Operationalizing machine learning, or “MLOps”, as it is now called, is the latest trend in many industries. However, many businesses struggle with this process. Operating is something that businesses do every day; they operate their factories, their offices, their stores, and so on. But what does it mean to “operationalize machine learning”? Here are some ways you can leverage MLOps in business.

DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS PROBLEM

First, you need to define your business problem. What are the key issues that you are trying to solve? You might have a specific goal, such as increasing sales or decreasing churn rate, or you might have a specific use case in mind, such as adding image recognition to your shopping app. Your business problem will guide your path to utilizing MLOps.

COLLECT THE RIGHT DATA

Next, you need to collect the right data. The data you use impacts the quality of your model. If the data is incorrect, the model will be incorrect. Ensure that the data you use is accurate and reflects your desired use case. For example, if you are trying to model checkout rates, you should use data that reflects checkout rates, such as order and item information. If you want to model what customers buy, you should use product and order information. If you want to model customer sentiment, you should use data related to customer sentiment, such as review data.

BUILD A RELIABLE AND SCALABLE MLOPS PLATFORM

Next, you need to build a reliable and scalable MLOps platform. Building such a platform is critical to operationalizing your ML project. A scalable platform will enable you to process more data and build and scale more models than you currently have the capacity to handle. This will, in turn, enable you to utilize MLOps. You can do this by using a managed cloud-based machine learning platform. These platforms clean, organize, and standardize your data, making it easier to build and operationalize AI projects by removing much of the manual work involved.

DECIDE ON THE RIGHT ML PRODUCT/SERVICE TO BUILD

Next, you need to decide on the right ML product/service to build. This will be based on the business problem you are trying to solve. For example, if you want to predict checkout rates, you might want to use a recommendation engine solution, or if you want to forecast demand for certain products, you might want to use a forecasting solution. Once you’ve decided on the right product or service to build, you need to operationalize the solution. You can do this by using the managed cloud-based machine-learning platform that you selected earlier. This will save you time and effort by enabling you to build, train, and deploy models easily.

Once you’ve managed to leverage MLOps for your business, you can begin to use it to solve real business problems and make your AI project more successful and sustainable.