Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Competitive Advantage
Contact UsIn the age of digital transformation, the emergence of AI-centric firms has revolutionized the landscape of business operations and set new benchmarks for efficiency and growth. This course explores how modern firms—ranging from digital start-ups to established enterprises—can harness AI to create winning strategies, eliminate traditional constraints, and compete more effectively. It also delves into the strategic integration of artificial intelligence in business, highlighting the groundbreaking operational models exemplified by firms such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber, TikTok, Walmart, Ant Financial, and Fidelity Investments. Unlike traditional companies, these organizations operate without a "critical path" populated by human workers; instead, AI drives all operational activities, enabling unparalleled growth and efficiency across diverse sectors. By understanding how these AI-driven organizations operate, participants will learn to navigate the complexities and challenges faced by traditional enterprises in their quest to compete with agile digital rivals.
How companies such as Amazon, Walmart, Fidelity, Honeywell, and Comcast are leveraging data and algorithms to create new competitive advantages
Navigate GDPR, EU AI Act, NIST RMF, and more
Learn from Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber, TikTok, Walmart, ...
GAIX's proprietary AI GRC Assessment Model
By utilizing the IDEAS framework, participants will learn how to implement human-driven AI processes and strategies to solve real-world challenges and enhance their competitive advantage. Through a rich array of Harvard case studies and practical applications, learners will understand how companies such as Amazon, Walmart, Fidelity, Honeywell, and Comcast are leveraging data and algorithms to create new competitive advantages. The course will prepare participants to rethink their business strategies, strategic approaches, and operational capabilities, ensuring they can connect digital networks and extract valuable insights to drive innovation and growth.
Focusing on practical strategies and frameworks, this course equips leaders with the knowledge needed to navigate the complexities of AI implementation, fostering an agile, data-driven mindset across their organizations. As businesses embrace digital networks and algorithms, understanding these shifts becomes crucial for sustainable growth and competitive advantage.
In an era defined by digital transformation, the integration of artificial intelligence is reshaping the rules of competition across industries. Participants will explore how siloed structures often hinder AI adoption and learn strategies for fostering an integrated core of data and unified systems that are essential for operational success. Through in-depth case studies and practical insights, this course equips leaders and decision-makers with the tools needed to lead their organizations into the AI era.
Discover the critical elements for ensuring your AI-First strategy delivers tangible results, from executive buy-in to necessary resources and tools. The course will guide participants in formulating and implementing their AI strategies, considering the unique characteristics of their industry and the evolving landscape of competition.
Explore how companies like Amazon, Walmart, Fidelity Investments, and Ant Financial have leveraged a digital core to eliminate traditional operating constraints. Learn how AI systems autonomously manage critical functions such as loan approvals, financial advice, and consumer medical expense authorizations.
Formulate a comprehensive strategy that blends intelligence, data, expertise, architecture, and strategic vision to enhance your organization's innovation capabilities.
Analyze how to rearchitect traditional business models to take full advantage of AI capabilities and create new revenue streams.
Explore the journey of traditional firms transitioning to AI-based models in response to emerging digital rivals, gaining insights into their strategies and outcomes.
Learn how companies like Amazon, Walmart, Fidelity Investments, Ant Financial leverage a digital core without traditional workforce constraints, resulting in unprecedented growth and efficiency.
Examine the challenges and strategic imperatives for transforming traditional business models into AI-driven frameworks by redesigning operating processes, fostering data literacy, and cultivating a tech-savvy culture.
Dive deep into the components of the AI factory, including data pipelines, predictive algorithms, experimentation platforms, and infrastructure, that empower firms to derive value through digital automation. We will examine how these elements interact to create an efficient decision-making process and enhance operational workflows.
Learn how to effectively formulate and implement AI strategies to capitalize on the opportunities presented by AI-driven business models. Discuss the managerial and engineering insights necessary for designing impactful AI systems.
Learn how to develop a comprehensive AI strategy that aligns with your organization's goals and aspirations, leveraging insights from leading companies.
Understand how to incorporate AI technologies into your growth strategy, identifying areas where AI can create value and streamline operations.
Learn how to tailor your marketing initiatives using AI insights to target customers effectively, optimize campaigns, and enhance brand loyalty.
Explore the transformative journey of becoming an AI-centered organization, focusing on culture, talent, and innovation.
The course will cover the significance of data in shaping business insights, exploring concepts such as predictive analytics and customer-behavior models. We will discuss how companies like Google, Amazon, and ride-sharing platforms like Didi and Uber utilize AI to optimize user experiences and drive value creation.
