A Possible Outline Structure
AI Assignment
The following structure serves as a general guideline and can be adjusted to fit your plan. Several notes will touch on some of the topics below to help you with your research. The key to an excellent essay is theoretical depth and empirical support.
1. Introduction (5 Marks)
- State the research problem.
- Briefly explain why this problem is worth investigating, emphasizing the significance of CEOs and top management teams.
- Outline your research journey – what you intend to achieve in this essay.
- Briefly describe the essay structure.
2. AI: A General-Purpose Technology - Background (10 marks)
Provide a very brief theoretical overview of ML and AI using peer-reviewed academic literature. You can organize your thoughts around the points:
- Briefly explain ML and its various types,
- Briefly explain ML-Based AI and how it differs from ML,
- Briefly compare generative AI and predictive AI,
- Theoretically discuss the difference between prediction and decision and explain the role of judgement in decision-making. Could AI technologies automate decisions?
- Summarise your thoughts on ML, AI, AI algorithms, generative AI and their potential in business.
3. CEOs and Their Functions (30 marks)
Explore the academic literature in economics and management to investigate the role of CEOs, including what they do, how they spend their time, how they create strategies, and how they set strategic objectives. Furthermore, discuss the role that prediction plays in these activities.
- Review the peer-reviewed academic literature to discuss how CEOs’ decisions affect firm performance, supporting the analysis with relevant historical data. Cite relevant evidence from the empirical literature.
- Try to classify CEO tasks to several categories. A possible classification is to categorise them into “management decisions / tasks” and “strategic decisions". An example of the former is hiring top managers or establishing reward system while an example of the latter is corporate diversification or, in other words, the decision to enter a new market or the decision to devote R&D investment to a new line of product. This allows you to better structure your analysis.
- Carefully discuss the role that data and prediction plays in each task category defined above – critical.
4. AI, CEOs & Cognitive Automation (30 marks)
Explore channels through which machine learning and AI can substitute, complement, and potentially enhance CEO roles and functions. Further, investigate how ML/AI can assist CEOs in leading firms more effectively and guide them towards value creation. You may:
- Draw on the recent theoretical framework that distinguishes between jobs and tasks, treating jobs as collections of tasks. Consider CEOs, job as a collection of tasks.
- Identify main channels through which ML, AI and generative AI may transform CEOs, tasks. These include prediction, scenario planning, strategy development, ideation, business model formulation and so forth. Next discuss at least three channels in detail. For example:
o Discuss how improved predictions can transform CEOs' decision-making. For example, consider prediction policy problems (as discussed on Blackboard) to illustrate how ML technologies will enhance them.
o Consider selecting top managers using machine learning algorithms.
o Explore how generative AI can be used for scenario planning, assisting CEOs in making better decisions and designing strategies.
o Discuss generative AI as a tool of ideation, enabling CEOs for exploring new ideas and possibly new business models.
- Examine the potential ways in which the emergence of AI and ML could alter the management hierarchies within a firm.
- Reflect on key limitations of current AI technologies and explore their implications for automating CEOs' cognitive tasks.
5. Firm Growth, Performance & Competition (20 Marks)
Explore some of the implications of your analysis for firm growth, performance, and its ability to compete in the market.
- Reflect on how better decisions improve firm performance, enabling it to grow and compete in the market.
- Draw on peer reviewed literature to discuss how better firm strategies can drive performance.
- Discuss how AI-driven decisions / strategies can improve performance.
- If relevant, include relevant economic graphs.
6. Conclusion (5 Marks)
- Summarise key points
- Discuss the limitations of AI in business.
7. Bibliography (5 Marks & Presentation)
- Must follow the Harvard style, richly refer to the academic literature, and be consistent throughout.