Element 1 - Identifying Optional Use Cases

When it comes to GenAI, the key isn't just adopting the latest technology—it’s about using it where it makes the most impact. GenAI shouldn’t be a blanket solution for everything; instead, it should be applied strategically.

The most successful use of GenAI occurs when organizations conduct a needs assessment. This process involves leaders identifying and evaluating the gaps between their organization's current and desired state. This assessment also helps pinpoint where GenAI can provide the most value, ensuring its utilization is relevant and impactful.

Conducting a Needs Assessment

Conducting a needs assessment might initially seem overwhelming, but breaking it down into these five steps will make the process both manageable and successful.

  1. Desired Future State

Before exploring how GenAI can be applied, it is essential to examine the organization’s desired future state. This involves defining its vision, mission, values, and goals. By clearly understanding these foundational elements, leaders can better assess how GenAI fits into their broader strategy.

If the organization's vision focuses on innovation or operational efficiency, identifying GenAI use cases that align with these priorities will ensure a more cohesive and impactful implementation. Starting with the desired state helps ensure that GenAI is not just a technological tool but a catalyst for achieving long-term objectives.

2. Team Alignment

Team alignment is the lynchpin for driving success and ensuring everyone works toward the same organizational goals. When aligned, teams share a common vision, understand their roles in achieving the desired future state, and collaborate more effectively. This cohesion helps eliminate confusion, fosters better communication, and boosts overall productivity.

Suppose an organization aims to use GenAI to improve customer service. In that case, the customer support team can work with the data analytics team to analyze customer queries and identify patterns. Meanwhile, the leadership team can ensure that GenAI-driven improvements, such as chatbots or AI-powered assistance, align with broader strategic objectives, like enhancing customer satisfaction or reducing response times.

Here are some key questions to consider:

  • Assess the team’s current contributions to the broader objectives. Is the team delivering value in line with organizational priorities? For example, if the organization is focused on innovation, is the team contributing by exploring new technologies like GenAI?

    Understanding where the team’s efforts fit into the larger framework ensures relevancy.

  • Identifying misalignments is crucial. Consider where the team might be falling short. Are there inefficiencies in processes, a lack of alignment in priorities, or communication breakdowns?

    • Analyzing these gaps sheds light on specific areas where GenAI or other interventions may help bring the team closer to organizational goals.

  • Explore how GenAI can specifically address the identified misalignments. For instance, could AI-driven analytics help improve decision-making? Can automation reduce manual, time-consuming tasks?

    • Understanding GenAI's role in filling these gaps allows teams to leverage technology in ways that directly advance organizational objectives.

  • Teams need the right resources to make changes. Do you need additional training on new technologies, better access to data, or more collaboration with other departments? 

    • Recognizing the tools and support needed ensures your team is equipped to stay aligned with larger goals.

  • Reflect on past obstacles to alignment. Have there been budget constraints, technology barriers, or resistance to change?

    • Identifying these challenges allows your team to proactively develop strategies for overcoming them, especially when integrating new technologies like GenAI.

  • Define clear KPIs that measure progress. If teams use GenAI to streamline decision-making, how will they track improvement in decision speed or accuracy? 

    • Metrics help ensure that the team stays on course, and it’s easier to adjust strategies if results aren’t aligned with expectations.

By addressing these questions in detail, teams can create a structured approach that aligns with organizational goals. This process ensures a smoother and more effective integration of technologies like GenAI into daily work. Team alignment is crucial for success, and with a strategic approach, teams can contribute more meaningfully to the organization's future vision.

3. Reflect Internally

Before implementing solutions, reflecting internally and gathering information about your organization’s challenges, processes, and available resources is paramount. This internal reflection ensures that any proposed solution is grounded in the reality of the organization's capabilities and limitations. By understanding where inefficiencies lie and how current systems operate, leaders can make informed decisions that align with both their strategic goals and what their teams can feasibly achieve.

If a team wants to utilize GenAI to automate customer service responses - before jumping in, they must first analyze the current customer service processes: Where are the bottlenecks? What technology is already in place? What resources are available for this shift? This reflection helps to identify realistic goals, such as improving response times without overwhelming the team or the system. This internal reflection creates a more sustainable and impactful solution aligning with the organization's capabilities.

While there is no single method for internal reflection when gathering organizational data, many organizations find success using tools like process mapping or brainstorming sessions. Process mapping provides a clear visual representation of workflows, helping identify inefficiencies, while brainstorming sessions encourage collaborative problem-solving and out-of-the-box thinking. Both approaches can uncover valuable insights while staying aligned with organizational goals.

Beginners Guide to Process Mapping

4. Ask Externally

Engaging with external customers to gather insights is as valuable as collecting data internally. Asking for customer feedback is a powerful way to enhance an organization's products or services while ensuring they remain customer-centric. By actively listening to customer feedback, organizations can identify areas for improvement, address customer-specific needs, and create more tailored solutions.

