How CEOs can tap AI’s

full potential
Successfully augmenting human expertise with
artificial intelligence and other smart technologies
starts with the person at the top

www.pwc.com/ceo-artificial-intelligence
2 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Contents

Introduction 3

1
Understand the full range of potential applications 4

2
Clearly define a vision for your organisation’s AI-enabled future 6

3
Establish a process to deploy AI 8

4
Prepare your people to work differently 10

5
Decide where you stand on the ethics of automation and AI 12

Conclusion 14

Contacts 15
3 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Introduction

In April 2019, Stanley Black & Decker CEO James Loree presided over
the opening of a 23,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing centre and
innovation incubator in Hartford, Connecticut, called ‘Manufactory 4.0.’
The facility pulls data streams from sensors embedded in manufacturing
equipment across all of the company’s plants, allowing managers to
pinpoint ways to increase efficiency.1

The work taking place at the Manufactory is a significant step towards a future in which everything
is digitally connected and people are empowered to make smarter decisions based on insights
from artificial intelligence (AI) systems. In this future, humans and robots will work together
and new production methods will be tested, tweaked and implemented in record time. More
broadly, the new facility works towards a goal Loree established when he took office in 2016: to
integrate technology and innovation into everything the company does, turning a 200-year-old
organisation into, as the CEO puts it, “one of the world’s great innovation companies.”2

AI, automation and complementary technologies already play a significant role in how
companies function. Fully 54% of executives say that AI solutions have increased productivity
in their businesses, and that number is certain to grow in the coming years.3 But contrary to
many press reports, increased productivity does not necessarily result in lost jobs. As business
operations become smarter, with more AI embedded in them, these tools will be used less
to replace people and more to augment them. Technology will help build human capabilities
across a range of roles, functions and business units. For example, a chatbot can elevate a
customer service request to a human agent to better serve the customer, an AI system can
help product designers focus on the creative process by suggesting materials to use on the
basis of certain parameters, and an assembly-line worker can use robotic arms to manipulate
materials too heavy for a person to lift.

Combining human and machine capabilities raises the stakes for CEOs. They must understand
the interactions between people and technology and create a strategy for how the two can
come together to change the way work gets done, in large part by giving people the tools and
training they need to change the way they work — and convincing people that they need to
work in new ways.

The sheer scope of change — in terms of both talent and technology — can be overwhelming.
But CEOs can begin to develop this vision by focusing on five areas: understanding the full
range of potential applications, clearly defining a vision for your company’s AI-enabled future,
establishing a process to deploy AI, preparing your people to work differently and deciding
where you stand on the ethics of automation and AI.

1 Dan Haar, “Pioneering Revolution No. 4, Stanley Connects Its Universe,” CT Post, Apr. 4, 2019.
2 “How Stanley Black & Decker’s CEO turned the toolmaker into a total powerhouse,” CNBC, Oct. 25, 2017.
3 PwC Consumer Intelligence Series: Bot.me, 2017.
4 | PwC How CEOs Can tap AI’s full potential

1
Understand the full range of
potential applications

AI is no longer an emerging technology; it is an essential asset. Accordingly, the first step for
you as CEO is to educate yourself on the art of the possible, by understanding how these
technologies are likely to disrupt, and improve, critical aspects of your business. CEOs are
at different levels of maturity — some are in the early stages of experimentation, others have
already launched successful pilots and now want to scale up their efforts, and still others have
grown up with AI and are now looking for the next frontier of innovation. Regardless of your
starting point, you don’t need a PhD in the subject, more like a working knowledge of the full
range of potential applications and the different development paths (such as capabilities built
in-house, partnerships, acquisitions and licensing). It also helps if you can cultivate a growth
mind-set, which encourages lifelong learning and intellectual elasticity.4

There should be a shared, base-level understanding among your executive team — and your
board of directors — about what AI and related technologies are capable of and how they can
be integrated throughout the business. Part of this includes bringing in diverse perspectives
and people who will ask lots of questions and even try to poke holes in assumptions about
where and why AI should be applied.

