How Generative AI Changes Strategy

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Strategy is about making the future happen, not just reacting to it, according to author Gary Hamel. And with generative artificial intelligence, senior leaders suddenly wield an awesome new tool to change the fortunes of their organizations. The promise of generative AI is more than just a sweet hack to boost productivity and streamline operations. Its deeper potential lies in companies that rethink what they do and conjure brand-new, AI-first products and services. Simply put, generative AI is blasting open new strategic paths to create novel business opportunities, even as it brings serious risks and heightened competition. In this episode, How Generative AI Changes Strategy, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius speaks to Microsoft’s head of strategy Chris Young and Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu. They lay out the technology, its emerging value chains, and its main providers. They also break down the key choices and tradeoffs that large and small companies alike will be making in this fast-changing market. This is the fourth and final episode in the special series How Generative AI Changes Everything. Each week, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius and HBR editor Amy Bernstein have been hosting conversations with experts and business leaders about the impact of generative AI. Find those episodes on the impact on productivity, creativity, and organizational culture in the HBR IdeaCast feed. And for more on ethics in the age of AI, check out HBR’s Big Idea on implementing the new technology responsibly.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Chris, so you've been a tech company CEO, your strategy headed Microsoft.
0:05.2	You've seen a lot of technologies over the years.
0:07.6	There's some that land and we think, okay, this is truly transformative, disruptive.
0:14.1	This is an inflection point.
0:15.8	You know, your mind is that where we are now or do we need to wait and see what the impact
0:20.8	of generative AI will be on business and on everything?
0:24.8	We're at a place where we see this as truly transformative.
0:28.1	I might actually draw a contrast to one of the trends that many people were very excited
0:33.7	about in the tech landscape just a little bit over a year ago, which was Web 3 in the promise
0:40.0	of blockchains and everything that would happen, but there was definitely a segment of the world
0:45.0	that was saying, well, interesting, but not sure what the practical applications are
0:49.6	here, not sure it's going to change everything.
0:52.7	No one's saying that about AI.
0:54.3	I think immediately many of us recognize that this is going to be completely game-changing,
1:00.6	not only for the tech landscape, but for humanity.
1:09.6	Welcome to how generative AI changes everything, a special series of the HPR IDEA cast.
1:15.4	There are many shorthand definitions of strategy.
1:19.6	One that I like is from the author Gary Hamill, who says that strategy is about making the
1:23.4	future happen, not just reacting to it.
1:26.4	Well, this sure feels like a time when it's possible to make the future happen.
1:31.1	Generative AI has stormed into the consciousness of practically every business leader, and it's
1:35.9	opening up new strategic paths and new ways to create new businesses.
	...

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