What is decision intelligence and where has it come from?

Gartner identified decision intelligence as one of 2022's top 12 strategic tech trends, they expect that over a third of large organisations will be practising DI within two years.

The majority of us are now familiar with AI, the theory and development of algorithms that can perform certain tasks traditionally only humans could do; such as decision making, language processing or visual perception. DI is a commercial application of AI specifically to the decision making process. It provides recommended actions that address specific business needs, and is therefore always outcome focused. What sets DI apart? A solution must deliver a tangible ROI before it can be classed as DI.

This focus on outcome is important, presently only around 10% of AI models built by businesses are productionised. This is due to a number of factors, including the need for different technical skill sets to build and then deploy solutions, data silos within organisations, and divides between technical teams and the business users they build solutions for. DI’s outcomes-focus addresses many of the challenges faced by businesses looking to deploy AI.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) recently published an InfoBrief and Peerscape on Decision Intelligence. Neil Ward-Dutton and Jack Vernon argue that, while using AI to direct decision making may seem like a futuristic concept, a wide range of businesses across industries are already winning big with Decision Intelligence.

For you

Be part of something bigger, join BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

DI provides a holistic overview of an entire organisation, it optimises every department at every level, as opposed to AI point solutions which might optimise marketing with no consideration for the implications on other areas of the business.

This means it will tell the marketing team not to launch a campaign if it’s likely to cause a fire in supply, for example. Crucially, it’s also based on real-time data and not historical; the insights it provides are current and relevant.

Rather than removing the need for human decision entirely, decision intelligence augments the commercial decision-making process, enabling companies to make more informed decisions since they have greater visibility of what's happening at an organisational level. Early adopters have seen incredible business results such as:

• £5 million profit improvement over 12 months
• 27% increase in sales margin from AI-driven rebuying
• 15% increase in unit sales

The application of AI and DI isn’t a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’. DI will be how enterprises adopt AI, it is the most important software category for a generation and will change how the world works. Every business will need an intelligence that draws on every piece of data and uses it to help people make decisions in a way they simply couldn’t before.