Times are changing … again. It seems like the pace of change has accelerated in the past 40 years. And many of those landmark changes — the internet, smartphones — have brought significant industry disruption. Today, we’re faced with another innovation that’s poised to upend the way many of us operate: Artificial Intelligence.
AI is iterating at an extremely fast pace. For example, OpenAI’s Chat GPT-3.5 just three years ago was scoring in the 87th percentile on the SAT verbal sections. Today, GPT-4 can pass the Uniform Bar Examination. With its rapid advancement, AI is definitely something that business leaders are not only thinking about, but are actively integrating into their businesses.
According to PwC’s October 2024 Pulse Survey, 49 percent of technology leaders said that AI was “fully integrated” into their companies’ core business strategy, and a third said AI was fully integrated into products and services. And in the company’s 2024 Cloud and AI Business Survey, PwC found 73 percent of executives say they’ll use GenAI to make changes to their company’s business model.
Some companies, as they ponder their strategy in the age of AI, are realizing that they may not be best positioned to benefit from the new technology. That’s what happened to the accounting firm Apple Growth Partners. When we talked with Chairman Chuck Mullen on our Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast last year, he told us that a conversation about ChatGPT changed the course of his company.
Seeing that technology had made a quantum leap, he said he recognized the scale of the investment his firm would need to make to stay competitive. That left him with a dilemma: Invest the millions it would take to properly adopt the technology. Or find another path.
“And I realized, to play with that level of money in a firm our size and get the technology right was a big roll of the dice,” Mullen said. “I’m OK taking calculated risks and I’ve done that my whole life, but this was a risk I was not willing to bet the farm on. That started my journey of saying, ‘We may need to lock arms with a larger firm that is already figuring this out.’”
And that’s what he did. In June 2024, Apple Growth Partners merged with Fargo, North Dakota’s Eide Bailly.
According to McKinsey & Company, 92 percent of companies over the next three years plan to increase their AI investments. If you’re not exploring this technology in your business, start today. Disruption comes for every business. It’s best to be ready when it does. ●
