Frequently Asked Questions

These are select questions that Dr. Ganesan frequently gets from readers. The responses below are summarized based on live and email conversations.

How can my company get started with AI integration?

To get started with AI without chasing the hype and wasting money, you need a plan. But to develop an effective plan, there are a few preliminary steps to take. The first step is to truly understand the AI landscape for business as a leadership team, beyond tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini.

If you and your leadership team have read The Business Case for AI and attended one of Kavita’s workshops, then you should have a pretty good understanding of AI for business and bearings on what your next steps might be. If not, improve Business AI literacy, and then start clarifying your goals for what you want to achieve with AI. In parallel, develop a deeper understanding of where your organization stands in terms of integration readiness.

For organizations at an early stage of serious AI integration or if you’ve tried AI and have not seen meaningful results, taking the OARA can provide an objective assessment of potential risks and gaps.

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Can I become an AI consultant after reading your book?

Gaining expertise in AI consulting can be a challenging journey, especially without hands-on experience. Many professionals from diverse fields, such as marketing, business consulting, software engineering, C-suite freelancing, and digital transformation, have explored AI consulting after engaging with AI literature, the many tools, and courses. However, success in this space requires more than theoretical or tools-related knowledge.

We’ve heard from clients who have faced challenges with business and IT consulting companies offering AI services, often feeling that initial promises didn’t align with outcomes.

AI consulting is a specialized field where experience, technical know-how, and contextual understanding are critical to delivering effective solutions. Without a technical background or prior experience in AI implementation and deployment, predicting challenges and providing valuable guidance can be difficult. Even experienced engineers struggle with this. In short, talking all day about AI is easy, but contemplating AI integration, even at the strategic level, is hard.

For those looking to establish themselves in AI consulting, gaining experience by working for established AI companies can be an excellent first step. Trying to be an AI expert without the necessary foundations and experience is a short-sighted business and career strategy, and more importantly, you’re putting customer businesses at risk.

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Does my company really need AI at a time of uncertainty?

Whether your business needs AI during periods of uncertainty or even economic growth depends entirely on the challenges it faces. Some organizations have operated successfully for decades without advanced technologies, including AI, and continue to do so. Others, however, have struggled or failed as customer expectations shift and competitors adopt technology to gain efficiency, scale, and market share. You’ve seen examples of this dynamic in The Business Case for AI.

For many companies, AI can become a meaningful differentiator, affecting not only profit margins but also long-term resilience. When applied thoughtfully, AI can reduce inefficiencies, help streamline processes, and minimize human error. This can eventually lower operating costs and, in some cases, reduce dependence on a purely human workforce, supporting profitability and growth.

Having said all of this, the way most companies adopt AI today is more based on vanity factors than actual “need.” AI is spray-painted over products, and companies buy subscriptions to AI tools more due to vendor pressures than to solve actual pain points. This is the complete opposite of the approach that Kavita uses with the companies she works with, as you will also notice from reading her book. You can learn more about some of this in one of Kavita’s podcast interviews.

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Does Kavita offer AI services that can benefit my company?

Kavita’s book, The Business Case for AI, is the result of her many years of working with companies building scalable AI solutions and now as a Chief AI Strategist and Architect at her own consulting firm. So yes, she does help companies with her proprietary methodology and frameworks. If you’re working on your AI strategy, the best place to start is by taking the Opinosis AI Integration Readiness Assessment (OARA) and scheduling a call from there.

What sets Dr. Ganesan’s approach apart is her focus on long-term, sustainable gains rather than short-term hype that rarely lasts. She focuses on advancing AI agendas grounded in realism, emphasizing rigor and meaningful organizational outcomes.

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As a leader with no coding experience, can I build my own AI tools?

Yes and no. You can use vibe code to build some basic AI tools with a limited scope. However, when the tool breaks or when it doesn’t work, you’ll have to get comfortable with coding to get things back on track.

For real-world production use cases, it’s best to hire experienced software engineers and AI experts who can bring complex ideas to life.

It’s important to have access to AI experts who understand how different models behave in real-world conditions, can identify potential risks, and ensure solutions perform reliably and responsibly. Building your AI tool with expert input can be the difference between a costly failure and a successful, trusted product.

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Do I need to build custom LLMs for my company to become an AI-first company?

Before deciding if you should custom-build LLMs, the best place to start is by understanding your landscape of AI and non-AI opportunities.

• What are they?
• What’s the best technology to solve those problems?
• What types of AI should you use, if any?
• What’s your readiness to adopt these technologies?
• What’s your risk tolerance for automation as an organization?

If you don’t know the answers to one or more of these questions, then a good starting point would be to work towards clarity around some of these questions.

If you’ve read The Business Case for AI, you’re probably in a better position to answer these questions, but if you haven’t, it’s best to level up your AI understanding or seek external guidance to get to these answers. Remember, the problem dictates the technology. Not the other way round, as most vendors and gurus will have you believe.

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Miscellneous

Can I translate your book into another language?

Since the book is copyright-protected, you’d need to acquire translation rights. Please contact us for more information.

Where can I access resources from previous editions?

If you don’t see specific resources from previous editions, it’s because they’re deprecated in favor of newer material. You can find the latest edition here.

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