AI transformation 101: How to build AI into product development

Welcome to AI Transformation 101, where we cover the latest industry trends and showcase best practices for your organization to turn bold, innovative ideas into action. This blog explores everything you need to know about incorporating AI into your product development for maximum success.

It is not an understatement to say that the success of a new digital product launch is largely determined during the product development process. With the introduction of AI into this process, it is more critical than ever for businesses to stay on top of the latest product trends to compete.

But for many products in the marketplace today, it is no longer enough to incorporate AI into the product development process. Rather, AI must be built into the very product you are developing itself to gain an edge over your competitors.

In this blog, we’ll look at how to build AI into product development. We’ll also address the role of customer-centricity, the possibility of outsourcing, and issues related to security and privacy.

Why AI product development matters

AI provides many advantages when it comes to the product development process. Here are some ways stakeholders can benefit:

Benefits for enterprises

AI allows developers to cut the time spent on new product idea generation. It can help developers collate and understand vast sets of data instantly by making the data appear more digestible. This can then help the product team understand the market they are operating in or what their potential customers might be looking for. Such improved efficiencies in new product ideation are why stats are showing that 64% of businesses expect AI to help improve productivity.

Prototype builds can also be completed in a matter of hours, rather than taking days, with AI tools like GitHub Copilot and Amazon Q. This can help businesses be more efficient with their time and expenses, as they aren’t wasting valuable resources.

In addition to cost savings, AI can enhance strategic operations in the product development process. Your business can use the technology to keep repeating the processes and generate new creative ideas.

Benefits for your employees

It’s also important to consider AI’s impact on the product development process from your employees’ perspectives. AI can help your employees be more competitive and efficient.

Your people are your greatest asset. Once the team has developed the skills necessary to build AI into your products, they can help with future innovations using the new skills that they have acquired. This could give your enterprise the competitive advantage needed to take control of the market.

Benefits for your customers

Customers are beginning to understand how AI impacts their products and could be leveraged to benefit them. Although one survey by CDP revealed that 25% of people expressed a negative sentiment toward AI and its usage in customer service due to a lack of personalization, it’s clear that many are favorable to having it incorporated within product development and in other use cases. For example, 44% of people surveyed were open to AI-powered recommendations, with tools like Google’s Recommendations from Vertex AI Search and Amazon Personalize, thus highlighting just how appealing AI can be when incorporated into certain products.

The most successful organizations keep customers at the center of their AI strategy. This is important as your organization incorporates AI into digital products to create a smarter, more intuitive UX that meets customers’ expectations, with tools like AWS Chatbot and Google’s Dialogflow. By bringing AI early into the concept phase, you can ensure it’s fully integrated with your product instead of being a minimally functional afterthought.

AI product development strategy: How to leverage AI in product development

Suppose you are a decision-maker at an enterprise and have already considered how building AI into your product can benefit the business. How can you best transform this thought into action?

It starts with building a strategy. AI initiatives are not one-size-fits-all—yours should be tailored to organizational needs and strategic goals. This can be challenging, but taking the time today to create an effective AI strategy is the best way to position your company to thrive tomorrow.

Begin with experimentation

When incorporating AI into your product, it’s best to begin with experimentation. How could the power of AI or ML improve the effectiveness of your product? How could it improve the user experience? Have any of your competitors experimented with AI products? Do your users want a simple chatbot? Better quantitative information analysis? More enhanced video capabilities? A text editor? AI is impacting industries in profound ways and there are a lot of potential use cases for you to experiment with.

Perform market research

After generating your initial experiments and ideas, it’s time to ask your customers if they are interested. Send out surveys, call your most engaged customers, conduct research reports, or put together focus groups to find out which ideas may work. By gathering this data straight from your customers, your idea can be fine-tuned and tailored to maximize the chances of success.

Determining how AI product development can help your team

While some AI software is straightforward, more complex use cases require specialized knowledge and they are not always deployed in the most effective ways possible.

The language model can require specific, detailed inputs and requests to ensure the right outputs are provided. This is where capable talent with a deep knowledge of AI is important.

You should ensure your team has the right skills and qualifications to implement AI into your product. If they don’t, then you can consider a couple of options.

Outsourcing AI product development

Outsourcing may be the most cost-effective and efficient way to build AI-driven products. Great AI strategy consulting firms will have the most up-to-date knowledge to provide you with the outstanding service you expect. For many enterprises, it’s simply easier, faster, and less expensive to outsource the build.

Investing in AI for products

As a decision-maker, you need to know the best places to invest in AI to maximize your potential ROI. You should consider which aspects of the product can benefit most from AI or machine learning.

One finding by Gartner reveals that more than 50% of enterprises by 2028 that have built and invested in large-scale AI models from scratch will abandon their efforts due to the costs incurred. This means, that in addition to engineering and development, you should factor cost into your digital product strategy as well.

Concerns about using AI in product development

According to Forbes, 65% of customers say that they trust businesses that use AI, but the majority still have concerns about how it is being used. This is why some laws are requiring companies to commission a bias audit. There needs to be transparency to keep the trust as high as possible. You must persuade your customers that your products are not harmful despite the presence of AI.

Cybersecurity & privacy fears

Strong cybersecurity fears have already been heightened following the arrival of AI technology and the potential threats that come with it. This is why AI strategies that mitigate risks are critical. This can include how you approach Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC). With many different aspects of a product to think about, AI may not always be welcomed by your entire market. It doesn’t help that cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving and must be defended against as tech keeps changing.

Given that AI can process and analyze vast sets of potentially sensitive information and data, this data must be safeguarded. If the strongest security measures and protocols aren’t in place, misuse or unauthorized access could happen.

Accountability and responsibility

When building AI into your products, there needs to be a degree of accountability and responsibility. AI can act independently, and there should be an entity responsible and accountable for its actions. This might involve creating guidelines that ensure it is safe and is used ethically, while also making employees aware that the technology has its limits.

It’s important to remember that AI is still learning and will continue to learn. Similarly, It’s crucial to acknowledge that it isn’t human and lacks the qualities we have as individuals to make certain decisions, particularly from a moral perspective.

As Larry Fitzpatrick, Chief Technology Officer at OneMain Financial explains, “Ethical considerations are very high on the radar because generative AI is fundamentally different in that we can’t explain how it’s working and it’s non-reproducible in many cases. It exhibits behaviors we might label as bad in humans.” One action to take, according to Larry, is to “quantify the risk profile” of products using AI.

Human oversight and authority are required, as this can make AI-driven products more trustworthy to potential consumers.

Build AI into your products today

To successfully build AI into your products, you need a digital strategy. AI can completely transform and revolutionize the products you develop, granting you that competitive edge you’ve been seeking. Though there are unknowns, the riskiest choice may be not incorporating AI into your product development today. Doing nothing, after all, comes with its own set of challenges.

With Modus Create’s AI strategy roadmap, you can increase your return on AI and provide the most effective service for your customers. Learn more today.