This week, Pete Wright sits down with Simon Kriss, Asia Pacific's leading voice on the adoption and application of AI in customer experience. As AI technology continues to outpace human use cases, businesses are grappling with how to effectively implement AI solutions. Simon highlights the importance of educating employees about AI and getting buy-in from the top down to create a culture that embraces the technology.

Simon emphasizes the critical role of data in AI implementations, stressing that organizations must ensure their underlying data is properly structured and categorized for AI to function effectively. He outlines a 12-step process for successful AI implementation, which begins with identifying and prioritizing use cases, scrutinizing data, and articulating the purpose of the AI initiative to the organization. He stresses the importance of traditional change management principles in operationalizing AI, including stakeholder engagement, communication, and training.

Looking ahead, Simon predicts that the intersection of general-purpose AI and product-embedded AI will present new challenges for organizations. He compares general-purpose AI to a general practitioner, while product-embedded AI, like Upland's solutions, serves as a specialist, providing targeted, compliant, and effective AI capabilities for specific domains.