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Important points of ZDNET
- Working on AI doesn’t necessarily require a lot of money.
- Explore existing toolsets and open source options.
- Support rapid change with a flexible cloud platform.
It’s easy to see why some experts feel uneasy in the age of AI. From the changing nature of work to the fear of some roles disappearing to the fear that your business will be left behind by other companies leveraging AI faster, the rapid rise of emerging technologies can sometimes feel like a shortcut to existential fear.
That fear can be exacerbated by the limited funding available for AI exploration. How can you support AI-powered business transformation if you have a limited budget?
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The good news, experts say, is that professionals can put AI to good use even when money is tight. Here are five ways to approach AI cost-effectively.
1. Use what you have
Nick Pearson, chief information officer (CIO) of technology specialist Ricoh Europe, suggested it was important for experts not to reinvent the wheel. Because some of the tools you’re already paying for can support cost-effective AI exploration.
“This goes back to my current position of taking advantage of and leveraging what we already have, and that approach is actually becoming somewhat easier,” he said.
Pearson used ZDNET as an example, suggesting that most professionals running Microsoft within their organizations already have Copilot included as part of their 365 licenses.
“So if you’re in the workplace, you already know what you can do and what you have,” he says. “There’s definitely a lot of stuff that could be used.”
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Pearson said it’s an approach he also takes in his own business.
“My job as a CIO is to ensure that we have the capacity to run a sustainable business. Different companies have different affordability metrics,” he said.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘So what is affordable and natural for our business?’” This is a boardroom conversation about AI, and other professionals should take that approach, too. ”
2. Leverage open source capabilities
Joel Fron, chief technology officer at information services firm Thomson Reuters, recently told ZDNET that his organization uses a combination of in-house models and off-the-shelf tools to drive AI innovation.
Similar to Big Tech’s Frontier Lab advancements, Fron and his team are ensuring organizations can leverage their unique knowledge and assets, and advise other professionals to do the same.
When asked how he would change his approach if he had a smaller budget, he said, “Honestly, I don’t think I would focus on anything different.”
“I’m not going to train my models or anything like that if I didn’t have the resources to do it.”
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Fron said one important thing for professionals to remember is that the open source community around AI is as prolific as the commercial IT industry.
“There are a lot of things you can do with open source tools that basically cost nothing,” he said.
“To build intuition about where these things are going and improve productivity in general, even if you don’t have the money, start with what’s available in the open source community. This helps show people what AI can do, what AI is doing, and where these industries are going. And I think that intuition is valuable to everyone at this point.”
3. Abusing cloud services
Huy Dao, director of data and machine learning platforms at Booking.com, says leveraging the cloud is the right way to support AI exploration, no matter how big or small your budget is.
“With the cloud, you don’t have to invest as much money upfront,” he says. “If your business idea is successful, you’ll pay more. If your business idea doesn’t grow that quickly, you’ll pay less.”
Dao told ZDNET that his company uses Snowflake as its cloud-based data platform, and that the technology provides the scalability the team needs. “The more you use Snowflake, the more you pay, and the less you use Snowflake, the less you pay.”
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Dao suggested that the simple message for professionals is that in the age of AI and the cloud, a small budget need not hinder innovation.
“Before, you had to be a bigger company to participate. Now you can start with a very small cloud-based or OpenAI subscription and go from there. And of course the more you use, the more you pay,” he said.
“So leverage the cloud as much as you can, because it gives you flexibility. And if you’re still skeptical about AI, move beyond that, because if you don’t get involved, someone else will do it better than you.”
4. Focus on desired results
Msidra Jorgensen, UK and Ireland country leader at technology firm Freshworks, told ZDNET that the priority for cash-strapped professionals is to identify the problem they are trying to solve.
“If it’s just for AI, it’s not going to give people the results they want,” she says. “So make sure you understand the problem you’re trying to solve, the outcome you’re looking for, and the efficiencies that AI will bring.”
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Jorgensen said professionals need to ensure that other employees within the organization can leverage these AI investments to create desired outcomes in their daily roles.
“Helping your team deploy AI to streamline their work while also finding time to think about the high-value problems you want to solve is critical,” she said.
“If you get that approach right, you can deploy and benefit from the AI you choose.”
5. Respond flexibly to change
Thierry Martin, head of enterprise data and analytics at Toyota Motor Europe, says professionals with limited budgets and IT assets need to take advantage of their inherent agility.
“Small businesses may have an advantage because they don’t have the legacy system anchors that older, larger companies inherited,” he told ZDNET.
Martin encouraged professionals with limited budgets to create a simple approach to AI exploration that supports flexibility and maneuverability.
“Instead of aiming for 100%, aim for 80%,” he said. “The moon is moving, so don’t take pictures of the stars.”
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He gave the example of MCP, an open source standard created by Anthropic to connect AI applications to external systems. This rapid rise in standards shows that professionals must always embrace change.
“If you had planned to release something last year, and then MCP started taking off, your reaction was, ‘Oh, we have to stop everything and change direction,'” he says, “and it would have taken you longer to adjust.”
“Instead, say ‘target is 80%.’ I think 80% is always good because the target is always moving away. And as you move, some new targets will arrive, so try to keep the path to the target as straight as possible so as not to confuse people.”
