Artificial intelligence is the sexy siren luring enterprises into novel initiatives. Its attractions are so strong, some attempt to get friendly without proper courtship. That courtship would be the unglamorous, often tough data governance, security and stewardship groundwork. If they don’t build out their “AI Ladder,” rung by rung, they could blow their chances for a happy, sustainable relationship with AI.

“AI Ladder” is the term IBM Corp. uses when coaching enterprise clients on their AI strategies. It begins with the right data architecture, which is the foundation for analytics. Excellent analytics capabilities, in turn, produce true AI, according to Rebecca Shockley (pictured, left), executive consultant, IBM Global Business Services.

Shockley and Alfred Essa (pictured, right), vice president of analytics and R&D at McGraw-Hill Global Education Holdings LLC (McGraw-Hill Education), spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM CDO Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. They discussed the perils of pouncing at AI without laying the proper foundation and other organizational challenges in the digitally transforming enterprise. (* Disclosure below.)

Checks and balances on data democracy

“I’ve been doing data and analytics with IBM for 21 years, and data governance is never fun,” Shockley said. “It’s hard, and people would just as soon go do something else.”

It’s especially important for businesses to set up firm governance rules, since self-service tools are democratizing data across organizations. This may result in a bunch of sorcerers’ apprentices pushing buttons that botch underlying data infrastructure.

Many businesses flock to high-level AI that smells like quick money, understandably. In their excitement, many fail to see how it all ties back to what’s in the basement, Shockley explained. IBM is “basically telling them, ‘Yes, we understand that’s fun up there, but come back down and deal with your foundation,” she said. “And for a lot of organizations, they’ve never really stepped into data governance.”

Once the governance foundation is firm, organizations can safely democratize data. This makes use of more brains to come up with solutions to hard problems that AI can help solve. “I think the exciting thing about data science is it’s an interdisciplinary field,” Essa said. “It’s not one skill, but you need to bring together a combination of skills.”

McGraw Hill embarked on a mission to digitally transform its textbook business several years ago. It’s now looking at how data analytics and AI can change education, Essa concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM CDO Summit. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the IBM CDO Summit. Neither IBM, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE