AI Maturity Model: Business Ikigai of AI

Humans want a sense of purpose.

That is most likely not news to you.

But what about AI?

No. I am not talking about creating a sentient artificial super Intelligence (ASI) that has a purpose for existing.

Rather, I am talking about finding the purpose AI can serve in your business.

I personally have used the Ikigai method to better understand what it is that drives me and where I can add the most value with the skills and experiences I have.

It is the reason you are reading this right now.

Ikigai as a method helps people to find their purpose — to understand what skills and experiences they bring to the table that people are willing to pay for.

What does this have to do with AI?

With all of this talk of AGI, ASI or any new type of hyperbole we are using to describe the end goal of AI, I wondered how I could help people better understand the integration of AI into their businesses.

To help guide them step-by-step.

Show them where the journey is taking them and help them map out each phase of the development.

I wanted to answer the question: “What can we do now, with the capabilities technology has right now?”

One term that I might help me answer this was “maturity models”.

You know, the model that is split into phases, each phase has a distinct characteristic that helps a business know where they are currently.

I had previously researched UX-maturity models and saw the potential to merge what I had learned there with AI.

Game-changer I thought — let me dig in and see where this takes me.

Like a puppy chasing its own tail, I overly excited kept running back-and-forth between my laptop and the stove, desperately trying to capture my thinking on the topic without burning our dinner.

If no one has told you this, go check out Ikigai, it will surprise you at how effective it is at helping you find your passion.

Anyway, once I had an initial draft of the model, I felt something was off.

Something was missing.

I had the phases mapped out, using what I had learned from previous models and incorporated contemporary AI maturity models.

And yet, it felt weird.

Cold.

It was missing something fundamental.

It had no soul.

I was lacking the fundamental purpose of why.

What role should AI play and why is this role important to your business.

So my motivation waned and the lightning-fast progress I had made, started to fade.

Not ideal.

Then I found a note I had written down during the creative tornado that hit me.

“Ikigai but for AI”

It was a thought I actually repeatedly had, yet always wafted away.

Seeing as it knocked on my intellectual door so many times, I might as well invite it in.

And boy was I in for a ride.

The words you about to read are the exact waterfall of ideas that I let loose.

Ikigai but with AI — so IkigAI?

I am sorry for that horrible play on words.

It is kind of dorky — so I am going to keep it.

For all of the potential that is being attributed to AI, there still seems to be a gap.

A gap between the promise and reality.

The reality that yes, it can drive value for your business.

But, you need to understand where and how to implement AI.

For you to be able to that, as a designer and engineer, I felt we first needed to fundamentally look at our business, understand where and how we are driving value and see how AI fits into the picture.

Fabian Geyrhalter talks about Brand Therapy — where he works with a client from the ground up, looking at all areas and re-constructing a brand from the ground up.

With AI, I wanted something similar.

I wanted to avoid building a solution that searched for a problem.

That is the part I feel many skip over in the discussion.

Blinded by the fog of AI-hype.

This is where this idea comes in.

It gives those wanting to implement AI in their business a framework to operate in.

The framework is designed to give you an idea of what purpose AI will serve in your business.

How it can amplify the parts that make your business great.

The great part is you can evolve your framework as your businesses evolves and changes.

Business Ikigai Method

Before we dive in, let us lay down some context.

While the model does look at the capabilities of technology, we also have to keep in mind that is still under very active development.

Relying on AI too much can get you burnt.

Flying too close to the sun will melt our wings made of wax after all.

That is why it is not only important to understand where AI can add immense value, but also understand where it is best left out of the process.

AI is not some silver bullet piece of technology. It is not a panacea for everything as one might say.

It is powerful in the hands of those that know how to wield it.

But not a solution to everything.

By being clear on the role AI will play for your business, you can create a framework and provide guidance to everyone.

You can gain a clear competitive advantage by combining humans and AI in the way that suits your business best.

One way of doing this is to refine, test and prototype solutions that are tailored to the needs of those that use it.

To have the implementation of AI sing to your tune, to play to your rhythm, iterating to the shape of your business.

This is not new either.

It is essentially the foundation of design thinking and engineering.

Prototype. Test. Feedback. Iterate. Repeat.

Why not have AI tailored to needs and purpose of your business?

1. Write down what your business does

This might seem difficult or easy, really depends on who you.

Brainstorm and look at all of the things that make your business run.

It is easy to start listing things that make your money.

But get deeper — understand how customer relations help drive your business — look at the intangible, social, cultural and emotional ways your business contributes to society.

Look at your business from every angle — get a holistic view of what value your business brings to the table.

Take your time and list them out.

You don’t have to do this by yourself though, if you can, get others involved.

AI will impact everyone, so everyone should also understand how AI will contribute to the value they bring to the table.

2. Top 10%

Now looking at the sector your operate in, at which of these are you in the top 10% of companies?

Highlight the ones that do not apply.

3. Highlight the ones you do not get paid for

After understanding what your company is good at, it is time to get back down to the reality of business — making money.

So have a look at your list and see where you are actually getting paid.

What problems are you solving that people are willing to pay you their hard-earned money for?

From the ones that are left, look at the most lucrative ones and again highlight the ones that do not apply.

4. Finally time for AI

Now that we have a list of things our business does and sorted through the ones that drive business success, it is time to understand how AI fits into the picture.

Of the ones that left, where do you see a lot of potential gain through either automating aspects of the workflow or amplifying your already high standards?

This is where you should focus your efforts first.

Start small, don’t bring in the AI wrecking ball and turn everything upside down.

But look at making small, incremental improvements to the workflow, by applying AI and seeing how it is received.

Get feedback and iterate until you have a workflow that fits your business.

You might be wondering why we focus on these first.

Why not simply start with small projects that are easy to implement?

Surely some projects are better than no projects.

Valid point.

And you can do that — this method is for those that want structure.

They want to give their AI efforts a direction.

In short: A purpose.

You see, AI has the potential to amplify what makes your business great.

By focusing on the strengths of your business to further strengthen it, you are doubling-down on that.

In addition, seeing as AI also has the potential to turn certain tasks into a commodity by making it cheaply available to everybody, it forces you and your business to automate these tasks ahead of time.

You are looking at AI as an ally to amplify, as well as your competition.

With good results here you can of course take a look at the rest and see where you may well improve upon the status-quo by applying AI.

Conclusion

Doing this is of course not a one time event — although weekly check-ins may be overkill, perhaps reviewing quarterly goals is a good benchmark to correct course should things go awry.

As your business evolves and grows, so too will this list.

The idea behind it is to use it as a guide.

A model for your to be aware of what impact AI can have on your business.

Perhaps this could even be one of the first steps for you to understand how those critical activities of your business are affected by AI.

It is not important how far a long you are in your journey with AI.

What matter is that you got started.

For some there will be little AI can do for them now.

That is perfectly fine.

AI will also keep changing as new startups and research labs spawn to tackle new challenges head on.

One last thing.

It is important to not get to fixated on tools and processes and forget the people that are actually working in your business.

They are the ones providing value.