The AI Advantage · Babson Thought & Action

"Artificial intelligence is often considered magic," says Professor Tom Davenport, addressing a crowd at Babson's Boston campus during the recent Centennial Celebration. "Companies think it can transform their businesses overnight." Davenport, the President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology, is an AI expert, thanks to his research and work with large enterprises. Instead, Davenport says what really works is lots of low-hanging fruit. "Jeff Bezos calls it quietly but meaningfully improving core operations," says Davenport, who describes it more succinctly as "boring AI." There's little doubt that artificial intelligence is here to stay.