Find Your Why for AI

With all the buzz around AI today, it’s easy to forget that artificial intelligence has actually been present in our lives for many years. Believe me, spell check and Grammarly have been close friends of mine for about 20 years.

And let’s not forget autocorrect for texting. Clever as it may be, I can’t say I’m a fan – although it has been a source of both humor and near disaster. One time, my husband, who is a licensed professional counselor, was replying to a text from a client suffering from depression – his message saying “Good night” was changed by autocorrect to say: “Go die.” Can you imagine?! On another occasion, he was confirming an appointment for a couple coming in for marriage counseling – autocorrect changed his “looking forward” to “looking for war.” Fortunately, neither of these “corrected” versions were sent.

Autocorrect is definitely a function some of us would rather do without. But utilizing AI in your business is not something you’ll be able to do without indefinitely. AI expert Yvan Cucalón, a product manager at The Next Step Inc., says manual processes limit growth and scalability – especially when your competitors are seizing tools that are far outpacing you. Staying competitive is what AI boils down to for industrial distributors.

Although it didn’t make it into this month’s cover story, part of my interview featuring Kimball Midwest President Patrick McCurdy III touched briefly on how the company is approaching AI. What he told me may well reflect where many industrial distributors are at today: Essentially, they’re in the exploratory phase with an AI committee actively researching opportunities and what applications make sense for them.

Utilizing AI in your business is not something you’ll be able to do without indefinitely . . . Staying competitive is what AI boils down to for industrial distributors.

“We’re more in the crawl phase; not walking yet,” he said. “We’re trying to focus on getting our data in the right place so we can enable the tool sets as they become more available and more known.” However, he added they are already using AI tools in places like accounts receivable to evaluate such functions as credit limits or when it’s time to make collections phone calls. Kimball Midwest is also testing the value of cobots in its Columbus, Ohio, distribution center.

WILL DEEP POCKETS WIN?

ITR Economics Senior Forecaster Connor Lokar notes that most businesses are right where Kimball Midwest is – researching the many ways AI can be implemented to increase productivity and profits. The catch is, big companies with deep pockets will have the resources for heavy-duty AI spending, whereas small companies just cannot do that, Lokar said. “Some bigger companies are already throwing gobs of money at AI.” Keep in mind that ROI is still a question mark, according Lokar.

On the other hand, “small companies do have an advantage in that they are a bit more nimble and able to identify needs faster,” he continued. “Even so, not every small business can afford to invest in AI.”

Cucalón offers this advice, regardless of your company size: Assign a team and budget for pilots. Start small, measure, then scale gradually and responsibly. Importantly, he added, top management needs to take ownership for pushing AI through the company, not the IT team, which doesn’t have the business big picture like you do. He said, “It’s your responsibility.”

Thanks for reading, and please keep in touch.