Digital Transformation is AI Transformation is Human Transformation

Digital transformation is the process of adoption and implementation of digital technology by an organization in order to create new or modify existing products, services and operations by the means of translating business processes into a digital format. This is Wikipedia's definition of Digital Transformation (DT).

In recent years and years to come, transforming organizations will focus on AI. The AI transformation (AIT) is the strategic integration of artificial intelligence technologies into business operations, products, and services to drive innovation, efficiency, and growth. This transformation goes beyond adopting AI tools; it involves a fundamental shift in how organizations operate, innovate, and interact with customers. 

Organizations that digitized themselves will transform to AI, and the ones that are still manual will skip the digitization phase and go straight to AI.

The common statistic is that 70% of transformation projects fail to reach their goals. For 20 years, I have been working around Digital and AI Transformations, both at the solution provider side and at the transforming Enterprise side. I've been involved in multiple projects, both large and small, and have witnessed these percentages firsthand.

Although the reasons for failure are numerous, the main ones are not technology-related (e.g., the technology wasn't mature enough, the platform couldn't support a specific scenario, etc.) nor project management-related. The biggest challenges I see are human-related, and more specifically, revolve around the psychology of humans.

• We tend to trust more what WE do with our own hands - When humans perform a task, especially for many years, they often think they are doing it well. Thinking otherwise will be admitting failure. Trying to implement a new tool, an automatic one, an AI, will be received with great suspicion and with attempts to disprove it and showcase its flaws compared to the manual-human work.

• Explainability - It is difficult for humans to accept what they don't understand and what they don't see. If a model analyzes a vast amount of data and delivers output that is new, unique, unexpected, and not trivial, the human will want the model to explain why this is the result given. Explaining this can be no less difficult for the AI.

• Change is hard - whether the change is physical, mental, or behavioral. It is challenging, takes time, and sometimes it may never happen, especially as we grow older. There is no shortage of examples from everyday life.

• People are looking for an emotional connection - We tend to focus on the rational, on the data, and on proving beyond a doubt that the change is valuable. While this is needed, we can't forget that we are dealing with people and they are looking for an emotional connection or "reasoning" to accept and adopt the change. It can be related to the person or people driving the change, a reason tied to their success, growth, or something else in their lives. DT or AIT are sales projects, not tech projects, and as such, we need to buy not just minds but also hearts.