Author: Thomas H. Davenport

Publisher: MIT Press

Comments: *Thomas Davenport specialises in analytics, business process innovation and knowledge management. He is currently the President’s Distinguished Professor in Information Technology and Management at Babson College, a Fellow of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics, and a Senior Advisor to Deloitte Analytics.

This is the latest of his twenty-odd books and in it he takes a typically no-nonsense approach to AI. He is concerned above all with how to use AI in business. Davenport explains that the business value AI offers is solid rather than sexy. AI will improve products and processes and make decisions better informed: important but largely invisible tasks. AI technologies won’t replace human workers but augment their capabilities, with smart machines to work alongside smart people. AI can automate structured and repetitive work; provide extensive analysis of data through machine learning (“analytics on steroids”), and engage with customers and employees via chatbots and intelligent agents. Companies should experiment with these technologies and develop their own expertise.*