(Photo by Hendrik Morkel on Unsplash)

When I talk to companies about AI, I emphasize two important points:

1/ "You should develop an AI strategy." This is not a mission statement or anything similarly high-level; a proper strategy is a plan that connects AI capabilities to your business model and challenges, and provides specific details of projects to undertake.

2/ "Everything in AI is an experiment." You can influence the outcome of an AI project, but you cannot control it. You need to be careful of making bold declarations too far in advance.

On the surface, these statements appear to conflict. How can I encourage companies to make plans, but also warn them that their plans may not pan out?

To borrow a line from Dwight D. Eisenhower:

"In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable."

Plans are ultimately about knowledge and understanding. When you have a plan, you will be able to see:

• where you are on the road to your goal
• when your journey is going awry
• when you are wandering, not making any progress

Most importantly, because you took the time to create that plan, you have determined where AI holds the most potential for your company. (You aren't hand-waving over inconvenient truths.) And you have already spotted the holes in those plans – you've explored ways for things to go awry and you have developed workarounds. (That's risk management in action.)

Going back to Eisenhower's quote, then, does this mean developing an AI strategy is a purely academic exercise?

Not at all. Barring extreme industry shifts or changes in technology, you probably won't deviate too much from your strategy.

And if you do, just remember another piece of military wisdom – one that has been attributed several people, including Carl von Clausewitz and Helmuth von Moltke:

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

Or if you'd prefer the (slightly misquoted) Mike Tyson line:

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

So go forth and develop that AI strategy. Just make sure you're prepared to adapt when the world changes.