Artificial Intelligence: Implications For Business Strategy

Overview:

Introduction:

Artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced from an unknown force to a universally recognized opportunity. With its innovative potential for business and society no longer being predicted but rather realized, business leaders need to attain a practical grounding in AI and its business applications, in order to efficiently take advantage of it and navigate the challenges associated with its implementation.

This program equips you with the knowledge needed to transform your organization into an innovative, efficient, and sustainable business of the future.

Through an engaging mix of key technologies, business insights, case examples, and your own business-focused project, you’ll explore the reality of central AI technologies and how they can be harnessed to support your business needs. Focusing on machine learning, natural language processing, and robotics, the program helps you understand the implications of these AI technologies for business strategy, as well as the economic, societal, and business implementation issues they raise. Additionally, the course will emphasize how the collective intelligence of people and computers together can solve business problems that not long ago were considered impossible.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this course the participants will be able to:

• Gain a practical introduction to these key AI technologies and their business implications, equipping you with the knowledge and confidence to transform your organization by converting uncertainties regarding AI into impactful opportunities for business growth. The program does not assume any particular technological background — you’ll focus on the organizational and managerial implications of these technologies and how they can be applied in the workplace, rather than on their technical dimensions.
• Gain a key element of the course will be an individual project where you develop a plan for how AI could be used in your own organization or some other business context of your choice. Upon completion of the program, you’ll be ready to apply your knowledge to support informed strategic decision-making around the use of key AI technologies in your business.

Targeted Audience:

• This program is designed to prepare those with strategic decision-making responsibilities — such as aspiring managers, current managers, and high-level executives — to effectively analyze, articulate, and apply key AI management and leadership insights in their work and that of their teams and organizations.

Course Outlines:

Unit 1: Introduction To Artificial Intelligence

• Learn about the history of AI, its role in collective intelligence, and how to gain strategic advantage.
• Recognize how this program could help you to create a more intelligent organization
• Define AI and differentiate between narrow and general AI
• Outline the history of AI from both a technical and social perspective
• Articulate how computers and people can be combined to foster collective intelligence
• Apply a framework for realizing strategic advantage in business
• Analyze an organization's use of technologies in support of its strategy

Unit 2: Machine Learning In Business

• Explore machine learning and how it can be applied in a business context to gain strategic advantage.
• Review the key features of machine learning as a transformative technology
• Illustrate how machine learning is currently deployed in industries and across functions
• Investigate how an organization can use machine learning to achieve cost leadership, differentiation, or focus
• Decide if an application of machine learning is appropriate in an organization
• Evaluate the strategic, technical, and other aspects of an application of machine learning

Unit 3: Natural Language Processing in Business

• Explore NLP and how it can be applied in a business context to gain strategic advantage.
• Review the core features of natural language processing as a transformative technology
• Illustrate how natural language processing is currently deployed in various industries and across functions
• Investigate how an organization can use natural language processing to achieve cost leadership, differentiation, or focus
• Decide if an application of natural language processing is appropriate in an organization
• Evaluate the strategic, technical, and other aspects of an application of natural language processing

Unit 4: Robotics in Business

• Explore robotics and how robots can be used in a business context to gain strategic advantage.
• Review the core features of robotics as a transformative technology
• Illustrate how robots are currently deployed in various industries and across functions
• Investigate how an organization can use robotics to achieve cost leadership, differentiation, or focus
• Decide if an application of robotics is appropriate in an organization
• Evaluate the strategic, technical, and other aspects of an application of robotics

Unit 5: Artificial Intelligence in Business & Society

• Consider the merits of the human-machine partnership and any ethical concerns that may arise from the use of AI in an organization.
• Extend your knowledge of AI technologies to other types of AI
• Articulate the broader implications of AI for business and society
• Analyze the impact of AI on the future of work
• Debate the ethical concerns entailed within the adoption of AI
• Assess the risks and benefits of the human-machine partnership

Unit 6: The Future of Artificial Intelligence

• Develop a roadmap for using AI, and consider the future of your organization with AI technologies.
• Predict the rate of the future progress of AI
• Articulate how people can connect to create more intelligent organizations
• Propose an initiative for a specific business application of AI
• Produce a roadmap for a business to gain strategic advantage through the use of AI
• Reflect on the key outcomes of this program