JULY 2018CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM9The A stands for action and access, while D represents decision and disruption. Stirred together, the words constitute Mercer's formula on how to innovate and service customers, disrupt the market and, drive more insight and intelligence into products and services.But making those quick, informal decisions across an enterprise requires a level of trust and commitment. It requires collaboration. The executive leadership team on down needed to be as fired-up about AI as I was.I love technology and have done so for as long as I can remember. For me, a relaxing Saturday morning is sitting at my computer, sipping a cup of coffee and reading the latest news coming out of news, blogs, and other social media about how AI is being applied to solve problems. Hey, if I wasn't doing that, I wouldn't call myself a technologist. Clearly, I'm passionate about technology and my job. I enjoy leading teams through AI-type transformations where technology is causing disruptions. But I don't want people to simply acknowledge my fervor. I want them to share my vision, understand what and why we are doing it and then eagerly hop onboard. That level of buy-in is the only way a company can keep pace in a world where today's cutting edge technology is tomorrow's mainstream application. Everyone has to be pulling the oar in the same direction. One of my responsibilities as a technologist is energizing those people to grab the oar and pull with both hands. I have to inspire them to get involved and up the level of their skills so they can find ways to apply technology solutions to old, new, and yet to be discovered problems. AI helps energize people because it is a great way for them to reinvest and grow their career. The technology encourages thinking differently about data and spending more time mulling the weightier questions and issues. Just imagine how powerful it would be if everyone at Mercer was watching market trends to spot characteristics that would allow us to disrupt with AI. As people hone their skills, they become what the Gartner Group and McKinsey & Company call "trend spotters." Trend spotters are so knowledgeable about new digital technologies that they can spot and evaluate the potential of a new technology. A trend spotter can quickly, yet deliberately, decide if the trend is important or can be ignored; where it is in Gartner's hype cycle; and whether or not it solves a customer's need, removes a pain point, can change behavior in a beneficial way, or eliminate friction. But for trend spotting--AI and technology in general--to payoff, you must know the customer's pressure points. Applying the right technology means understanding the unmet needs in the customer's current portfolio. Conversely, businesses must first understand what their problems are and how technology, especially AI, can help resolve it. Robotics may help a company free up money by cutting costs. Or a call center could leverage an AI-powered conversational system to offload repetitive, high-volume queries to a self-service channel. As technologists, it is our job to find and apply the right technology to solve problems presented by our clients. Experiment, learn and while you're at it, have some fun. AI helps energize people because it is a great way for them to reinvest and grow their career
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