Former IBM executive Dina Bingham says organizations should understand the business problem before choosing artificial intelligence (AI) or any other technology to address it. Her advice challenges leaders who feel pressure to adopt AI quickly: first examine how work is actually done, identify what is causing the problem, and involve the people closest to that work.

Bingham spent more than 25 years at IBM and has built her career around helping companies improve operational and transformational excellence. In an interview with Todd Nordstrom, she argued that the goal should not be to find the most advanced technology available. It should be to understand the work and determine whether technology is the right response.

Why companies should pause before adopting AI

Organizations are racing to use AI to address business and operational challenges. Bingham said the enthusiasm is understandable, but a technology-first approach can leave underlying business issues unresolved. Companies may move toward a solution before they have clearly defined the problem it is meant to solve.

She sees a shift beginning: organizations are recognizing the need to bring people closer to the work. Employees who perform a process can see how it functions in practice, including details that may not appear in systems or formal documentation. Understanding those details can help leaders choose a solution that fits the real problem.

Bingham described the approach as thinking backward to move forward. Instead of looking immediately for answers, leaders should step back, identify the problem, and understand what created it. Only then can they decide what technology, if any, is appropriate.

She pointed to business process outsourcing (BPO) as one area where reassessment may be important. Many BPO relationships were designed before AI changed how work gets done, when the economics, technology, talent, and available capabilities were different. Those earlier conditions no longer apply in the same way.

The ROOT Assessment and two questions for BPO leaders

Bingham created The ROOT Assessment, a framework she recently detailed in a white paper. It encourages leaders to reconsider existing BPO arrangements rather than assume that a past design is still the right one.

She highlighted two questions to consider before planning a path forward:

1. If you were designing your BPO operation today, in the age of AI, would you design it the same way? Bingham said organizations probably would not. Current capabilities and conditions may call for a different design than the one created when the relationship began.
2. What is the cost of waiting? Leaders should weigh the consequences of delaying action against the risk of moving quickly in the wrong direction. Taking time to understand the business problem and identify a suitable response may cost less than acting on an incomplete diagnosis.

These questions do not mean that leaders should delay every decision. They are a prompt to examine the problem and the consequences of both action and inaction before committing to a solution.

Five questions to ask before pursuing AI

For leaders feeling pressure to keep pace with competitors, Bingham recommended focusing on readiness and asking five questions:

1. Is your AI ambition moving faster than your organizational readiness? Focus on preparing the organization to adapt instead of building it around today’s AI tools. Bingham noted that AI will be different tomorrow than it is today.
2. Is your data ready for AI? AI can process messy data quickly, but that does not make the data reliable or bring the organization closer to solving its business problem. Data readiness needs to be assessed, not assumed.
3. Are you starting with the business problem, not the assumption of a technology solution? Define what needs to be solved before deciding what a technology can do. Otherwise, the organization may select a tool without addressing the underlying need.
4. Are you alienating your people? Not every process is fully documented. Steps, exceptions, and workarounds may exist only in the experience of employees who do the work. Leaving them out can lead to a solution based on an incomplete picture.
5. Are you leading with the right questions, or with the answer first? Bring the right people into the discussion and ask questions that reveal the real business problem. Once it is understood, finding suitable answers becomes easier.

Begin with people and the problem

Bingham’s advice is to resist treating AI adoption as the starting point. Leaders should first understand how work gets done, consult the people who perform it, and identify the issue they need to address. That groundwork can clarify whether AI is suitable or whether another response is needed.

For organizations reviewing AI plans or older BPO arrangements, the practical next step is to ask what problem they are solving and whether their current operating model still fits. Bingham’s emphasis on questions reflects her career-long focus on finding the right questions before settling on answers.

Learn more about Bingham at her website, or review her white paper on The ROOT Assessment.