Artificial Intelligence: Some managerial implications and recommendations

Artificial intelligence is a trendy concept that attracts the attention of many people. However, some managers are not familiar with this technology and are therefore unsure whether they should consider it for their firm and what they should pay attention to. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept, highlight some attention points (application fields, potential barriers and (dis)advantages) and make some recommendations. This paper’s approach to this problem is to complete a literature review in order to first define what AI is and frame it among other related concepts. Secondly, the industries where this technology seems applicable are highlighted and compared. Thirdly, potential barriers to its implementation and adoption are mentioned. Fourthly, some advantages and disadvantages of using this technology are explained. Then, a few key issues to address for AI implementation and adoption are provided and all these steps are then confronted to 7 field experts with different backgrounds to compare this literature research with on-field expertise. By following this approach, it seems that artificial intelligence can be broadly defined as a technology that can perform tasks that would require intelligence when done by humans. Additionally, it could be said to be a general-purpose technology that seems to have currently a particular potential in industries that can benefit from image recognition applications. The barriers to its implementation and adoption are plural, can occur prior, during and after the implementation of AI and depend on the application, the resources and the culture of the company. Lastly, the (dis)advantages can be general and inherent to AI, but also application specific. To conclude, it is important for a manager willing to implement and adopt an AI solution to understand the technology, to define a precise goal for its application and to make sure that it can meet the expectations as well as have an actionable output. Then, the manager should check if the company has the right set of data, access to computational power and human skills. Lastly, the manager should verify whether the technology will fit the company culture and processes as well as answer to relevant ethical questions.