Business leaders are turning to AI to access real-time data, understand customer needs, and streamline decision-making.

The story of AI data

As Jeff Schumacher, CEO of artificial intelligence (AI) software company NAX Group, recently told the World Economic Forum : "To truly realize the potential of AI, companies must not only adopt it, but also operationalize it."

Schumacher and other prominent business leaders believe that using AI in strategic planning can automate key parts of the decision-making process and help companies make data-driven decisions.

"This process involves pairing AI models with measurable actions, then leveraging the data that is fed back into the system to complete the feedback loop," Schumacher said. "A key element is automating these steps to enable rapid, self-learning iterations that drive continuous improvement and innovation."

Consider a June 2023 study by IBM : A survey of more than 3,000 chief executive officers (CEOs) found that 43% of C-suite executives are "using generative AI for strategic decision-making." Specifically, IBM found that C-suite leaders are using generative AI and other forms of AI to access real-time data, generate unique insights, and understand the potential outcomes of business actions.

"Intuition, common sense and educated decision-making are very good and should never be lost, but the more analytical support there is, the better," says Gonzalo Gortázar.

The CEO of Spanish financial services company CaixaBank told IBM:

“ Across sectors as diverse as energy, education, entertainment, construction, manufacturing and banking, AI has the power to transform the way students learn, employees work and consumers buy. But just as important to the global economy will be the impact AI will have on the way leaders like Gortázar lead.”

AI-Driven Decision-Making Will Transform C-suite

Bret Greenstein, Data and AI leader at PwC, is one of the world's leading experts on enterprise AI. Having worked with countless executives to integrate AI into virtually every aspect of business operations, he concludes that leaders are embracing generative AI not because of its disruptive potential, but rather because they need it.

"What we're seeing is a consistent focus from clients across all sectors shifting their investments to GenAI as a means to enable transformational change, from cost reduction to revenue growth to increased speed to new value streams," Greenstein said.

Greenstein says most C-suite executives say they're already adopting AI. But that doesn't mean they fully understand its potential. For example, most leaders understand how AI chatbots and LLMs can increase efficiency and reduce costs, but not many see the benefits of integrating AI into their decision-making. As a consultant, he wants to help them see the potential.

"First, the use of GenAI is helping senior executives quickly access public and private data to get summarized answers from vast amounts of data," he said. "Second, decision makers are increasingly turning to GenAI to ask questions of financial and operational data without relying on traditional dashboards and reports."

The most innovative leaders – those leading the adoption of AI – are already seeing impressive results.

"The biggest benefit of this is speed and the ability to focus on insights rather than presenting data," says Greenstein. "With traditional approaches, creating new views and reports requires long lead times. With GenAI, even non-database experts can explore the data based on natural language questions and make changes to their requirements in real time."

AI revolutionizes how business leaders engage with customers

In addition to providing executives with critical real-time data and insights, AI is helping senior leaders better understand their customers and launch new lines of business that meet their demands with greater confidence.

"One of my personal takeaways is the tremendous impact AI will have on understanding and anticipating customer needs," said Kirill Lazarev, founder and CEO of design agency Lazarev, whose clients include Boeing, HP, Meta and many other Fortune 100 companies.

"One of our clients told us how predictive analytics helped them to spot early trends in rising customer preferences. This gave them more than just data; it gave them insight into their customers' future aspirations, enabling them to create unprecedented, bespoke offers."

This pivotal moment transformed the way he viewed AI and helped him understand its enormous potential: "I started to see AI not just as an efficiency tool, but as a bridge to deeper customer insights," he says.

Since then, Lazarev has been encouraging his clients to harness the power of AI for analytics and decision-making itself. He encourages companies to see AI as more than just an efficiency or cost-saving tool. AI has the potential to bridge the gap between businesses and their customers, he said, helping companies better understand their markets and increase profits through data-driven investments.

Achieving AI success with practical leadership

While many executives are eager to adopt AI, the most successful ones are hands-on: In fact, many leaders emphasize the importance of executive involvement in the planning, implementation and iteration phases of AI initiatives.

Simon Bacher, CEO of education technology startup Ling App, is one such executive.

"I've used AI as a strategic tool in a variety of ways," says Bacher, whose executive team developed a personalized language-learning recommendation engine that uses AI to better understand user needs, identify new business opportunities, and generate individualized learning paths for users.

Looking back on this experience, Bacher says his role in developing AI models was critical to the success of AI at the company, which is why he recommends that executives take an active role in any kind of AI initiative.

“I understand the possibilities that AI offers, but I also recognize its limitations. We are constantly tweaking and adjusting our AI models to make more accurate predictions and help improve our overall business strategy,” says Bacher.

From AI Awareness to AI Savvy

While many executives are only just beginning to understand AI's potential for business strategy, early adopters are already using it for long-term planning, and many experts, like Greenstein, believe AI will play an even bigger role in executive decision-making in the future.

"CEOs and other C-suite leaders are already shifting," says Greenstein. "They're investing in new skills to go from AI-aware to AI-savvy. They're creating new C-suite roles to help govern and transform with AI, like roles like chief AI officer and expanded roles for chief digital and technology officers, and they're injecting an AI mindset into their leadership teams."

Successful executive adoption of AI starts at the top, so Greenstein says a big part of his job is working with business leaders to define AI's potential and helping executives improve their AI skillsets.

"We do a lot of leadership education today for boards of directors, CEOs and C-suite executives," he said.

Kirill agrees.

"Perhaps the most important insight came from realizing that leadership plays a crucial role in successfully integrating AI," he says.

"It's one thing to have technology; it's another to embed it into a business strategy. It requires a shared vision across the C-suite and an openness to iteratively refine the approach based on feedback from the field."