Soft dollar considerations

Early in my career, I spent a significant amount of time on equity trading desks. One term I remember distinctly was “soft dollar account”. Soft dollar? What is this all about? Come to find out, this was how companies could compensate each other in ways other than the exchange of currency for products and services. 

Of course, this was (and still is) a slippery slope. Deployed with the right intent and purpose, these arrangements could provide a lot of goodwill and value well beyond the revenue line. Deployed with greed and we all fall down.

According to Venturebeat, an estimated 87% of data science projects never make it to the production stage, and TechRepublic claims that 56% of global CEOs expect it to take 3-5 years to see any real ROI on their AI investment. Nevermind this fact, you can take solace in the reality that you want to be a leader, not a laggard, and you need to be the one who can prove that your use of AI is contributing to ROI via expansion and growth.

In the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), soft dollars have become part of the value equation – with a deal less nefariousness than those of investment banking circles.

  • What could this look like?

  • Elimination of duplication of data and processes

  • Refocusing critical IT talent to initiatives with better risk-adjusted-return-rates

  • Improved productivity from your AI deployments

  • Retraining your employees with modern skills

  • New customer experience for reduced churn

 Soft dollar considerations can be immense, clearly. Consider these as you consider which AI projects you’ll be adopting over the balance of this year and make them a relevant part of your decisions!

At CAVU, we have opened up our proprietary AI and Analytics maturity model to help our clients understand their current state vs their peers and get free recommendations in a digitally sharable report for your company. 

You start by clicking here: Rapid Assessment Survey

Aaron DayCAVU Global