Creating an AI Strategy That Works With Dana Moffat From Acumatica - Unboxing Logistics Ep. 88

Supply chain experts agree: businesses shouldn’t just throw AI at every problem that comes their way. But as Dana Moffat, product manager at Acumatica, points out in this week’s Unboxing Logistics episode, you can’t afford to ignore AI either. She explains that the success of AI strategies comes down to how well you identify problems, select technology, define KPIs, and measure results.How to create an AI strategy that worksAccording to Dana, the foundation for a successful AI implementation is understanding what you want to achieve and how you’ll measure the results. She says, “You have to have clear objectives and goals. … You need to know … what you want to accomplish and why.”She shares a few questions to guide you through this initial planning stage: Why do we think AI is the answer to this particular problem or challenge? How will we know that AI has helped us transform or achieve our objectives? How do we measure success or failure? Setting your AI up for successBefore introducing AI tools, it’s important to ensure your operating procedures are clearly defined. That’s because AI learns from patterns. And “if your procedures or workflows [are] constantly changing, or your processes vary by team or customer … it's hard for AI to learn … because you don't have patterns.”In addition to unpredictable processes, Dana shares another common pitfall when implementing an AI solution: inaccurate data.“AI can inherit bias from historical data, and [that] can reinforce bad patterns. … As much as possible, clean up your data before you start leveraging that AI.”Does AI replace human workers?Many people fear that AI will replace human workers, taking jobs and ruining livelihoods. But Lori and Dana have a far more optimistic perspective—they strongly believe that real people are still necessary in the logistics space.In Dana’s words, “There's still a very strong need for domain expertise, especially in shipping and enterprise resource planning. We have domain experts in these different functional areas, and they're very important, so AI cannot replace them.”LinksConnect with Dana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-moffat-94850a10/ Visit Acumatica’s website: https://www.acumatica.com/