Our Digital IQ survey consistently shows that a CEO’s digital acumen correlates with the
company’s financial performance. Some 54% of top financial performers say their leadership
is digitally savvy and helps the workforce think in a new way, compared with 41% of others.5
In the most recent edition of the survey, respondents self-selected into four groups, the most
digitally savvy of which are the ‘redefiners.’ Executives in this group expect their digital strategy
to fundamentally change the way their company does business, and nearly two-thirds of them
embrace the most comprehensive and advanced definition of digital.6

4 Stuart R. Levine, “Outperform with a Growth Mindset Culture,” Forbes, Feb. 26, 2019.
5 PwC Digital IQ 2018.
6 PwC Digital IQ 2018.
5 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Loree at Stanley Black & Decker clearly understands how such technologies as AI, robotics
and the industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) can improve productivity and spur innovation.
Even before opening the Manufactory, the company had established a digital accelerator in
Atlanta focused on integrating AI, augmented and virtual reality, and the IIoT across its array of
business units. This was no small task for a 200-year-old manufacturer with US$14bn in annual
sales, but Loree is driving digitisation from the top down, empowering the people who run the
Georgia digital accelerator and Connecticut Manufactory to work directly with business units in
order to come up with technology-based solutions to a range of problems.7

Similarly, Royal Dutch Shell is applying AI in a variety of ways to help meet the mounting
demands of a transitioning energy market. In one application, Shell uses a form of machine
learning that is partially supervised by humans to control drilling equipment so it both
is more precise and experiences less wear and tear. Shell data scientists are employing
reinforcement learning, a type of machine learning in which the AI system is trained to
think and make decisions. An algorithm that has been trained using data from historical
drilling records combined with real-time data from sensors in the drill bit lets the AI system
automatically interpret geological data, allowing the human operators, trained geologists, to
make adjustments as needed to drill faster and more effectively. This frees up the geologists to
oversee more wells or solve other problems.8

Read more
The Essential Eight: Your guide to the emerging technologies revolutionizing
business now

2019 AI Predictions: Six AI priorities you can’t afford to ignore

Go deeper
Curious as to how your stance on AI compares with those of CEOs around the world?
Find out.

7 “Robert Coop, Stanley Black & Decker — Optimizing Manufacturing with Driverless AI,” video recorded at H2O World San
Francisco, Feb. 6, 2019.
8 “Shell Announces Plans to Deploy AI Applications at Scale,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 20, 2018.
6 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

2
Clearly define a vision for your
organisation’s AI-enabled future

Next, you as the CEO need to define a vision for the ways automation and AI will drive the
company’s business strategy. A key issue here is the scope and ambition of that vision — how
broadly and how fast the organisation should implement these technologies. Will it be an AI
pioneer or merely a fast follower in its industry? Equally important, you need to identify specific
business problems or challenges and determine where AI can help. The hype surrounding
some emerging applications of AI can be so overwhelming that companies are tempted to
chase after them, launching pilot after pilot without a clear approach for scaling up successes
or tying initiatives to broader strategic goals.

The vision could include using AI to boost efficiency, automate processes, create new products
and services, or improve the customer experience. For example, two recent entrants in the
consumer insurance market, Snapsheet and Lemonade, are speeding up the process by
which claims are processed with apps powered by machine learning algorithms. Lemonade, a
startup that sells renters’ insurance, uses an algorithm to quickly search for signs of fraud by
scanning photos of property damage that customers submit via a mobile app. This step helps
speed up the claims process for policyholders and reduces the company’s risk exposure. And
Snapsheet, which licenses its app to auto insurers, can assess car damage claims in less than
three hours using photos customers add to claims via an app. That allows insurers to close
most claims in less than three days, compared with the typical analogue claim processing time
of 30 days.9

In other cases, AI will be used primarily to enhance or amplify experts’ knowledge. At the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, all patients have the option to have their DNA
sequenced so doctors can use the information to improve their treatment plans. CEO Laurie
Glimcher says Dana-Farber researchers are also exploring the use of machine learning to
better analyse tumour samples from biopsies.10

