The author provides a five-step approach for companies to harness their unstructured data: prospecting for data, dusting off legacy data sets, using manual sorting as a steppingstone, using algorithms to streamline curation, and keeping track of data. The article concludes by stating that the ability to identify and activate underleveraged resources is crucial for businesses seeking a competitive advantage in the AI era.
Key takeaways:
- Companies need to leverage high-quality data already in their possession rather than pursuing large amounts of outside data for AI innovation.
- Unstructured data, which makes up 80% to 90% of the world's data, is a powerful resource for AI models as it reflects a company's business operations.
- Companies can access this unstructured data through steps such as prospecting for data, dusting off legacy data sets, using manual sorting as a steppingstone, using algorithms to streamline curation, and keeping track of their data.
- Identifying and activating underleveraged resources, such as unstructured data, is the new arms race for businesses seeking competitive advantage in the AI era.