The Business of AI - Platforms, Models, Applications, and Impact 5 credits

The course builds your understanding of AI from a business perspective, showing how it is being applied in various organisational settings and contexts. It introduces you to the technological platforms that underpin contemporary organisations, giving you a shared foundation for understanding how AI is used to carry out different managerial and professional tasks. Through the course, you will develop a deep understanding the role of AI and data in the context of firms and organisations. Special emphasis is placed on understanding different data sources within companies and how AI may or may not improve firms’ abilities to generate value from existing data. You will gain an overview of the role enterprise systems and data lakes play in shaping data availability and quality, and how AI interacts with data systems and digital infrastructures. You will explore the basics of AI from a managerial perspective, including how different types of AI function and how they use and translate data, and which applications are currently applied across industries. Exploring how AI-driven systems can differ in terms of structure, reliability, and analytical potential, you will learn to evaluate their usefulness for improved decision-making. You will learn about AI as technology, how it is used to not only augment and automate human work, but also how to do this in increasingly autonomous ways. In the course, you engage in discussions on the value-creating opportunities in the new technologies, but also concerns and ethical issues. At the end of the course, you will have developed an understanding of what defines and supports mature and responsible use of AI in organisations. You will be prepared to evaluate AI’s strategic relevance for various business functions and identify opportunities to use AI to improve organisational actions. **Connection to Research**<br> This course is connected to the current research front, and required readings for the course consist entirely of contemporary research published in reputable academic journals. You will engage in critically evaluating current research and developed an understanding of AI in business based or peer-reviewed research. **Connection to Practice**<br> While keeping a high academic standard, the course is simultaneously familiarising you with highly relevant practical applications of AI. This is particularly evident in the course project where you, in groups, explore how AI is being applied in a selected organisational setting, for example AI in recruitment; AI in managerial work; AI in retailing; and so on. **Connection to Ethics, Responsibility, Sustainability (ERS)**<br> A very important aspect of the exploration of AI in various settings, is to raise the awareness of different concerns and ethical issues caused by the use of AI. For example, when AI is used to evaluate and select personnel in recruitment processes – how does that affect applicant's feelings of fairness, privacy and dignity?