How AI Is Already Changing Business

Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School professor, explains how rapid advances in machine learning are presenting new opportunities for businesses. He breaks down how the technology works and what it can and can't do (yet). He also discusses the potential impact of AI on the economy, how workforces will interact with it in the future, and suggests managers start experimenting now. Brynjolfsson is the co-author, with Andrew McAfee, of the HBR Big Idea article, "The Business of Artificial Intelligence." SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. It's a pretty sad photo when you look at it. A robot, just over a meter tall and shaped kind of like a pudgy rocket ship, laying on its side in a shallow pool in the courtyard of a Washington, D.C. office building. Workers – human ones – stand around, trying to figure out how to rescue it. The security robot had just been on the job for a few days when the mishap occurred. One entrepreneur who works in the office complex wrote: "We were promised flying cars. Instead we got suicidal robots."