What CIOs can do to convert AI hype into tangible business outcomes – Go Health Pro

Werner Leithgöb, IT director of dairy manufacturer Lactalis Southern Africa, agrees. He believes the elevated hype around AI only scratches the surface of what these tools can do. “When the Amazon Alexa first came out, everybody thought it was so awesome because you could interact with the devices in your home ecosystem using voice commands. But I guarantee that 99% of consumers who have one use it purely to stream music. So, essentially it’s a glorified speaker. For me, AI is very similar. In order to utilize this technology properly, you have to be very deliberate and define clear use cases for it so people can see what value it adds.” As part of being deliberate, he says, you must regularly use the technology so it becomes part of how you work.

Maximizing potential

As use cases evolve, just experimenting with AI for the sake of innovation doesn’t cut it anymore, says Jenny Mohanlall, senior director for IT at DHL South Africa. “It’s about leveraging it to solve real problems, drive efficiency, and create meaningful impact,” she says. For most organizations, AI priorities are focused on enhancing the customer experience and revolutionizing operations and ways of working.

The findings of Foundry’s AI Priorities Study support this, highlighting that IT departments are more readily partnering with other business units, like customer service and marketing, to ensure AI adoption aligns with broader business goals. By leveraging AI tools to streamline and improve something like customer support, it’s possible to free up human agents to tackle more complex issues. And by using sentiment analysis tools to dig into customer feedback, businesses can identify areas for improvement and handle issues before they escalate. “Some even take it a step further with predictive support, where AI anticipates customer needs and proactively addresses issues before they escalate,” says Mohanlall. “Imagine a scenario where a chatbot not only answers questions but also predicts what a customer might need next based on their behavior. This is the kind of innovation that’s transforming customer service.”