Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Study – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about the benefits of artificial intelligence for companies

Globally, almost 60% of managers of companies with executive positions have an AI strategy, increasing from 39% in 2017. “In Romania, the percentage is over 10 times lower” estimates Bogdan Belciu, BCG Romania Partner.

However, only 10% of companies already obtain significant financial benefits from the use of artificial intelligence. “The most important engine for generating measurable benefits from AI is not algorithms or technology – it’s the human presence,” says the report’s co-author, Shervin Khodabandeh.

A recent study by the MIT Sloan Management Review (MIT SMR), BCG GAMMA and BCG Henderson Institute shows a significant increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI): 57% of respondents carry out pilot projects or implement AI, 59% have an AI strategy and 70% understand how AI can generate value for business; these figures are significantly higher than four years ago. Moreover, an increasing number of companies recognize that it is important for the business to increase its AI skills.

Despite these trends, only one in ten companies generates significant financial benefits from AI. Why such a small number? BCG research shows that these companies are specifically modifying their processes to facilitate organizational learning with AI. Better organizational learning allows them to adapt and act quickly when changes occur: the emphasis is strategically on organizational learning and not just machine learning.

Organizational learning with AI can be demanding. People and technology need to work not only together, but also learn from each other, and this takes time, a specific methodology applied in an appropriate context. This cycle of mutual learning makes both people and technology smarter, more relevant and more efficient. Mutual learning between man and technology is essential for success with AI, but it is difficult to achieve on a large scale.

BCG analyzed the answers to more than 100 survey questions to better understand what allows companies to generate significant financial benefits from AI and found that they have the basics (such as data, technology, and the right people). Organized around a corporate strategy is not enough. Only 20% of companies obtain significant financial benefits only with the help of these fundamental elements. Obtaining the basics and building AI solutions that can be implemented and used improve the chances of obtaining significant financial benefits, but only 39%. The key finding of BCG: only when organizations add learning capacity with AI can significant benefits be obtained. Thus, organizational learning increases an organization’s chances of generating significant financial benefits at 73%.

Organizations that learn and grow with AI have three key characteristics:

1. Facilitate systematic and continuous learning between people and technology: Organizational learning with AI is not just a technology that learns to be autonomous, people who “teach” technology or technologies that “teach” people: they are all three together. Organizations that allow people and technology to continually learn from each other, using all three methods, are five times more likely to reap significant financial benefits than organizations that approach a single method.

2. Develop several ways in which people and technology can interact, in different ways, depending on the context: mutual learning with AI comes from these human-technology interactions; implementing the appropriate mode (s) of interaction in the appropriate context is essential.

For example, some situations may require an AI system to make a recommendation and people to decide whether to implement it. Some more complex environments may require people to generate solutions and AI to assess the quality of these solutions. We consider five ways to structure human-technology interactions. Organizations that use all five modes of interaction effectively are six times more likely to reap significant financial benefits compared to organizations that use only one mode of interaction.

3. It transforms through learning and learns to transform: structuring human-machine interactions, to learn through multiple methods, requires significant and sometimes awkward changes. Organizations that make extensive changes to multiple processes are five times more likely to reap significant financial benefits compared to those that make only a few changes to a few processes. These organizations not only change their processes to use AI, but they also change their processes in response to what they learn from AI.
Organizational learning with AI requires, builds on, and leads to significant organizational change. This report provides a clear, evidence-based view of how to manage organizational learning with AI.

“Even though more and more companies are investing in AI technologies and launching new initiatives, only a small part of them make a significant profit. The group of companies that know how to benefit from artificial intelligence create integrated AI-Human systems, in which AI learns from man, and man learns from AI. It is important that the two have as much to learn from each other, which will result in greater benefits, ”said the report’s co-author, Shervin Khodabandeh.

“Achieving significant financial benefits from AI is not an exclusive feature of digital companies,” notes co-author François Candelon. “During this research, it was observed that success is not related to experience, industry or geographical area. Whether it’s a European energy company like Repsol, or an Indian telecommunications company like Airtel Bharti or a US retailer like Walmart, companies can win by making the right and courageous decisions that lead to accepting and learning the organization using intelligence. artificial. ”

“One important thing to keep in mind in this research is that businesses need to gauge their investments in technology, people and learning processes,” adds David Kiron, co-author of the report. in learning is essential to create meaningful value through AI. ”