Perspective from practice: white spaces in AI research for CEOs

This paper focuses on the interplay of artificial intelligence (AI) and strategic management. Perhaps surprisingly, there is today no widely accepted definition of AI among computer scientists. Meanwhile, less scrupulous firms opportunistically relabel themselves as AI, without offering anything resembling AI (“AI washing”). This paper aims to shed light on the current state of AI adoption in practice, from the perspective of CEOs. We examine the content made public by AI incumbents (AI technology creators such as OpenAI or Google; and professional services firms such as Accenture or McKinsey); and the AI research in strategic management, building on Keding (2021). Furthermore, we survey 88 P&L owners, C-level executives and board members. We find that, whereas AI today seems omnipresent, AI use cases are not: 41% of our respondents reported to find none or very few AI use cases relevant to their organizations. But CEOs are aware that the missing link between AI in general and one’s P&L is the AI use case. Furthermore, the impact of AI on their P&Ls remains elusive: 72% of respondents reported that “AI has not moved my P&L needle” or “it is too early to say.” We conclude that several AI-related business questions remain unanswered, characterizing white spaces in AI research for CEOs. The seven white spaces specified here are unlikely to be filled by AI incumbents (AI technology creators or professional services firms), and we explain why. Finally, we posit that strategic management scholars are uniquely positioned to fill research gaps in the seven identified white spaces.