The volume of headlines around AI is staggering. In boardrooms around the country, it's being hailed as the most revolutionary technology since the Internet. But while leaders are fascinated by the promise of artificial intelligence, few are seeing significant returns on their investments. In fact, many AI initiatives fail. Not because the technology isn’t powerful, but because organizations are not prepared to make it actionable.

However, there are exceptions. Companies such as Mars Wrigley, Colgate Palmolive, Turbo Tax and Pega Systems are putting AI into action.

At Mars Wrigley, the company has began building machine-learning models that forecast sales, to help factory managers set production levels. It also plans to deploy smart robots in manufacturing and new AI systems to improve efficiency and sustainability.

At Colgate-Palmolive, the consumer products giant is using AI (especially Generative AI) for innovation. The focus is to improve performance in synthesizing consumer insights, highlighting unmet consumer needs as well as suggesting new product concepts.

At TurboTax, the AI features include real-time checks for accuracy as customers do their returns, prompts for deductions and credits based on data about what other taxpayers have taken in similar situations as well as a personalized assistant that can answer questions about a given customer’s specific tax situation.

At Pegasystems, CIO David Vidoni, explained how the company has implemented AI to improve operational performance in various ways. For example, AI has been deployed to improve IT help desk performance. This encompasses AI triaging, so when tickets do come in and they do come in through different channels (e.g. email, web submission forms) they are routed to the right place. Due to implementing AI, it has been possible to reduce the workload by over two thirds on external help desk tickets. Using GenAI, Pegasystems has also implemented a GenAI coach to help both salespeople in selling products and services and business officers in contracting.

Another practical application of AI at Pegsystems is Pega GenAI Socrates, an AI-enabled trainer designed to teach core Pega skills to clients and partners. Socrates uses a dynamic approach inspired by the Socratic method, fostering interactive dialogues that adapt to each student's vertical industry, skill level, and learning needs. This AI tutor helps users learn faster and more effectively while retaining more knowledge, leading to a more skilled workforce.

Of course, putting AI into action is not without its challenges. Vidoni said that the challenge comes down to the quality of the documentation that is used by AI Agents and chatbots.

As the use of GenAI becomes widespread it has another impact on organizations: It’s making unstructured data important again. In one recent survey, 94% of leaders said that interest in AI is leading to a greater focus on data. And working with unstructured data is particularly challenging. To get such unstructured data into shape, organizations need to pick the best examples of each document type, tag or graph the content, and get it loaded into the system. No mean feat. Various data challenges are likely to persist as leaders grapple with the promise and the hype of agentic AI.

A focus on change management is needed for success with AI. Many leaders lack the bandwidth to address the cultural and organizational challenges that can block success in putting AI into action. Yet, at Pegasystems, employees appear to have embraced the deployment of AI according to Vidoni. This may be due to the influence of Alan Trefler, its founder and CEO. Trefler gained early recognition as a chess Master at 19 and tied for first place in the 1975 World Open Chess Championship. Back then, he worked on artificial intelligence (AI) at Dartmouth College where he taught computers to play chess. Under Alan’s leadership, Pegasystems was one of the first BPM vendors to integrate robotic process automation (RPA) with the acquisition of Open Span nearly 8 years ago. Similarly, Pegasystems acquired Everflow, a process mining startup in 2022 to round out its capabilities in using event data.

As with any new technology, hype is likely to precede real returns. Yet there are some companies making headway in the practical use of AI, data challenges notwithstanding. It’s a mistake when leaders view AI primarily as a technical challenge. The successful organizations recognize that a shift in mindset is needed to put AI into action.

Andrew Spanyi is the Editor of Cognitive World and the Founder of Spanyi International, which provides expert services at the intersection of customer experience, process innovation, and digital technologies. He is also a member of the Cognitive World Think Tank on enterprise AI.

AI in Action