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Winning with AI: Build the BI Race Car Before You Turbocharge It with AI

AI doesn’t replace human creativity and insight—it enhances them by tracking more variables than any human possibly can, identifying trends and risks in real time. But just like a race car, without the right structure and skilled drivers, adding more speed doesn’t make you faster—it makes you crash harder.

Your Best Drivers Will Train AI to Help Them Win

AI isn’t here to take the wheel. For the foreseeable future, humans will remain behind the wheel of business, making strategic decisions that drive growth. But AI can be the ultimate co-pilot—alerting leaders to risks, opportunities, and changing conditions before they’re obvious.

Building the Race Car: BI Is the Foundation

Before you can race ahead with AI, you first need a foundation with sound fundamentals:

Integrated workflows and data across departments. Broken processes and reporting blind spots create functional silos, preventing accurate, trusted reporting. Finance, sales, supply chain, and operations must work from one version of the truth.
A dashboard that provides real-time visibility into the measures that drive revenue, operating margin, and cash flow. Just as you wouldn’t drive a car by looking out the rear window, business teams need clear visibility into what’s happening now, how performance is trending, and actionable insights on risks and opportunities.
Upskill your best drivers—your business SMEs—not just on the tools, but on the cross-functional dependencies that drive performance of your aggregate KPIs. These individuals must be intimately involved—not only to understand the system, but to help design it. They aren’t just passengers; they are the engineers of your team’s BI race car, building the capability to accelerate on the straightaways and brake confidently into the curves.

Learning to Drive Before Adding AI

Once BI is in place—with workflows connected and reporting dashboards fine-tuned—teams will begin to trust reports and use them to drive decisions.

Teams proactively collaborate to identify risks and opportunities early, while there’s still time to control the outcome. This fosters a culture of teamwork, ownership, and accountability.
Individuals and teams master the fundamentals of decision-making using real-time data, which only comes with experience.
As teams analyze patterns, identify opportunities, and adjust course in real time, they develop the instincts and expertise needed to push the business forward.
Game-changing insight and decisions drive significant business impact during this stage.
Once teams are winning races with BI-driven decision-making, they’re ready to supercharge the race car with AI.

AI as the Race Strategist—Not the Driver

AI doesn’t replace human judgment—it enhances it by tracking more variables than any human possibly can, so your driver can make informed decisions to win the race.

Changing Track Conditions. AI alerts you to shifts in market trends, customer behavior, or supply chain disruptions before they impact performance.
Crashes You Don’t See Yet. AI detects early warning signs of operational risks or financial stress before they escalate.
Fuel Burn Rate & Tire Wear. AI monitors resource utilization, workforce productivity, and cost efficiency, ensuring you’re managing operating margin.
Laps Before a Problem Emerges. AI forecasts when issues like cash flow strain, inventory shortages, or capacity constraints could arise, giving teams time to discuss and decide on corrective action.

The Winning Formula

First, build the race car. Establish BI as the foundation, ensuring trusted data, real-time reporting, and integrated workflows.
Fine-tune the dashboard. Make sure your best drivers—your business leaders—have the visibility they need to make strategic decisions.
Learn to win races. Your team gains experience, confidence, and passion for team-based problem solving.
Then, and only then, add AI as the turbocharger. Once you know how to drive, AI greatly enhances your ability to anticipate and react to changing business conditions.

Don’t Skip Steps—Build First, Then Turbocharge

Too many organizations try to bolt AI onto a system that isn’t ready for it. The result? Unreliable insights, lack of adoption, and wasted investment.

At Ascent Innovations, we help businesses build the race car first—integrating processes, structuring data, and designing real-time analytics that empower decision-making. Once that foundation is in place, AI becomes a force multiplier, accelerating what’s already working.

Are you ready to take control of your business performance before adding AI? Let’s build the race car first—so you can win with data and AI when the time is right.

About the Author

John Bruhnke is Managing Director at Ascent. He has 25 years of management consulting experience focused on system implementation and, for the last 7 years, modern analytics in the manufacturing industry. He collaborates with executive and management teams to drive alignment on strategic goals and develop a collective vision for modernization that balances both immediate business needs and long-term strategy.