Insights for Digital Transformation

The idea of artificial intelligence--job-killing robots, self-driving cars, and self-managing organizations--captures the imagination, evoking a combination of wonder and dread for those of us who will have to deal with the consequences. But what if it’s not quite so complicated? The real job of artificial intelligence, argue these three eminent economists, is to lower the cost of prediction. And once you start talking about costs, you can use some well‐established economics to cut through the hype.

The constant challenge for all managers is to make decisions under uncertainty. And AI contributes by making knowing what's coming in the future cheaper and more certain. But decision making has another component: judgment, which is firmly in the realm of humans, not machines. Making prediction cheaper means that we can make more predictions more accurately and assess them with our better (human) judgment. Once managers can separate tasks into components of prediction and judgment, we can begin to understand how to optimize the interface between humans and machines.

More than just an account of AI's powerful capabilities, Prediction Machines shows managers how they can most effectively leverage AI, disrupting business as usual only where required, and provides businesses with a toolkit to navigate the coming wave of challenges and opportunities

Have you ever wondered how Southwest used "activity fit" to make their airline uncopy-able? Or how Urban outfitters settled on a market niche targeting self-important city-dwellers?

We'll use Michael Porter's famous article, "What Is Strategy?" to tackle these questions and more in this special Hipster--Kombucha! Kale! Fixies!--summary of Porter's article. I think this is the most useful business strategy article ever written, and it's great for anyone:

* Trying to tackle a thorny strategy problem at work

* Prepping for a job interview

* Studying for your business exams

In the video, you can see my summary of Porter's 3 key strategies mixing in examples from from the article (Southwest), my own teaching materials (Lyft), and, just because, things hipsters like--Avocado Toast, anyone?