9 “Startups Show Car and Home Insurers They Need to Get Smarter,” Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2019.
10 “CEOs in Health Care Discuss Challenges of Working with Artificial Intelligence,” Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2019.
7 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Read more
Understanding the potential of artificial intelligence

Sizing the prize: PwC’s global artificial intelligence study

Go deeper
Find out how other business leaders are preparing for tomorrow’s workforce, today.
8 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

3
Establish a process to
deploy AI

CEOs typically aren’t directly involved in deploying AI and other advanced technologies.
But it’s clearly their mandate to set up a process by which that happens. That often means
putting a team in place — typically led by the CIO or CTO but including a diverse range of
expertise and perspectives, from data scientists and tech experts to operational managers
and commercial leads. In some cases they bring in third parties as well, from sources such as
academia or AI-related startups. CEOs should sync with their tech leads to develop a clear
picture of the various AI development paths, including developing solutions in-house, acquiring
AI companies, licensing AI solutions and forging partnerships.

Next, you need to establish the right decision-making authority, governance and other
parameters that allow technology to be embedded across business units and functions.
The goal is to apply AI as broadly as it makes sense for your organisation — beyond merely
solving a specific technical problem.

At Siemens USA, which employs 50,000 people and has US$23bn in revenue, CEO Barbara
Humpton has a hand in all of the company’s AI initiatives. She does not directly supervise
them, but she has set the company’s AI agenda and spends a lot of time in media interviews
and industry panels sharing Siemens USA’s approach, which ties in with that of the parent
company based in Germany. Siemens USA has a venture capital arm based in Palo Alto, Calif.,
that, when it invests in technology companies, buys a large enough stake in them so it can use
its considerable resources to help those companies grow or otherwise increase their chances
of success. Siemens USA also has an annual R&D budget of US$1.3bn and runs its R&D unit
using a collaborative rather than hierarchical management approach, which helps increase the
company’s agility.11

11 Michael Krigsman, “CEO view: Digital transformation at Siemens USA,” ZDNet, Mar. 18, 2019.
9 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

A key aspect of making sure you have the right processes and teams in place is thinking about
data in the right ways. You should start by identifying where you want to create value, then
look at what data assets you already have and which ones you need to make that happen.
Without the ability to extract data from various systems — or to ensure that the right people
have access to the right data when they need it — AI cannot possibly deliver targeted benefits.
It’s a clear imperative: 58% of executives said that their top AI-related data priority for 2019 is
to integrate AI and analytics systems to gain business insights.12 It’s crucial to have access to
data from all the key business functions: sales, marketing, finance, procurement, R&D and so
on. Likewise, if CEOs can emphasise the message that data-driven decision making is (or will
soon become) the new normal, functional leaders will take up the cause.

Read more
A strategist’s guide to artificial intelligence

Winning with a data-driven strategy

Go deeper
Gaining national competitive advantage through artificial intelligence

12 2019 AI Predictions, PwC, 2018.

10 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

4
Prepare your people to
work differently

Technology — and AI in particular — changes the way people work, typically by automating
mundane, repetitive tasks such as data entry or generating reports, freeing the employees
who used to perform those tasks to create value in new ways. In the United States, AT&T
has rolled out 1,000 software bots to handle rote tasks in such functions as customer service
and finance, allowing some employees to shift to more knowledge-based work and high-
level analysis. Steve Stine, AT&T’s chief data officer, says the software robots and other
data optimisation efforts, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence have helped generate
hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of business value in recent years.13

Yet a limiting factor on achieving AI-driven results is that many companies simply don’t have
enough people with the right skills. In PwC’s latest CEO Survey, 55% reported that a lack of
key skills is inhibiting their ability to innovate.14 As CEO, it’s up to you to communicate through
the ranks of middle management that training and skills development are going to become far
more important. Some people will see their jobs change dramatically because of AI. But that’s
an opportunity for many to learn critical new skills. CEOs can foster a culture of adaptability
and lifelong learning that will be crucial to reaping the benefits of AI and related technologies.