The course will emphasize the opportunities for scaling operations through AI, allowing businesses to expand their scope and improve learning processes far beyond traditional limits. Participants will explore the implications of these changes on production, management, and customer engagement.
Analyze the transformative impact of AI on competition rules. Understand how the intertwining of digital networks and algorithms changes the operations of entire industries, making it essential for both traditional and digital firms to adapt.
Study how established companies like Walmart, Fidelity, Honeywell, and Comcast are harnessing AI, data analytics, and digital networks to reshape their business models and compete effectively against new, agile rivals.
Explore the detrimental effects of siloed organizational structures on AI integration and performance. Understand how to create a unified code base and integrated data core to facilitate seamless communication across departments.
Gain insights into how traditional firms like Nordstrom, Vodafone, and Visa have successfully digitized their operations, focusing on data and analytics to enhance decision-making and customer understanding.
Learn how to develop and execute effective AI strategies that are vital for competing in a landscape dominated by digital-first organizations.
Examine how the elimination of traditional constraints alters competition rules and leads to new operational paradigms across various industries, including those that are traditionally non-digital.
Understand how organizations like Honeywell and Comcast utilize data analytics and AI to derive meaningful insights, influencing strategic decisions and customer engagement.
Equip yourself with actionable strategies for implementing AI technologies effectively, ensuring alignment with business objectives while promoting an organizational culture that embraces change.
Analyze how the elimination of traditional constraints reshapes competition and blurs industry lines, with a focus on the role of AI in transforming business operations.
Dive deep into the five critical elements of the IDEAS framework and how they interact to create powerful engines of innovation within an organization.
Investigate how companies like Google, Facebook, Tencent, and Alibaba leverage network effects and AI-driven learning curves to maintain competitive advantages across diverse industries.
Analyze how companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Walmart, and TikTok effectively deploy their AI strategies to gain a competitive edge in their markets.
Strategic decision-makers looking to integrate AI into their business models and gain insights into industry best practices.
Professionals interested in implementing AI tools, such as chatbots and analytics systems, to optimize organizational processes.
Individuals responsible for business strategy and decision-making, seeking to explore how AI can redefine their competitive landscape.
Those interested in leading initiatives that embrace AI and data-driven technologies to revolutionize their organizational structures.
Individuals seeking to develop AI-driven marketing strategies and enhance customer engagement through technology.
Those leading transformation initiatives within their organizations, focused on developing an AI-centric culture and mindset, particularly in industries facing disruption from digital competition.
Individuals who want to leverage AI as a foundational element for growth and innovation in their new ventures.
Individuals focused on deploying AI technologies in products and services, needing to understand how these innovations influence strategy and market dynamics.
Anyone with a minimum of 10 years of experience in the industry and looking to transform their organization through AI.
Ted Talks Speaker; AI Innovation & Leadership Expert; Professor of Innovation, Strategy, and Technology Management
Dr. Nelson Phillips is the Christian A. Felipe Professor, Vice Chair for Academic Affairs, Ph.D. Faculty Advisor, and Distinguished Professor, Technology Management in the College of Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara. Originally from Canada, he holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Calgary, as well as a Ph.D. in Organizational Analysis from the University of Alberta. Prior to joining UCSB, Dr. Phillips was Professor of Innovation and Strategy at Imperial College Business School in London, UK where he was also the Associate Dean of External Relations and the Co-Director of the Centre for Responsible Leadership. He was also the Beckwith Professor of Management Studies at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School from 2001 to 2005, and a faculty member in the Faculty of Management, McGill University from 1993 to 2001. He is currently the Co-Editor of Innovation: Management and Organization, sits on the board of governors of the Academy of Management, and is on the advisory board of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies. Dr. Phillips is also Research Fellow at Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School.
Dr. Phillips serves on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Perspectives, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations. His book Constructing Organizational Life: How Social-Symbolic Work Shapes Selves, Organizations, and Institutions (with Tom Lawrence) was awarded the 2021 George R. Terry Book Award for the book judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge during the last two years. In 2018, he was the recipient of the Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award given by the OMT Division of the Academy of Management to recognize scholars who have opened up a new line of inquiry in organization theory. He was also awarded the European Group for Organization Studies award for the best paper submitted to the 2013 annual conference, the SO! What award for the best paper published in Strategic Organization in 2011, the Journal of Management Studies award for the best paper published in the journal in 2008, and the Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize for the most outstanding SMR article on planned change and organizational development published from Fall 2003 through Summer 2004. In 2021, Phillips was elected a fellow of the Academy of Management.
