Leveraging the BOT model to boost AI centre of excellence capabilities

AI is significantly influencing markets and steadily reshaping many industries, making it essential for companies to put in extra effort to remain competitive. With large investments from tech giants and institutions, it is becoming crucial for organisations to establish an AI centre of excellence (CoE), which can facilitate the full potential of AI and increase a firm’s efficiency and innovation.

That’s why this article covers the challenges you may face when setting up a dedicated AI unit. We also look at how our BOT model can simplify this process, providing expertise from day one and helping you build, operate, and transfer a qualified and mature AI team to your organisation.

AI in the business landscape

AI is now a permanent part of business. Many industry leaders see it as a vital investment that should be started as soon as possible. As they want to stay competitive and up to date with the market, they must be ready to allocate more financial resources to AI initiatives. Especially since big tech organisations and global institutions are already spending extensively. Only this year, the four largest tech corporations (Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta) plan to increase their combined expenditure to $320 billion and focus on building data centres and developing AI infrastructure that will accelerate their LLM research abilities. Another major funding in AI development is also planned by the European Union, which devotes €200 billion towards this cause.

Given how much the field can grow with such large investments, for many companies keeping up with the market and competition may require a dedicated AI team or an entire development centre. Importantly, awareness amongst enterprises of the importance of investing in AI is high. In a Deloitte survey from two years ago, 94% of business leaders admitted that AI is critical to their success strategy.

What’s more, the most recent report shows that 78% of companies plan to increase their overall AI spending in the next fiscal year. However, this does not come as a surprise, as 74% of respondents say their most advanced Gen AI initiative is already meeting or exceeding their ROI expectations.

Investing in a dedicated AI centre of excellence

Knowing how important AI is to the markets and how it can impact your firm, establishing a dedicated AI CoE becomes even more pressing. As the popularity of CoE use cases for deploying cloud infrastructure, BI solutions and new accounting or logistic tools proves, this approach can bring many benefits. From cultivating an environment for testing new ideas and processes to setting and implementing standards throughout the company – CoE helps embrace changes and create a culture that encourages team members of all disciplines and seniority to share ideas and push innovation even further.

In the case of AI, a specialised unit enables the efficient coordination and management of all AI development efforts within an organisation. It covers its adoption and optimisation, and fosters collaboration between AI experts and professionals with business and domain knowledge. Centralising such activities in a company ensures that AI projects are not isolated experiments but integrated, scalable solutions that deliver real business value.

The AI team consists of technology experts responsible for advising, preparing strategies, and guiding and overseeing AI projects in the firm. This means that such a unit identifies potential AI use cases, develops the necessary models and systems, enables the building and development of technology infrastructure, and works closely with both internal leaders and external vendors.

Challenges and considerations for setting up an AI CoE

While establishing a dedicated AI unit offers significant benefits and can be seen as a strategic move that drives company innovation and competitiveness, it also can present a few challenges. From assessing AI readiness to financial considerations and talent acquisition – proceeding with the AI centre adoption process requires careful planning. Some key factors worth considering are:

Level of AI maturity in the organisation

Before launching an AI centre of excellence, you must assess your firm’s current AI maturity. Does it have in-house expertise, infrastructure, and data governance in place? If not, you may need to start with pilot projects and external partnerships.

Through collaboration with a well-established software provider, you can get access to proven experts and methods of operation that facilitate the entire AI CoE development process. For example, Spyrosoft’s BOT model can enable your company to fast-track the work on AI centre creation by leveraging our knowledge, experience, and best practices. It also involves helping with assessing your AI readiness, defining a clear roadmap, and building the right technology infrastructure.

Learn more about how external partnerships can help your AI centre thrive >>

Building a multidisciplinary team

AI success depends on a diverse team that includes data scientists, engineers, business analysts, and domain experts. Finding, recruiting, and retaining top AI talent can be challenging due to high market demand. So, you may need to explore a mix of recruitment, partnerships, and upskilling existing employees to bridge the skills gap

With the BOT model, you gain immediate access to skilled, multidisciplinary AI specialists who bring their expertise and work closely with your internal teams. More so, the partner provides recruiting and back-office support that handles the hiring and onboarding processes, ensuring a well-trained AI team that is tailored to your needs.

