Artificial Intelligence for the Perplexed Executive

So you're the CEO of a clothing retailer, a rental car agency, or a payroll processing company, and you hear that artificial intelligence is changing the world. What are you supposed to do? The short answer, says Paul Oyer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, is to start learning fast. "Artificial intelligence will affect every industry, whether it's clothing or shipping," says Oyer, a professor of economics and the codirector of a new multidisciplinary course on AI for senior executives. "We need to find a complementary relationship between those who deal with the technology of AI and the managers who understand what drives their companies. Managers don't need to learn all the technical details, but they do need to understand the implications for their business."