When new technologies emerge, visionaries and early adopters often present expectations, assumptions and unproven hypotheses as facts. Marketing and sales presentations similarly obscure their differences, but facts can be stubborn things. While it’s a foregone conclusion that artificial intelligence and smart technologies will disrupt businesses and markets, their specific impacts will be revealed over time. There is much that even the best minds in technology don’t know about the future. Business leaders should keep this in mind as they consider how emerging smart technologies will affect their operations.
These are important considerations for crafting and updating competitive strategies, reengineering business models and upgrading technical infrastructures[1,2]. Research by scholars at MIT, Columbia and other institutions have found that the best performing companies succeed by adopting innovative technologies through well-lead, disciplined efforts. In this context, transforming organizations for the emerging digital age will require new mindsets, effective leadership and learning organizations to fuel adaptation.
These lessons were reflected in MIT’s Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy Program, which concluded in mid-September. Hundreds of professionals, managers and executives from around the world spent six weeks learning about the latest advances in AI and their potential to change how we live, learn and do business. The program also served as a forum to exchange ideas and make valuable connections with colleagues working across industries, contexts and geographic boundaries.
I expect that we will continue collaborating and cooperating in the years ahead as we gain experience developing and deploying AI and other smart technologies. We’ll also be sharing lessons learned and new insights for coping with related disruptions, while exploiting growing opportunities. I’ve already began the process of incorporating what I learned in the program into OPR’s tool box of competitive strategies, business models and related methodologies. I’m excited by AI’s potential and the opportunity to help clients leverage its growing capabilities for competitive advantage.
Please contact us if you want to discuss the strategic and competitive opportunities being created by AI and smart technologies. We continue to learn new lessons, conduct research and develop innovative digital transformation solutions. Sharing ideas and insights are at the heart of what we do, and it begins with a conversation.
References
Ozzie Paez, Is business strategy relevant today? April 16, 2018, Ozzie Paez Research, https://www.ozziepaezresearch.com/single-post/2018/04/16/Is-business-strategy-relevant-today
Ozzie Paez, Competitive strategy, digital strategy and transformation, Ozzie Paez Research, May 3, 2018, https://www.ozziepaezresearch.com/single-post/2018/05/03/Competitive-strategy-digital-strategy-and-transformation