The AI Ladder: Accelerate Your Journey to AI

AI may be the greatest opportunity of our time, with the potential to add nearly $16 trillion to the global economy over the next decade. But so far adoption has been much slower than anticipated. With this practical report, business leaders will discover where they are in their AI journey and learn the steps they still need to take to implement an AI solution in their organization.

Author Rob Thomas, general manager of data and AI at IBM, introduces C-suite executives and line-of-business professionals to the AI Ladder--a unified, prescriptive approach to help them accelerate their AI journey, no matter where they are in the process. This succinct report explores AI's drivers, value, and opportunity, as well as the adoption challenges organizations now face.

• Learn why you can't have AI without IA (information architecture)
• Unify data within a multicloud environment to unlock its value
• Make data accessible by collecting every type, regardless of where it lives
• Create a business-ready analytics foundation with built-in governance, protection, and compliance
• Benefit from AI models by learning smarter ways to analyze data
• Operationalize AI across multiple departments and within various processes

AI可能是我們這個時代最大的機遇，未來十年內有潛力為全球經濟增加將近16萬億美元。但到目前為止，AI的應用遠遠慢於預期。這份實用報告將幫助企業領導者了解他們在AI之旅中的位置，並學習實施AI解決方案所需的步驟。

作者羅布·湯瑪斯（Rob Thomas）是IBM的數據和AI總經理，他向高層執行官和業務專業人士介紹了AI階梯（AI Ladder）-一種統一的、指導性的方法，幫助他們加速AI之旅，無論他們在過程中處於何種階段。這份簡明報告探討了AI的驅動因素、價值和機遇，以及組織目前面臨的應用挑戰。

- 了解為什麼沒有信息架構（IA）就無法實現AI
- 在多雲環境中統一數據，發掘其價值
- 通過收集各種數據，無論其存儲位置如何，使數據可訪問
- 建立具備內建治理、保護和合規性的商業就緒分析基礎
- 通過學習更智能的數據分析方法，從AI模型中獲益
- 在多個部門和不同流程中實現AI的運作

Robert D. Thomas is Senior Vice President of IBM Cloud and Data Platform. He directs IBM's product design and investment strategy, expert labs, global software product development, marketing and field operations across the company's vast software portfolio.

Rob was previously the General Manager of IBM Data and Watson AI. Under his leadership, IBM has emerged as a leader in data and AI, spanning databases, data integration and governance, business intelligence, financial planning, data science and AI tools, and AI applications. Since joining IBM's software unit, Rob has held roles of increasing responsibility and overseen 4 acquisitions by the firm, representing over $2.5 billion in transaction value.

Born in Florida, Rob earned his BA in Economics at Vanderbilt University and earned his MBA at the University of Florida, Rob serves on the board of Domus (Stamford, CT), which assists underprivileged children in Fairfield county.

Paul C. Zikopoulos is the Vice President of Cognitive BigData Systems at IBM. Paul has more than 23 years of experience in data, and is seen as a global expert in Big Data and Analytic technologies. Independent groups often recognize Paul as a thought leader with nominations to SAP's"Top 50 Big Data Twitter Influencers", Maptive's "Top 100 Big Data Experts to Follow in 2016", "Big Data Republic's "Most Influential", Onalytica's "Big Data Top 100 Influencers and Brands", and Analytics Week "Thought Leaders in Big Data and Analytics" lists. Big Data Made Simple noted him as one of the "Top 200 Big Data Thought Leaders on Twitter", Technopedia listed him one of its "Big Data Experts to Follow", and GreyCampus included him on their list of "150 Most Influential People in Big Data & Hadoop". He has also been featured on "60 Minutes", speaking on the topic of Big Data, and advises various universities on their graduate-level analytics programs.

Paul has written hundreds of magazine articles and 19 books, including "Big Data: Beyond the Hype", "Hadoop for Dummies", "Harness the Power of Big Data", "Understanding Big Data", "New Dynamic InMemory Analytics for the Era of Big Data", "Risk Free Agile Scaling", "DB2 Certification for Dummies", and "DB2 for Dummies. In his spare time, Paul is active in bolstering Women in Technology and is an advisory board member for Women 2.0, which works to close the gender gaps in tech companies. Paul enjoys all sorts of sporting activities (including the futile resistance and transformation into a "Horse Dad"). Ultimately, Paul is trying to figure out the world according to Chloë--his daughter, whom he notes didn't come with a handbook and is more complex than the topic of BigData, but more fun too. Find him on Twitter @BigData_paulz.

Robert D. Thomas是IBM Cloud和Data Platform的高級副總裁。他負責指導IBM的產品設計和投資策略，專家實驗室，全球軟件產品開發，市場營銷和公司軟件組合的現場運營。Rob之前擔任IBM Data和Watson AI的總經理。在他的領導下，IBM在數據和人工智能領域崛起，涵蓋數據庫、數據集成和治理、商業智能、財務規劃、數據科學和人工智能工具以及人工智能應用。自加入IBM軟件部門以來，Rob擔任了越來越多責任的角色，並監督了公司的4次收購，交易價值超過25億美元。Rob在佛羅里達州出生，他在范德堡大學獲得了經濟學學士學位，並在佛羅里達大學獲得了工商管理碩士學位。Rob還擔任Domus（康涅狄格州斯坦福德）董事會成員，該組織幫助貧困兒童在費爾菲爾德縣生活。

Paul C. Zikopoulos是IBM的認知大數據系統副總裁。Paul在數據領域擁有超過23年的經驗，被認為是全球大數據和分析技術的專家。獨立團體經常將Paul識別為思想領袖，並提名他為SAP的“前50位大數據Twitter影響者”，Maptive的“2016年須關注的100位大數據專家”，“Big Data Republic”的“最有影響力人物”，Onalytica的“大數據前100位影響者和品牌”，以及Analytics Week的“大數據和分析思想領袖”名單。Big Data Made Simple將他列為“Twitter上前200位大數據思想領袖之一”，Technopedia將他列為“大數據專家之一”，GreyCampus將他列入他們的“大數據和Hadoop中最有影響力的150人”名單。他還在“60 Minutes”節目中講解了大數據的主題，並為各大學的研究生級別分析課程提供諮詢。Paul撰寫了數百篇雜誌文章和19本書，包括《大數據：超越炒作》、《Hadoop入門》、《發揮大數據的力量》、《理解大數據》、《新動態內存分析與大數據時代》、《無風險敏捷擴展》、《DB2認證入門》和《DB2入門》。在業餘時間，Paul積極支持科技領域的女性，並擔任Women 2.0的顧問委員會成員，該組織致力於消除科技公司中的性別差距。Paul喜歡各種運動活動（包括無效的抵抗和轉變為“馬爸爸”）。最終，Paul試圖根據他的女兒Chloë來理解世界，他指出她沒有附帶一本手冊，比大數據的主題更複雜，但也更有趣。在Twitter上找到他@BigData_paulz。