At expertise and manufacturing firm Honeywell, generative AI is in all places.
“Each perform and each strategic enterprise unit is now utilizing gen AI,” Sheila Jordan, the corporate’s chief digital expertise officer, who oversees AI integration internally inside the group, informed Fortune. “And the opposite factor I’m tremendous happy with is that we’ve it obtainable to all 100,000 workers,”
The corporate constructed its personal “Honeywell GPT,” which helps workers draft and edit emails, summarize technical paperwork, translate content material, and brainstorm concepts. Workers additionally use Purple, a digital assistant that serves as a central useful resource for accessing firm data round IT, finance, HR, and the agency’s coverage library. Engineers are coding with AI, and the corporate is reimagining its diverse services and products with new generative AI–powered choices. General, the corporate has 24 generative AI initiatives in manufacturing and 12 extra on the best way, compared with 16 a year ago.
As corporations throughout totally different enterprise sectors incorporate AI into their operations, an rising set of finest practices reveals a wide range of approaches, from decentralized, experimentation-driven cultures to tightly choreographed methods that may scale throughout a corporation. Honeywell, which ranked at No. 17 within the Fortune AIQ 50 listing of Fortune 500 corporations with probably the most “mature” AI capabilities, is a case research in easy methods to excel by taking the latter strategy.
Jordan and CTO Suresh Venkatarayalu, who oversees AI product efforts, imagine the corporate’s success in maturing its AI capabilities straight stems from its “six-chapter AI framework.” Together with the group’s top-down strategy to AI, adhering to the framework has allowed them to concentrate on efforts with fast impression as a way to kick off the flywheel impact.
“What are the use instances? And may I measure and monitor them?” mentioned Venkatarayalu, describing how the corporate zeroes in on impression. “In actual fact, tomorrow we’ve a gathering with Sheila and the CFO wanting on the 2026 street map and to ask me the true query: ‘Might we monitor it to the P&L?’ And we must always monitor it to the P&L. That’s the best way it’s arrange.”
The six-point technique
Within the fast-moving world of AI, it may be tough to prioritize, keep on monitor, and resist making an attempt to do the whole lot without delay. That’s why Honeywell’s management created a six-chapter framework in early 2024 to information the group’s AI efforts and hold it targeted strictly on use instances it believes will actually transfer the needle.
“We might get distracted by the lengthy, lengthy, lengthy tail and all of the noise and all of the issues folks would possibly wish to do, however we’ve an entire program to prioritize these issues which can be going to maneuver the needle in enterprise worth, each on productiveness and development and innovation,” mentioned Jordan, including that the group “would have been confused and misplaced” with out the framework and readability from her and Venkatarayalu about which generative AI capabilities have been match for implementation.
The primary chapter of the framework is in regards to the instruments—akin to Purple and Honeywell GPT—designed to help workers of their on a regular basis workflows. Then there’s chapter two, targeted on the usage of generative AI for engineering. Chapter three is how the agency “thinks about cognitive automation,” Jordan mentioned, particularly the way it’s utilizing totally different LLMs (massive language fashions) from Azure, Google, AWS, and others for particular use instances. Subsequent, chapter 4 is all about generative AI within the industrial functions they buy and use, like Salesforce and different platforms. Chapter 5 facilities on the corporate’s personal services and products. And lastly, chapter six focuses on gross sales effectiveness.
“I feel our chapters will work for any enterprise,” mentioned Venkatarayalu. “It’s productiveness, it’s development, and it’s margins.”
Chasing the flywheel impact
Jordan mentioned the truth that the expertise could be utilized to so many use instances is without doubt one of the largest challenges to beat, so it helps to begin with ones which have the most important fast impression. That method, these early successes can drive the trouble ahead.
For instance, she mentioned early work with GitHub and Copilot have been the “first movers” and delivered the worth they thought it will, which began the AI efforts off on a robust word.
“If it really works, the flywheel takes off. If it doesn’t work, it dies its loss of life, proper? So I needed the flywheel impact the place we might do one thing and present the group the worth of gen AI,” she mentioned.
This implies stepping into with a enterprise case and worth proposition in thoughts, however being open to worth coming via differently than assumed, she mentioned.
“Let’s imagine [the value] was going to be productiveness, however in actuality, it was a gross sales effectiveness play. We acquired the next conversion from one thing. So I might simply say to remain tremendous open to the enterprise advantages, as a result of they’ll morph based mostly upon your buyer and associate interactions,” Jordan added.
The highest-down strategy
One other key aspect to conserving the group on course and adhering to its AI framework is its top-down strategy.
The corporate has 65 enterprise items, and Venkatarayalu pointed to how different corporations begin with quite a lot of proof of ideas, letting enterprise items pursue their very own methods and democratizing the AI efforts. However not Honeywell, which he mentioned is “predominantly top-down-driven” relating to AI.
“I feel this firm seems at use instances first, worth second,” he mentioned. “And as soon as we imagine—together with our CEO and chairman and the enterprise unit leaders—[that a use case will deliver value], we drive that. I feel that’s a really totally different [mindset] than a lot of my friends.”
Learn extra lessons from the Fortune AIQ 50, the most recent Fortune AIQ particular report. This assortment of tales particulars how corporations on the inaugural Fortune AIQ 50 listing have made important progress integrating synthetic intelligence expertise into their operations, resulting in actual impression.
