Businesses migrating Microsoft 365 (M365) environments must consider if they are ready for AI, according to speakers hosted by ShareGate.
Speakers in the ShareGate webinar emphasised that organisations must look before they leap into AI. That means assessing readiness as well as evaluating returns on investment (ROI) and business alignment.
According to Sam Martineau, solutions architect at consultancy Insight, warned that too many organisations assume AI will be “plug and play”, sometimes based on early experiences alone.
“When ChatGPT first launched in late 2022 you had a text box, you put some words in there, and then got an outcome that was more intelligent and natural than any other tool you’d ever experienced,” he said.
“But it’s not always the reality, and there are guardrails we want to have in place.”
Organisations should be thinking about their data. Data consolidation and adoption work will be needed. This meant they should – as with any new technology – first pause and examine what they want from AI and how to enable that.
“Another big challenge with AI is that it’s very convincing, so falsehoods, hallucinations or imprecisions can go a long way before you actually catch it,” Martineau said.
“So we also have to teach people how to use this technology responsibly.”
Watch the webinar on demand (approx. 1 hour) here.
Get ready for AI. Look beyond the tech
John Weigelt, national technology officer at Microsoft Canada, said organisations should consider the different types of AI – embedded AI enabled tools you can deploy quickly and easily, configured AI, versus more developed AI.
“Each type has a different organisational muscle that’s required,” he said.
Additionally, organisations examining their AI readiness should look at their data governance, security and privacy rules and so on. They might be able to rule out AI tools or otherwise uncover pitfalls beforehand, Weigelt suggested.
Shannph Wong, VP of technology at Workleap, parent company of ShareGate, said to remember that getting ready for AI is not just about the technical issues.
“There’s so much that’s around whether the organisation itself is ready, including culturally ready,” Wong said. “Do we truly even understand the data that we have? Are we making assumptions?”
Data is typically messy, complicated, duplicated, and often contradictory, potentially undermining AI capabilities. In addition, AI is about more than optimising existing or automated processes, beyond that “traditional flow diagram”.
“If we’re really going to leverage AI, we need those feedback loops,” said Wong.
“So much of where the power comes from is the ability to iterate very quickly to learn from each other, to correct the mistakes, to move forward and provide the right kind of guidance as we go along.”
Rather, AI will require “constant nurturing and feeding” as well as training and guidance. Of the many “tech revolutions” he has seen, AI might be the biggest, Wong said.
Shaylyn Gimby, ShareGate community engagement manager, said ShareGate’s aim is to enable cloud migrations, including focus on data integrity, data consolidation, optimisation and end-user adoption across tenants.
“And you can use our Co-pilot readiness assessment for visibility and actionable tips on access management and data quality,” he added.
( Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay )
