Bryce Hall
McKinsey commentary
Associate partner
Particularly in the context of massive investments in AI and lofty valuations of many AI companies, it makes sense that executives are taking a hard look at where AI is actually creating value, and how AI leaders are successfully capturing value from their investments. This year’s survey suggests that leading organizations successfully implement a set of practices that bridge the interface between AI and human users. In fact, one of the leading practices is effectively determining how and when to incorporate “human in the loop,” for example, in the development, testing, and deployment of AI solutions. This is consistent with our real-world experience with companies, too; AI is rarely a stand-alone solution. Instead, companies capture value when they effectively enable employees with real-world domain experience to interact with AI solutions at the right points. The combination of AI solutions alongside human judgment and expertise is what creates real “hybrid intelligence” superpowers and real value capture. AI leaders adopt a set of other practices that point in this same direction, including fully embedding AI solutions into business workflows and having senior leaders actively engaged in driving adoption at scale.
Interestingly, the ten leading management practices highlighted by this year’s survey include all six elements of McKinsey’s Rewired playbook for digital and AI transformations. While each year we test new practices, one evergreen principle holds true: Companies that effectively deliver across six primary elements (strategy, talent, operating model, technology, data, and adoption and scaling) are the ones reporting significant value creation from their AI investments.