According to Dell’s research, 91% of enterprises and IT leaders already use generative AI in some capacity, with 71% applying it to work-related tasks. Those impressive numbers apply even though generative AI is in its infancy, illustrating that most companies are finding value in it in its early stages. However, in the rush to adopt generative AI, you might move too quickly and bypass critical implications involving data, compliance, governance, and other risks.

The harsh reality is your organisation needs a comprehensive strategy to maximise AI’s potential and mitigate risks, such as exposing sensitive information and generating content that violates industry regulations or company policies.

Why planning for generative AI is critical

A generative AI strategy ensures your organisation has the best systems, training, and use cases for adoption. But above all else, it mitigates AI’s most significant risks:

  • Intellectual property loss
  • Data leakage
  • Privacy and GDPR issues
  • Credibility and integrity loss
  • IP Infringement
  • Wasted investment and spiralling costs

Generative AI readiness checklist

One thing is certain with generative AI: it will sap your IT resources without proper management and oversight. A comprehensive strategy is critical to ensuring it delivers more control and rising value to your organisation.

Assess current state

  • Audit existing generative AI usage across your organisation
  • Evaluate your data readiness (quality, consistency, centralisation)
  • Review current infrastructure capabilities

Define strategy

  • Identify high-priority use cases
  • Develop a vision for leveraging your unique organisational data
  • Create a roadmap for short-term experiments and long-term implementation

Data management

  • Create robust data governance policies
  • Review data quality and integrity measures
  • Set up a data repository (e.g., data lake)
  • Consider Dell’s Data Preparation Services for data cleansing and labelling

Training

  • Assess current AI-related skills within your organisation
  • Train technical and non-technical staff to use AI appropriately

Infrastructure planning

  • Calculate your immediate and future computational requirements
  • Consider Dell’s range of solutions (from Precision workstations to PowerEdge servers)

Security

  • Create policies for AI applications for compliance with relevant regulations and data sovereignty requirements
  • Implement measures to protect intellectual property

Proof of concept

  • Start with small, easily attainable projects
  • Consider using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for early wins
  • Evaluate and learn from initial implementations

Summing up

Your organisation’s generative AI journey probably began by testing the water without any thought to strategy. But as AI works its way into your business processes, you must define and communicate how your organisation will use it.

Dell Technologies provides a suite of software and hardware solutions that deliver through each of the crucial steps outlined above.