How AI creates value in business: Exploring domain-specific artificial intelligence with management consultants
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2020
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
International Design Business Management
Language
en
Pages
104
Series
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) has attracted significant attention during the past years as it proves to offer disruptive applications to nearly every industry by making new products and business models possible by predicting phenomena that humans cannot detect. Even though it has become a hot topic of discussion for big and small companies, many of them face difficulties to decide where, when, and how it should be used to capture the value it has to offer. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how companies can find and frame business problems to create products and workflows where humans and AI can complement each other. Through a case study in the management consulting industry, I examine how consultants approach AI, what is the knowledge required for framing business problems for AI, and how the problem framing process could be conducted. To answer the research questions, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with the case company as well as three interviews with external consultants. A workshop was designed and carried out with nine case company consultants to test AI problem framing in practice as well as to develop new product and service concepts. A literature review of the most relevant studies on artificial intelligence, management consulting, and design methods in problem solving was gathered to form a strong foundation for the research. By understanding how to approach AI in the context of management consulting, my thesis contributes to the academic discussion of technology strategy, innovation management, and design research. The results indicate that AI presents extensive technological and cultural challenges to companies. The role of management consultants in AI projects emerged as specific, and distinctive from traditional IT projects. Essentially, the role of a management consultant was identified as strategic partner with an understanding of the business problem behind the solution. The study identified two core knowledge domains that supported consultants process of framing problems for AI labeled technologies: business domain understanding and analytical literacy. The AI workshop was recognized to have significant impact on the participants as it allowed them to acquire deeper knowledge on topic and apply it to their clients’ business problems. The study demonstrates that even though there is no established formula to capture the business value of AI, certain enabling and supporting elements can be identified. These include analytical literacy, business domain understanding, and cross-disciplinary work. Furthermore, AI workshop can give innovators across knowledge domains actionable methods to work alongside each other, and therefore facilitate problem framing and development of innovative AI solutions.Description
Thesis advisor
Lehtonen, Miikka J.Keywords
artificial intelligence, innovation management, technology strategy, design thinking