Demystifying AI: The Principles and Conditions of Successful AI-Transformation

Niklas Schanz , Frederik Grünewald, Daniel Mehrabadi-Fard

The importance of artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important trend in both management practice and academic research. Companies expect benefits from the use of AI, such as the optimization of processes and the elimination of repetitive tasks. Despite this growing trend around AI, many managers are unsure which criteria need to be met for such a transformation and how the technological potential of AI can be anchored in the strategic area and transferred into economic success. The aim of the research is to investigate the conditions under which an AI strategy can contribute to the achievement of competitive advantages and to develop success and failure criteria for the implementation of business process transformations, which enable the derivation of options for action for strategic alignment with AI.

The central ambition is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the need to implement an AI strategy in the context of companies and to check whether an AI transformation strategy (AI strategy) improves the economic performance of an organization. This results in the following project objectives: (1) To further investigate and describe conditions under which an AI business strategy can contribute to the achievement of strategic competitive advantage and (2) to develop success and failure criteria for the implementation of business process transformations using AI. (3) Finally, the intended results are to be published to an appropriate extent (anonymized) in order to provide small and medium-sized enterprises in particular with recommendations for action for a strategic orientation towards AI and thus enable them to strengthen their competitiveness and innovative strength.

And here the group in their own words (German):