Don't Die

I am going to start with some fun facts. AI for Business at Said Business School is associated with Jesus College, University of Oxford. Jesus College was founded by Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1527 and is also known as the Welsh College. I am proudly wearing the hoodie as I continue to live a student life.

The morning started with an exciting statement related to the growing influence of AI in all areas of medical science. The longer you try not to die, the better your chances of living. So don't die.

To my sharing on Day One about replacing senior talents, Claude 3, in one prompt, can derive a Ph.D. unpublished paper.

Today was generally heavy going, with plenty of economic theories and insightful sharing of real-world examples. It exposed all my knowledge gaps! Therefore, to try to capture everything thoroughly, I am pretty sure that I will butcher the high-quality content I receive. So, instead of being your 'copilot,' I will be human and share my reflections in words I know how to use and explain the best way I can.

Systems thinking is the recommended way to approach AI, and within that, we are talking about data, algorithms, computing power and people. Unsurprising once you get into that frame of thinking, yes? Yes. However, whilst complexity increases, the fundamentals will always apply. These fundamentals must be built around the AI value chain - the assembly of outputs. And if you work backwards, we are simply trying to spot the competitive gaps.

To manage AI, consider the concept of division of labour across humans and machines. I like this because it means that we augment the value of AI to maximise the untapped brain capacity of humans supercharged with the power of AI.

Now...I must admit that I wished I was a better mathematician, engineer, programmer and economist! The reason that is shared brings me back to the fundamentals. What is your business strategy? There are multiple trajectories a business can take, but will incremental innovation take you ahead of the competition/market, or can we work with optimising to satisfy? This is path-dependent - whatever you start might not get you where you want.

A lot of decision-making is static, but we need to shape the future because of shifting conditions. And these shifting conditions need to be time-scrubbed.

So the core question of strategy is what you are NOT going to do NOW, NEW and NEXT (McKinsey). The other theory to consider is Todd Zenyer's" What is the theory of your firm?" The use of Foresight, Insight and Cross-sight.

You will have to consider this because most AI ambitions risk being projects, and that's insufficient to evolve fully beyond the obvious.

Upon reflection, here are three takeaways;

1. Better use of Explore and Exploit to initiate change
2. The journey to create a dominant product by fully exploiting the value of your complimentary assets
3. As Leaders, we must constantly engage with people in different industries to seek a competitive advantage.

Recommended book to read

The Evolution of New Markets - Paul Geroski

All-in on AI - Thomas H Davenport and Nitin Mittal