore Electric
Workshop
8/10
$13,600
10
Areez was an excellent facilitator and Encore was left with a clear action plan to try out Generative AI on 5 important use cases.
Wise Foods Inc
Workshop
10/10
$1.36M
50
Best: Very good comments of the workshop. Worst: Nothing really.
Garfield County IT
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,584
5
Bill's presentation was informative and provided suggestions for moving forward with our AI strategy.
UniSuper
Guided Implementation
7/10
$9,000
5
Greenstone Financial Services Pty Ltd.
Guided Implementation
9/10
$9,000
5
Good support from Juliana who was the Analyst. Gave us good insights on AI strategy, policies, industry insights on governance and operating model.... Read More
Rack Room Shoes
Workshop
10/10
$34,000
20
Good: Getting Rack Room associates from across the business in one room to align and learn about AI. Bad: Not having AI policies and AI usage guid... Read More
UNITING AGEWELL LIMITED
Guided Implementation
9/10
$90,000
20
I highly appreciated Julianna's expertise in all aspects of AI. Our AI strategy puts us in strong position to advance our AI strategy. No negative ... Read More
Blue Cross of Idaho Health Service, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
60
ERCO Worldwide LP
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
120
Excellent initial conversation on AI preparedness and project execution
County of Inyo
Guided Implementation
9/10
$68,000
1
Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union
Guided Implementation
9/10
$13,700
9
Chemeketa Community College
Guided Implementation
7/10
$1,496
2
Provided the break through needed as to why following the tools and guidance of other Info Tech tools on this subject to hadn't worked within the ... Read More
MDU Services LTD
Guided Implementation
10/10
$18,499
20
Workers Federal Credit Union
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Since this was just the first meeting with Martin, it is too premature to put value based on the first call. I think Martin will bring a lot to the... Read More
Kentucky Housing Corporation
Workshop
10/10
$34,000
35
The workshop could easily be configured for 5 days. This would allow for further consumption of the material and process. Overall, the workshop is ... Read More
Goodwill of Colorado
Guided Implementation
10/10
$68,000
100
IDP EDUCATION LIMITED
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Great conversation
British Columbia Lottery Corporation
Workshop
8/10
$100K
10
Enjoyed the connecting of AI practicioners in one spot to talk about current state and the future. I felt a little too much time was spent review... Read More
British Columbia Assessment
Workshop
10/10
$100K
80
Both Areez and Jeff were fantastic to work with on this project. Their knowledge and experience was invaluable. Areez is an exceptional facilitato... Read More
Altarum Institute
Guided Implementation
10/10
$13,600
5
Altaz is very knowledgeable and helpful.
PowerNet Limited
Guided Implementation
9/10
$34,000
32
Julianna was fantastic to work with, The Info-Tech material was very easy to work through. No bad parts. I believe the process could have gone fa... Read More
Al Nahdi Medical
Guided Implementation
10/10
$15,640
5
Douglas County, Colorado
Guided Implementation
10/10
$34,000
60
knowledge of SME was outstanding and the ability to use proven roadmap
Dentons Canada Services LP
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
10
Altaz takes a very pragmatic approach and offers very grounded advice. Tremendous value packed into a one hour call!
Focused Education Resources
Guided Implementation
10/10
$9,000
2
City of Arlington
Workshop
10/10
$136K
90
We are incredibly grateful for the facilitator and the AI strategy process, which truly stood out as the most impactful part of the workshop. As a ... Read More
HR Green, Inc.
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
20
This survey has come a bit too soon - we aren't done yet. So far Ryan has demonstrated very knowledgeable in AI as well as skilled at guiding me t... Read More
Workshop: 91制片厂 Your AI Strategy Roadmap
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Establish the Scope of Your AI Strategy
The Purpose
Confirm the boundaries and limitations of your AI strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
Develop your readiness to act based on validated goals and principles.
Activities
Outputs
Understand your business goals and value drivers.
Elicit business aligned AI goals.
- Business-aligned AI goals
Develop a vision for the AI-enabled organization.
- AI vision statement
Develop strategic guiding principles for your strategy.
- Strategic AI principles
Module 2: Identify AI Use Cases and Assess AI Maturity
The Purpose
Identify business aligned AI use cases and evaluate the current state of AI maturity to implement them.
Key Benefits Achieved
A well-informed set of AI use cases with strong links to strategy and culture.
Activities
Outputs
Identify AI use cases that resonate with your strategic business goals and capabilities.
- Candidate AI business use case list
Understand AI maturity dimensions and evaluate current state of AI capabilities.
- AI current-state maturity assessment results
Identify your strategic AI investment path.
- Investment path decision
Module 3: Detail and Prioritize AI Use Cases
The Purpose
Establish priorities for the next steps.
Key Benefits Achieved
Promotion of high-value ideas with believable ability to execute.
Activities
Outputs
91制片厂 one-pagers for AI use cases.
- Detailed one-pagers for AI use cases
Align AI use cases to your business initiatives, capabilities, and AI goals.
- An alignment chart of AI goals, business capabilities, and AI use cases
Prioritize AI use cases based on feasibility and value.
- Prioritized list of AI use cases
Module 4: Develop Your AI Roadmap
The Purpose
Visualize high-priority use cases in a realistic timeline.
Key Benefits Achieved
Leadership alignment on priority and timing.
Activities
Outputs
Develop the AI initiative roadmap.
- AI roadmap (Gantt chart format)
Determine next steps and communication approach.
- AI strategy one-pager
Finalize your AI strategy presentation.
- Preliminary AI strategy presentation