His research interests cut across organization theory, innovation, and technology, and he has published widely for both academics and practitioners including papers in AMJ, AMR, Annals, Organization Science, Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review. He has also written six books including Discourse Analysis (with Cynthia Hardy) and Constructing Organizational Life (with Tom Lawrence). He is currently working on a book on qualitative methods in organizational research to be published by Cambridge University Press and a book on linguistic methods in management research that will be published by Sage.
Dr. Phillips teaches leadership, strategy and digital business at the graduate and undergraduate levels as well as teaching doctoral courses in organization theory and qualitative methods. He is also active in executive education and has delivered modules for a wide range of corporate clients including the London Stock Exchange, Savills, Barclays, ASDA, Panasonic, the NHS, the government of the UAE, and Kuwait Oil.
He is currently researching how hype around emerging technologies “locks in” technology entrepreneurs, how technology entrepreneurs make the decision to pivot in organizations beyond the founding phase, and how entrepreneurial framing leads to moral legitimacy with key stakeholder groups.
Publications Professor Phillips has written four books: Discourse Analysis with Cynthia Hardy published in 2002, Power and Organizations with Stewart Clegg and David Courpasson published in 2006, and Technology and Organization with Graham Sewell and Dorothy Griffiths published in 2010. He is also co-editor of the new Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management with David Gann and Mark Dodgson. He is currently working on a new book on linguistic methods and is editor of the Journal of Management Inquiry.
Beckwith Professor of Management Studies at the Judge Institute of Management, the University of Cambridge from 2002 to 2005 and an Associate Professor in the Strategy and Organisation Area at McGill University in Montreal, Canada from 1993 to 2002. Professor Phillips spent six months in 2000/2001, as the Edward Clarence Dyason Universitas 21 Fellow at Melbourne University in Melbourne, Australia and six months as a Visiting Professor at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Professor Phillips completed his Ph.D. in Organisational Analysis from the University of Alberta, Canada in 1995.
Founder and Professor of AI Strategy, Leadership, and Governance
Dr. Riz is the Founder & CEO of Global AI Excellence (GAIX). He is an AI Strategist, AI governance leader, technologist, professor, author, and serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience specializing in business and AI strategy, digital transformations, AI governance, risk management, compliance, and AI/ML solutions. His expertise extends to project management, leadership development, and executive education at prestigious institutions, including Harvard, MIT, and the University of Cambridge. As a former Deloitte executive and management consultant, Dr. Riz has empowered the public sector and Fortune 500 companies—including PepsiCo, AT&T, Merrill Lynch, Progressive Insurance, the German Hospitals Group, STERIS Corporation (life sciences and biotech), PARCO (Oil & Gas), and Eaton Corporation—to transform their visions into reality. Moreover, he is an AWS Certified AI Practitioner and AI Early Adopter.
He has held leadership positions, including CEO, Chairman of the IT Board, Senior Executive at Deloitte, and President of the Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter. Dr. Riz has been a keynote speaker and regularly presents at conferences, including those organized by PMI and Intel. He has taught AI strategy, leadership, project management, and entrepreneurship in executive education programs at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Cambridge (UK).
In the last 10 years, Dr. Riz's impactful work with the public sector and large-scale companies has led to cost savings of over $300 million for clients through IT/AI governance, risk management, compliance, program management, and operational efficiencies. Dr. Riz has helped global companies achieve an average of 25% year-over-year revenue increases by formulating and executing business and AI strategies, implementing AI/ML solutions, re-engineering business processes, enhancing business acumen, fostering an entrepreneurial culture, and executing digital transformations. He has enabled organizations to adopt responsible AI while managing risks and complying with applicable laws and regulations.
Dr. Riz has received the "Microsoft Award for Innovative Vision and Dynamic Leadership." He has authored articles on “AI Governance Framework: How to Manage AI Risks and Compliance” and “Managing Projects Successfully through AI and ChatGPT.” He is also the author of "Blue Shark Team-Building: Leading High-Performance Teams during a Crisis," a seminal work offering insights into navigating challenges like COVID-19.
He holds a Ph.D. from SKEMA Business School, an MBA from Cleveland State University, and a B.Sc. in Information Systems from Ohio State University. Moreover, he holds professional certifications, including AWS Certified AI Practitioner, Project Management Professional (PMP), and Certified Scrum Master (CSM).