High initial investment costs

Setting up an AI centre of excellence requires significant financing for infrastructure, resources, and skilled personnel. While the long-term benefits can be substantial, companies should plan for cautious but steady investments and align all AI initiatives with the firm’s priorities. Establishing such a centre within BOT can mitigate initial risks and reduce upfront costs, as the partner is responsible for building the team and preparing the infrastructure using its own resources. This allows businesses to focus on scaling initiatives effectively while maintaining cost efficiency and getting great value from artificial intelligence.

Stakeholders and employees AI education

AI adoption isn’t just a technological challenge; oftentimes, it’s also a cultural shift in the organisation. Employees, decision-makers, and stakeholders must understand AI’s potential, limitations, and ethical considerations. Therefore, a strong internal education program is often needed. It can foster an understanding of AI topics, boost competence development, improve adoption rates, and ensure alignment with business goals.

As part of the BOT collaboration, we can provide you with AI training programs, hands-on workshops, and continuous mentoring of experts to help you build AI knowledge from within and promote an innovation-driven culture.

Addressing all these factors early on and leveraging the BOT model can help you better cope with the challenges of establishing a centre of excellence, thereby unlocking AI’s full potential while minimising risks and costs.

Discover how the BOT model can benefit your AI centre

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BOT model for AI centre of excellence set up

As mentioned earlier, the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model can be a very effective strategy for setting up an AI CoE, especially for organisations new to AI or lacking internal expertise. The BOT model allows companies to leverage external expertise and resources in the critical early stages of planning and building a dedicated AI unit, thus ensuring that it has a solid foundation.

In line with the model premise, the technology partner is initially in charge of building and introducing the team, and then the operational aspect and scaling. Over time, as the team’s capabilities and competencies are developed and reinforced, full control and oversight of centre of excellence operations are transferred to the client organisation.

Here’s a breakdown of what each phase of BOT can cover in terms of setting up an AI centre of excellence:

Build phase

• Initial team formation: Facilitating the recruitment and onboarding of experienced, multidisciplinary AI professionals and working on training and integrating promising internal candidates into a CoE team. The focus is on building a dedicated team with data scientists, engineers, project managers, business analysts, and experts with domain knowledge.
• Infrastructure setup: Leveraging the partner’s tech knowledge and resources to establish the required technological infrastructure, including data storage solutions, necessary platforms, and AI development tools.
• Pilot projects: Identification of key business areas where AI can deliver significant wins. Developing and deploying strategies and projects to demonstrate the value of AI, refine processes, and build stakeholder understanding and confidence.

Operate phase

• Knowledge sharing: The partner takes the lead in operating the AI centre activities and guarantees ongoing knowledge and skill sharing through hands-on training, workshops, and mentorship.
• Process optimisation: Introducing and developing standardised workflows, best practices, and documentation to ensure consistency, high quality, and efficiency in AI projects.
• Scaling: Taking responsibility for continuously expanding resources and teams to secure further growth of AI initiatives, also across departments and business functions.
• Stakeholder engagement: Maintaining regular communication with leaders, decision-makers, and stakeholders to align AI initiatives with strategic goals and provide continuous support.

Transfer phase

• Transfer and handover: Once the team has gained sufficient knowledge, competence, and trust, the partner hands over full control of the AI centre of excellence to the client organisation. This includes IP, all resources, the entire infrastructure, management of ongoing projects, and governance of the team’s administrative aspects.
• Planning for stable growth: Creating and transferring a long-term strategy for the CoE, including ongoing training programs, talent development initiatives, and investments in new technologies and AI solutions to secure a solid foundation for future development.

Partner with us to set up an AI centre of excellence in BOT

Setting up an AI centre of excellence using the BOT model provides a reliable, structured, and scalable approach to integrating AI into an organisation’s strategic business activities. By centralising expertise, enhancing resources, and fostering a culture of innovation, an AI CoE can significantly improve your company’s productivity and ability to outpace the competition. The BOT model offers distinct advantages, such as risk mitigation, faster deployment, and stable knowledge transfer, making it a great option for firms looking to build robust AI capabilities.

If all that sounds like it would perfectly suit your company’s needs, don’t hesitate to contact us via the form below. Our experts will gladly answer all your questions and develop the best path to increase your AI potential.