If an organization considers integrating GenAI to personalize product recommendations on its website, it’s valuable to ask customers about their current experience—such as how relevant they find the product suggestions or whether the shopping process feels intuitive. Based on customer feedback, organizations can identify areas for improvement. Customer feedback might reveal that recommendations feel too generic or that users want more tailored suggestions based on their preferences. This approach leads to better outcomes and strengthens the relationship between an organization and its customers. Inviting customer input fosters a sense of partnership, showing them that their opinions are valued and that your organization is committed to delivering meaningful changes based on their feedback.

Here are some external feedback methods:

  • These tools allow organizations to ask targeted questions about specific products, services, or experiences. Surveys can be short or more comprehensive, depending on the desired outcome. Platforms like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, or Typeform make creation and distribution easy. 

    Adding incentives like discounts or gift cards can increase participation rates!

  • One-on-one interviews offer a personal and in-depth look at customer experiences. By directly engaging with customers, teams can ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into pain points or explore suggestions.

    This method works well for understanding complex issues or needs that may not come through in survey responses.

  • In focus groups, selected customers are invited to discuss products or services in a facilitated session. This method provides insights into how customers interact with an organization's products or services in a group setting, allowing for dynamic discussions where participants can build on each other's ideas.

    Focus groups can be conducted in person or virtually using platforms like Zoom.

  • Teams can analyze data from customer service interactions such as chat transcripts, call logs, or email tickets to identify common issues or recurring themes.

    Customer support teams often have first-hand knowledge of the most frequent complaints or challenges, making them a valuable source of information for product improvement.

  • Monitoring social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for customer feedback—whether through direct mentions, hashtags, or comments on posts—provides real-time insights.

  • Websites like Google Reviews, Yelp, Amazon, or industry-specific review platforms offer a wealth of customer opinions. Regularly monitoring these reviews helps identify common trends, both positive and negative, that can guide product or service improvements.

    Encouraging customers to leave reviews can help gather even more feedback!

By employing a mix of these methods, teams can gain comprehensive and nuanced customer feedback, allowing for well-informed improvements to products, services, and the overall customer experience.

5. Use Insights

After gathering insights from internal processes and external customers, organizations can develop a comprehensive view of their needs. These insights are invaluable for shaping strategies that drive meaningful change. One powerful way to prioritize these needs is by plotting them on an Impact Insights Matrix. This visual tool helps leaders assess potential initiatives based on their value and feasibility, highlighting high-impact areas that align with the organization’s strategic goals. This ensures that resources are directed toward initiatives that will make the most difference, fostering efficiency and innovation.

Impact Insights Matrix

1. Assess Value: For each possible GenAI utilization project identified, evaluate the potential benefits it could bring to the organization. Consider aspects such as impact on key business goals, potential to address critical challenges, or ability to create innovation. Based on its overall benefit to the organization, assign each possible use case a value score—low, medium, or high.

  • Value: The potential impact or benefit the GenAI solution can bring to the organization.

3. Plot on the Matrix:

  • The x-axis represents feasibility, ranging from low (left) to high (right).

  • The y-axis represents value, ranging from low (bottom) to high (top).

  • Plot each project on the matrix according to its assigned value and feasibility scores.

4. Prioritize Initiatives:

  1. Easy Action Items (high value, high feasibility) - projects are relatively easy to implement in the current organizational state. They should be prioritized for immediate action.

  2. Large-Scale Projects (high value, low feasibility) - efforts that have the potential to bring significant value but may require considerable effort or resources beyond the current organizational state. Leaders should consider these as long-term investments.

  3. Small-Scale projects (low value, high feasibility) - although easy to implement, these projects provide minimal value to the organization. Consider allocating fewer resources to them or saving them for later.

  4. Resource Wasters (low value, low feasibility) - projects that are neither feasible in the current organizational state nor provide any value. These should be deprioritized or avoided.

2. Evaluate Feasibility: Consider how practical each project is to implement in the current organizational state. This includes analyzing available resources, time constraints, required skills, and complexity. Assign each project a feasibility score - low, medium, or high.

  • Feasibility: The practical ability to implement the GenAI solution, considering resources, time, technical requirements, and organizational readiness.

Medium Scoring Projects:

When projects score in the medium range it can be challenging to determine their priority. Here are some guiding questions to ask to help recategorize them as high or low:

  1. How closely does this project align with our strategic goals?

  2. How urgent is the need this project addresses?

  3. Does this project have potential long-term benefits beyond the initial scope?

  4. Can this project be broken down into smaller, more manageable phases?

  5. Is there existing support or buy-in from leadership or teams?

  6. How does this project compare to others in terms of effort versus reward?

What’s Next?

Conducting a needs assessment is the critical first step for any organization looking to Identify Optimal Use Cases for GenAI. This foundational work ensures that leaders aren’t just adopting the latest technology for its own sake but are strategically focusing on where it can bring the most value to the organization. By taking the time to identify and align an organization’s goals with the potential utilization of GenAI, teams can ensure they’re addressing fundamental challenges and making decisions that drive meaningful change.

While the Impact Insights Matrix helps to visually identify where GenAI can bring the most value to an organization, it’s equally important to recognize its limitations. GenAI is a powerful tool, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Understanding both its strengths and constraints ensures that leaders won’t overestimate its capabilities or overlook the need for human oversight.

AI Leader Insights Toolkit Elements