Book Review: The AI-Powered Enterprise

Below is an extended version of a review I posted on Amazon of The AI-Powered Enterprise:: Harness the Power of Ontologies to Make Your Business Smarter, Faster, and More Profitable, by Seth Earley, CEO of Earley Information Science (EIS). The original review can be found here. Full disclosure, I was given a copy of the book to review.

Not long ago, everyone was exclaiming how data was the “new oil”.  Well, if companies recognize that data are such a valuable commodity, then they need to recognize the importance of investing time and effort in preparing and managing their data/information assets so that AI technology can produce the best-possible value-added outcomes.

In his book, The AI-Powered Enterprise, Seth Earley outlines key principles to apply when developing information products. The information products can include internal collaboration tools, customer-facing ecommerce websites, content marketing programs that deliver personalized content, and other data or content-centric offerings.

The early chapters of the book provide a trove of practical advice on how to create a robust foundation for any knowledge management project. Seth emphasizes the importance of building an ontology that links concepts from information silos across the organization. And he provides case studies with relatable examples from his consulting practice that make (arguably) dry topics like ontology development come to life.  

Later chapters describe how AI can enhance marketing, ecommerce, sales and employee productivity knowledge products.

The maturity models in the final chapter lay out the stages of competency for content optimization, customer information, product information, knowledge management and overall orchestration of the preceding components across the enterprise. These detailed models are valuable tools for planning and governance of any internal or external data or content development project. The inclusion of these maturity models and case studies that put the models in context makes The AI-Powered Enterprise a practical handbook for both executives who are overseeing the digital transformation of their organization and managers responsible for implementing and managing information products.

As someone who has been involved in designing information products and advising publishing companies on digital transformation projects for over 30 years myself, a few of my favorite takeaways include:

• Never embark on an AI project without a fundamental understanding of the information sources that will be used and how internal and external customers will use the enhanced information.
• Every data science or content analysis project requires investment in preparing the data sources to determine completeness and consistency. This data preparation steps aren’t sexy and are described by such terms as data scrubbing, data cleansing, data normalization, data wrangling, data harmonization, and quality control. I’ve even seen the term “data janitor” used to describe data preparation tasks.
• There are technologies that can help with some of these tasks, but I agree with Seth when he warns against letting overzealous salespeople convince you that their AI solution doesn’t require data preparation work.
• Knowledge management cures information overload.
• Search is conversation.

AI and Machine Learning (ML) are dynamic fields that are likely to continue to grow exponentially. Seth’s book provides a superb way to play catch-up in the field of knowledge management to put your company in a strong position to benefit from new technologies—and avoid costly missteps.

I highly recommend this book for anybody involved in the development or management of data projects—and that includes digital content management and content marketing programs.