6 takeaways from ‘How to scale AI fast’ (webinar with Danilo McGarry)

How can you scale AI if you don't know how ready the business is for it? McGarry maps organizations against an AI maturity curve, from zero - essentially no automation or AI - through five, where work can be extensively augmented by AI.

According to McGarry, companies can't simply skip the stages in between.

"You can never go from a one to a three, by the way, or from a one to a four where you're really agentically helping the company."

Companies need the foundations for efficiency first. Scripts, RPA, better data exchange, and workflow engines can all play a role. As work becomes more complex and requires greater reasoning, AI starts to make more sense.

The webinar audience offered an interesting reality check. In a live poll, 52.4% of respondents put themselves at Level 1, "Exploring," while another 37% were at Level 2, "Operational." Only a small proportion placed themselves at more advanced levels.

Here are the full results for the poll question "Reviewing the graph, from 0-5, how far are you on this AI Maturity Curve?":

1 - Exploring: 52%
2 - Operational: 37%
4 - Predictive: 5%
3 - Advanced: 4%
0 - No use of AI: 1%
5 - Fully Autonomous: 1%

There's another complication: your company probably doesn't have one maturity level. Finance might be further ahead than procurement. One business unit could be experimenting with agents while another is still trying to automate repetitive manual work. McGarry recommends assessing maturity by business line first, so leaders can see what different parts of the organization are ready for and what they need next.