Artificial intelligence is one of the most important modern technologies. After all, with the numerous benefits that AI can bring to your business, it’s a no-brainer to at least consider implementing it. But, alongside AI, the cloud is also the backbone of the modern business world.
Many companies are utilising the cloud to succeed, and adding AI to the mix will only provide them more success. But, if you’re looking to implement AI into your cloud infrastructure, it’s important to make sure that you’re ready for its arrival. Making sure that your cloud infrastructure is AI-ready is one of the key elements to being successful with AI in the long term.
In this article, we’re going to go over how you can make sure your cloud infrastructure is AI-ready. We’ll take a look at the importance of AI-readiness, as well as the requirements and components of an AI-ready cloud infrastructure, so you can have all the knowledge you need to be able to ensure you’re ready to welcome AI into your business.
The Importance of AI-readiness in Modern Business
AI-readiness is no longer just a distant thought. The technology is here now, empowering businesses around the world to be able to go further and be better than ever before.
Being ready for AI will allow you to take full advantage of its benefits, including —
- Increased Productivity: Productivity and efficiency are key to success in the modern business world, and artificial intelligence boosts both immensely. Automation is one of the key AI technologies, letting you automate repetitive tasks and free up resources for more strategic work.
- Enhanced Decision Making: Using artificial intelligence to analyse vast amounts of data and create insights can help you make more informed decisions in the long run, with analytics to predict future trends and outcomes.
- Competitive Advantage: AI can bolster your innovation, giving you an edge over the rest of your competitors. However, this is a double-edged sword, as ignoring the onset of AI can lead to you falling behind your competitors.
With all of these, it’s vital to consider AI to be a part of your business. That’s why making sure you’re ready to implement AI into your business is vital, as it’ll mean you can hit the ground running with artificial intelligence and succeed in the long run.
The Requirement of the Cloud for AI-readiness
Cost Efficiency
Migrating to a cost-effective cloud platform will reduce the initial costs of deploying AI and the costs of AI in the long term, ultimately making AI a better investment for your business due to the lower costs all around.
A platform that is ready for AI, such as Microsoft Azure, will be best for this, as these platforms put cost-effectiveness first and foremost, and provide you with the tools to ensure you can keep cost-effective in the long run.
Flexibility and Scalability
Lack of scalability is a common challenge for on-premise infrastructures, so making sure that you’re using a cloud infrastructure that is scalable and can accommodate the growth that AI bring is vital.
After all, AI and growth go hand-in-hand, and being able to scale accordingly will mean that you can succeed in the long-term altogether.
Enhanced Innovation
Being able to innovate using AI is only possible by innovating all-around. Taking steps to modernise your company and innovate — such as finding new ways that machine learning, AI, and other new technologies can boost your company — will let you hit the ground running on innovation.
Be a forward thinker in a world of retrospective ones. Plan for long-term success using AI, and make sure that you’re already looking to the future when implementing AI into your business.
Key Components of an AI-ready Data Strategy
Data Collection and Management
AI runs on data, which means that collecting and managing your data effectively is vital. This includes thoroughly checking all data to make sure it’s compatible with an AI-enabled infrastructure, tagging properly, and making sure to standardise formats and metadata throughout your systems.
This will allow AI tools such as Copilot for Microsoft 365 to thrive, by making sure they have access to the best data possible.
Data Security and Compliance
Data security is also vital for success when implementing AI into your cloud infrastructure. As with data management, data security will ensure that your data remains wholly secure and doesn’t become compromised or corrupted. With data that has been corrupted or even a dataset that’s been poisoned, your AI success may turn into a catastrophe.
Good data security practices are vital to making sure that AI can benefit your business, and also to make sure you follow compliance regulations — failing to do so can result in penalties including fines and even litigation.
Integration with Existing Systems
Your existing systems are going to need to be checked and prepared for the implementation of AI. After all, AI will need to be actually implemented for it to provide benefits to your business and part of this is processes like machine learning and automation — meaning that working out how to implement them into your existing systems is vital.
By doing so, you can empower your existing systems and routines to be able to take advantage of the full power of AI and important AI-powered methods such as automation and advanced data analytics and management, as well as generative AI such as Copilot for Microsoft 365.
How We Can Help
Artificial intelligence is easily one of the most important technologies in the modern age, and combining it with the power of the cloud platform can take your business to the next level. However, making sure that your cloud infrastructure is AI-ready is vital.
If you want to make sure you’re AI-ready and need a helping hand along the way, reach out to us now. Our experts are here to help and will ensure that you have everything you need to succeed with your cloud-based AI implementation.
Get in touch with us now and see how we can help.