AI is now a top priority in boardrooms, and here at Russam our pool of AI strategists and thought leaders is growing fast.  Innovative firms and PE Backed Portfolio companies are facing increasing pressure and scrutiny to deliver efficiency, innovation, and customer and shareholder value. C-Suite leaders must adopt and align Gen AI adoption with a co-ordinated strategy that provides a clear road map that ensures both operational and client trust and leads to optimising process efficiencies and innovative new products. In the US, the prevalent trend is to hire an interim CAIO ( Chief AI officer) at the outset to create this road map and ensure that firms are not being left stranded.  We are having these conversations and placing these experts with many of our clients now and would welcome meetings with current and new clients. Please contact us to arrange a meeting.

According to the latest Bain report, companies are becoming increasingly bullish about generative AI (Gen AI). Any previous scepticism is thawing, replaced by concerns of “Are we being left behind?”  75% of companies agree that Gen AI poses significant disruption to their industry, particularly in areas such as core product differentiation, new business models, and new customer engagement models.

Key Uses of Generative AI

Companies are finding several key uses for Gen AI, including:

• Core product enhancement and new product development
• Marketing
• Customer engagement and onboarding

Additionally, 50% of companies reported that AI has already delivered business value.

Challenges and Areas for Improvement

However, not all experiences with AI have met expectations. The report highlights two main challenges:

• Lack of in-house skills: 40% of companies cited this as a barrier.
• Poor quality output: Another 40% mentioned that AI did not perform as needed, often due to a lack of understanding in deploying the tools and insufficient quality data.

Build or Buy? Despite these challenges, the trend is shifting from building AI solutions in-house to buying them, although building remains more common.

Fun Intel: Instagram’s Latest Announcement – fly me to the moon!

In exciting news, Instagram has announced that it will integrate Meta’s video generator, Movie Gen, into its platform in 2025. This new tool will allow users to do “anything they want with their videos.” This includes changing the subjects appearance and location

https://www.instagram.com/mosseri/reel/DDwzSoyxRSx/?hl=en

New Advertising model? Tired of being bombarded with Adverts? Aravind Srinivas of search tool perplexity suggests that advertising could be left to AI agents, so that we don’t need to watch adverts ourselves. It’s yet another huge cultural shift but in the attention economy will we go for it and furthermore will the ad agencies?

https://adtechradar.com/2025/01/02/perplexity-ceo-envisions-ads-targeting-ai-agents-not-consumers/

Online Event – Lessons from America – why you need a CAIO now and where to find them.  March 27^th   5pm GMT – SAVE THE DATE

This is going to be an hour of revelations for Hiring Managers in the UK

Key Topics:

• The strategic importance of the CAIO role
• Differences in AI leadership between the US and the UK
• Lessons the UK can learn from US AI strategies
• Best strategies for recruiting and integrating senior AI expertise

Contact Paul Wilkins our Head of AI practice for more information and to book a meeting : Paul.wilkins@russam.co.uk