Credit: Stephen Sauer
Artificial intelligence is a top priority for businesses everywhere as leaders start to realize its transformative value in improving how their companies operate, make decisions, and deliver results.
To truly reap the benefits of AI, especially generative AI, executives must embrace the need to develop a deep understanding of the technology, its use cases, ethics, and more, according to an MIT Sloan professor of global economics and management. He and Sertac Karaman, an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics and director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, lead the AI Executive Academy, a new Executive Education course offered jointly by MIT Sloan and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing that looks at the technical and business aspects of AI and its impact across industries.
At a recent webinar about the potential of AI for executives, So and Karaman discussed how executives can navigate the new technological landscape, including six ways leaders can embrace AI.
1. Gain hands-on experience.
In order for businesses to successfully deploy AI, leaders need to have an understanding of how AI systems operate, what they can do well, and what they don’t do well, So said.
This means going beyond a technical understanding of how generative AI works to “experience the use of generative AI hands-on and to work through problems recognizing that this is where the future of work is heading — us collaborating with AI to solve problems,” he said. “Through that learning experience, [leaders are] able to figure out how AI can be deployed within their organizations in an effective manner.”
2. Encourage AI use among employees.
Executives should also provide employees with opportunities to experiment with the technology, So said. Holding hackathons for employees to explore AI’s implications for their work is one way to encourage experimentation.
“Employees are the best ones who can understand how AI can affect their day-to-day work,” So said. While strategic discussions need to take place at an executive level, “I have encouraged organizations to … really invite AI to the table and create an environment in which employees feel licensed to experiment in a safe way.”
Putting guardrails in place to ensure the privacy of the organization’s data is important, he added.
3. Think about AI as an R&D investment.
Large companies such as Google are investing tremendous time and money into developing AI infrastructure, which is resulting in increased capabilities and lower costs for businesses that want to access those models, So said. Yet, while business leaders widely recognize the transformative nature of AI, it’s important that they think critically about how to use it in their own organizations.
“We’re in an experimental phase, where it’s important to think about the problems you’re attempting to solve and the sensible business applications of AI,” So said. “One key message I have for folks who are thinking about incorporating AI within their organizations is not to be thinking about AI expenditures as a one-to-one trade-off like an employee salary, but rather as an investment like R&D in building capabilities into the future.”
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4. Consider what it means to have access to vast amounts of data.
Data is far more accessible today than it was in the past, Karaman said. Organizations are now able to purchase datasets to train AI systems, and AI allows companies to access and use their own organizational data in ways they weren’t able to before. This “is enabling people to either build new products or improve margins on their existing products by reducing costs by improving their operations,” Karaman said.
For example, some organizations are using AI to automate their hiring processes. Others are streamlining manufacturing processes. “You can start collecting data off your manufacturing processes, and you might realize there are a lot of new insights, new savings, and improvements that you can implement,” Karaman said. “You might be able to automate some of those processes with human monitoring and involvement.”
5. Use AI to improve experiences for customers and employees.
AI enables businesses to contextualize and tailor customer preferences at scale in ways that weren’t previously possible, So said. It’s also fueling innovation. “We’re seeing the big growth of things like AI therapists or AI coding partners that are really expanding what’s capable,” he said. In addition, the ability to automate certain tasks means that organizations have the potential to reduce costs that are typically passed on to consumers.
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The ability to outsource mundane tasks to AI is improving employee productivity, too. “This allows us to free up time for things that are more enjoyable for employees, including things like creative outcomes,” So said. “Companies that deploy this technology smartly to improve their workforce experience will see less burnout, more enjoyment, and hopefully greater job retention.”
6. Keep ethical considerations in mind.
Before diving into AI, executives must be aware of how to deploy it responsibly, Karaman said. This means ensuring that the development, deployment, and use of AI systems prioritize ethical considerations, fairness, transparency, and accountability. “How do we take AI and align it with the values of your company, customers, stakeholders, or the values of society? If not deployed in a safe, secure way, it might confuse your customers or give them the wrong information,” Karaman said. Companies will also need to make sure sensitive data is protected.
Organizations also need to monitor for bias, So said. “There’s quite a bit of research showing that certain types of [large language models] can present favoritism toward certain ethnic groups,” he said. “This is a really good example of the importance of careful monitoring of LLM outputs and understanding both their capabilities and their limitations.”
Watch the webinar: “Discover the potential of AI for executives”