Siemens USA’s Humpton feels strongly that businesses should take responsibility for upskilling
and retraining their workforce. Siemens USA spends US$50m each year to reskill and develop
its 50,000 employees, and the global organisation spends US$600m on training annually.15
Meanwhile, media conglomerate Bertelsmann recently launched a global education initiative to
strengthen its employees’ technology skills. The company has committed to investing several
million euros to fund as many as 50,000 scholarships with the online learning platform Udacity
on topics such as cloud applications, data analytics and AI.16

13 “AT&T’s 1,000 Software Robots Are Doing Boring, Repetitive Work for Humans,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 2018.
14 PwC’s 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey, 2019.
15 “The head of Siemens USA explains why it’s making open-source training programs available across industries, as it looks
to benefit from a new age of automation,” Business Insider, Mar. 20, 2019.
16 “Bertelsmann Announces 50,000 New Udacity Scholarships in Areas of Cloud, Data, and AI,” Udacity, Apr. 26, 2019.
11 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Any initiatives to upskill and reskill people need to be focused on the right areas. In our
Digital IQ survey, 62% of redefiners (the most digitally savvy group of respondents) said
they’ve changed the way they recruit and train with the goal of creating a more digitally savvy
workforce,17 but just 28% said that investment was paying off. What may be missing in those
companies is the goal to ‘democratise AI,’ that is, making sure the workforce is AI savvy
enough to actively participate in the conversation regarding what can be automated or where
AI can be applied.

CEOs also need to harness employees’ intrinsic motivation to learn. Just as you cultivate your
own growth mind-set, you should encourage employees at all levels to do the same, while
communicating clearly throughout the organisation how integrating certain technologies may
impact people’s jobs so they understand how they can contribute to the company’s success
(as well as their own).

Of course, AI and other technologies can themselves be used to train people more effectively
in new ways of working. Swiss industrial power company ABB, for example, uses a variety
of methods to train new employees or retrain current ones, including virtual and augmented
reality, according to Guido Jouret, ABB’s chief digital officer.18

Read more
Workforce of the Future: The competing forces shaping 2030

Go deeper
Want better results from tech investments? Think about the employee experience.

17 PwC Digital IQ 2018.

18 “Digital transformation and the industrial internet of things at energy giant ABB,” ZDNet, Feb. 25, 2019.
12 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

5
Decide where you stand on the
ethics of automation and AI

Compounding the challenge of leading in an era that combines human and machine
intelligence is the issue of responsible AI. Because algorithms ‘learn’ from historical data,
some companies have launched bots that simply replicate ethnic stereotypes and bias-filled
decisions made by humans. The companies did not solve these problems but merely put
them on autopilot. There are broader considerations as well, about the possible impact of
widespread commercial applications of automation and AI on society at large.

To address these issues, companies should build processes and train teams to look for biases
in data and machine learning models. Companies must also integrate risk mitigation and
ethical concerns into AI algorithms and data sets from the start, along with considering other
workforce issues and the greater good. Siemens AG’s CEO, Joe Kaeser, recently shot back at
investors who questioned the company’s US$600m investment in employee training, saying
that if shareholders did not approve, they could put their money elsewhere.19

Involving your board of directors is important here, too, because unintended consequences
from AI could pose compliance risks and potential damage to your brand’s reputation. Boards
will want to hear from management how it is addressing those risks and how the company
is ensuring that biases do not affect AI decisions. They’ll want to understand whether the
company has established practices and put controls in place to minimise any reputational or
other risks.

In addition to addressing concerns of ethics related to fairness and negative bias, responsible
AI engenders trust because it is explainable — that is, not only can people using the AI
systems, and those who are impacted by the systems, understand how the AI arrives at
decisions or actions, but the organisation employing AI has also made a conscious effort to
communicate how systems work and solicit feedback about whether they’re communicating
effectively. Implementing clear policies on the data privacy, decision rights and transparency of
AI systems is key.

