AI Teams and the Center of Excellence

AI Teams and the Center of Excellence

Step 1 of 9

requests8

Four product teams each want two AI use cases this quarter: 8 requests. Who builds them?

The Idea

A center of excellence (CoE) concentrates scarce AI skills. Centralized, it builds every use case: consistent, but it becomes a queue. Hub and spoke moves builders into product teams while the hub keeps the platform, guardrails, evaluation and training. Most organizations start central and move outward as skills spread.

Real-World Example

A newspaper's data desk first builds every chart itself. Once reporters learn the tools, a data reporter sits on each section, and the desk keeps the style guide, the templates and the final check.

The Tradeoff

Central keeps quality high and caps throughput; embedded scales throughput and splinters standards unless the hub holds them. Either way, name the roles: a product owner, builders, a data owner, risk and legal reviewers, and a skills plan for everyone else. Measure the CoE on business outcomes, not models shipped.

Your turn

Put the steps in the right order.

1. 1Embed builders in product teams as skills spread↑↓
2. 2Form a small central team with short reporting lines to leadership↑↓
3. 3Shift the hub from building to enabling and reviewing↑↓
4. 4Deliver the first use cases and the shared platform centrally↑↓

Check order

Mini quiz

1 / 3

A company has three AI specialists and no shared platform. Which operating model fits its first use cases?

• APut one specialist in each product team right away
• BA central team that builds the first use cases and the shared foundations
• CLet every team buy its own tools
• DWait until there are twenty specialists