Business Management Book “Competing in the Age of AI” Launches With Praise

A note from Marco Iansiti, co-founder and chairman at Keystone Strategy:

This February, Karim Lakhani and I traveled all over Europe to talk about our latest book. It was an amazing trip, as we engaged in great discussions and made all kinds of new connections. Now, looking back on the book launch, it seems like it took place many years ago.

Back in the “old” days, AI was a cool topic, a way to drive business innovation and operational transformation. In just a few weeks, digital transformation has become existential to firms and to workers, the difference between staying open or not, between staying at home safe or not. This new digital divide is creating new pressures and strains on our economy and society, putting the subject at the top of leadership agendas around the world.

At the start of 2020, Keystone Strategy kicked off an exciting new year with the launch of ‘Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World.’ The latest book from Keystone chairman Marco Iansiti and his Harvard Business School colleague Karim R. Lakhani debuted on January 7, 2020, with critical praise from publications like Forbes, The New York Times, and Inc. Competing in the Age of AI was listed as the #1 New Book Release in Strategy & Competition on Amazon.

If you are not yet familiar, Competing in the Age of AI provides a clear framework for businesses in transforming their operating model and business strategy. Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani show how reinventing the firm around data, analytics, and AI removes traditional constraints on scale, scope, and learning that have restricted business growth for hundreds of years. From Airbnb to Ant Financial, Microsoft to Amazon, research shows how AI-driven processes are vastly more scalable than traditional processes, allow massive scope increase, enabling companies to straddle industry boundaries, and create powerful opportunities for learning–to drive ever more accurate, complex, and sophisticated predictions. At the same time, AI-driven companies also define a new range of challenges, from privacy to cybersecurity, and from algorithmic transparency to bias.

“Iansiti and Lakhani have written an important book that explains what’s required to rethink the firm and become an AI-first company,” said Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. “Anyone interested in the impact of AI should read this book.”

On March 11, Marco Iansiti hosted an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit, where he answered the community’s #AgeofAI questions. Read the whole thread here.

Marco and Karim have since taken their online hit around the world, with book tour stops across North America and Europe pre-coronavirus quarantine but also now virtual. Our in-person highlights include Marco’s talk with Pinterest COO Francoise Brougher at the social media platform’s San Francisco headquarters, a presentation at the Adidas Station F accelerator in Paris, and a warm welcome from Harvard Business Review UK at the book’s European launch in London. Today, the authors have taken their Age of AI talk virtual.

You can preview the book with Marco and Karim’s takes on the following topics:

• Building the “AI Factory” and scaling at any size (Harvard Business Review)
• AI ethics and the new face of corporate social responsibility (LinkedIn Weekend Essay Series)
• Opportunities for entrepreneurs in leadership (Enterprisers Project)

Keystone’s experts continue to lead global discussions on the future state of business, healthcare and public policy and the implications of AI implementation, a conversation that continues to grow more complicated and important as more companies adopt emerging technologies.