19 “The head of Siemens USA explains why it’s making open-source training programs available across industries, as it looks
to benefit from a new age of automation,” Business Insider, Mar. 20, 2019.
13 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Read more
What it means to open AI’s black box

What is fair when it comes to AI bias?

Go deeper
Want to know how your firm stacks up in terms of responsible AI? Take this diagnostic.
14 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Conclusion

The CEO’s job is never easy, and the confluence of changes in human
capital and technology will make it much harder. Leadership entails
embracing certain paradoxes — being bold when exploring AI’s potential,
yet humble enough to know when you don’t have all the information;
decisive about where AI fits into your business strategy, yet able to
handle uncertainty about how some initiatives will play out; being open to
partnerships, while protecting your own intellectual property if needed.

The biggest of these paradoxes is the requirement that CEOs continue to focus on people —
a company’s most valuable resource — while also implementing AI and other technologies,
and understanding the interface between the two. It’s a tough challenge, but the CEOs who
can rise to it will equip their companies to accomplish more than they ever have before.

PwC’s data, analytics, automation and AI practices provide a range of data analytics
and artificial intelligence (AI) services to help businesses transform, bringing data to
the core and analytics & AI to the stream of all business functions and industries. We
deliver through our AI and analytics transformation framework covering six capability
dimensions, balancing technology transformation and human engagement: culture
and talent, organization and governance, business decisions and analytics, data and
information, technology and infrastructure, and process and integration. We ensure
PwC’s Responsible AI framework and toolkit flow through to our portfolio, strategy and
assets, addressing five key dimensions to make the use of AI and data responsible: bias/
fairness, interpretability, robustness & security, governance, and ethics & legal.

Find out more: www.pwc.com/ai

PwC’s strategy consulting team Strategy& works with the world’s leading businesses,
governments and organisations to create and deliver essential advantage by building
capabilities and successfully navigating through critical junctures in their business.

We help clients lead transformational change, create new organisational models,

capture value from their customer and channel strategies, increase the effectiveness of
their supply chains and assets, and integrate security into their strategy to ensure the
resilience of their business.
15 | PwC How CEOs can tap AI’s full potential

Contacts

Wilson Chow
Partner, PwC China
+86 755 8261 8886 wilson.wy.chow@cn.pwc.com

Wilson is the global and China/Hong Kong leader for PwC’s technology,
media and telecommunications services. He assists clients with digital
transformation, helping them embrace emerging technologies to drive new
opportunities.

Deniz Caglar
Principal, PwC US
+1 312 420 8569 deniz.caglar@pwc.com

Deniz is a leading practitioner in PwC’s Fit for Growth and Workforce of the
Future platforms, helping clients with large-scale organisation and culture
transformations. He is a US leader in the organisation strategy practice
for PwC’s Strategy&. He serves clients across industries, focusing on the
financial-services, consumer packaged goods and retail industries.  

David Lancefield
Partner, PwC UK
+44 7712 140450 david.lancefield@pwc.com

David is a senior partner with PwC UK, advising executives of media,

entertainment and technology companies on transformational change.
An author, presenter and coach, he writes and speaks regularly on strategy,
innovation, leadership and culture. In relation to AI, he’s particularly focused
on the implications for strategy development and organisational change.

Anand Rao
Principal, PwC US
+1 617 530 4691 anand.s.rao@pwc.com

As the global and US leader for PwC’s artificial intelligence practice, Anand
leads efforts to bring innovative AI methods in machine learning, deep
learning, natural language processing, simulation and reinforcement learning
to practical client problems to enhance and augment human decision
making. He advises clients in financial services, insurance, healthcare, auto,
and technology companies.

The following PwC colleagues also contributed to this report: Michael Baccala, Hamish Clark,
Brian Furness, Michael Graham, Kevin Kroen, Abhishek Mitra, Austin Morris, Stephen Pillsbury
and Bob Woods
www.pwc.com/ceo-artificial-intelligence
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