The AI advantage: how to put the artificial intelligence revolution to work

摘要

JITCAR's review of books on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) started with a review of Prediction Intelligence (Heath, 2019). Continuing with this theme, we now review The AI Advantage by Thomas H. Davenport (MIT Press 2018). This book should be of interest to many, especially to senior managers and academics. Very few operations of any business are untouched by advances in AI. The question is no longer, "do we need AI for our organization," but how our organization can incorporate AI in the overall strategy in the most effective way. The AI Advantage is not about AI hype, or a list of "gee whiz" AI applications, but how businesses should adapt to AI and leverage their capabilities. The author's frequent use of "cognitive technologies" to refer to AI (these two terms are used interchangeably in the book, and in this review) is fitting in that it takes away the unnecessary preconceived biases, or lofty expectations a reader may have of AI. The AI advantage emphasizes how it can transform organizations, as well as, how AI provides a road map to harness an organization's full potential. The book also articulates implementation strategies and roll out possibilities. The author utilizes his extensive experience as a consultant to AI projects and his access to senior management to document strategies for AI implementation. The book supports its arguments by referring to several surveys conducted by large consulting and technology firms, notably Deloitte's 2017 "cognitive aware" survey of senior managers. The primary view point is that cognitive technologies are mainly about gaining insights from data, information, and knowledge. This perspective is refreshingly different from many who hold the narrow view that AI will eventually create robots to replace humans in performing various tasks. In what follows, we will refer to the book as AI Advantage at many points.