More and more organizations are seeking to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. AI is promoted as being able to transform every aspect of how organizations function, yet this vision is far from reality. As episode guest Seth Earley said in his recent book, The AI-Powered Enterprise, in spite of multiple generations of investments and billions of dollars of digital transformations, organizations are still struggling with information overload, which undercuts efforts to excel at customer service, reduce costs, and maximize efficiency. The foundation of ensuring that an organization can function as an efficient biological ecosystem is the accurate perception, interpretation, and communication of data. When organizations are broken into silos that do not or cannot communicate, rely on incompatible information and vocabularies, and are drowning in “junk” data, the overall ecosystem cannot function effectively and AI projects fall well short of expectations. The result of these challenges is degradation of the customer experience and corresponding reductions in revenue and market share. William Ulrich and his guest, Seth Earley, will discuss what it takes to deliver effective AI solutions, including effective ontologies or knowledge domains and relationships. AI tools may sound like an easy path to AI deployment, but when underlying information required by those solutions is incomprehensible at scale, AI technology will not come close to reaching its potential. Check out this episode of The North Star to gain practical insights into the essential aspects of AI deployment as William and his guest take the conversation well beyond the vendor hype to gain clarity for a path forward.