Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way since its beginnings in the 1950s as a theoretical field studied by academics. In the early years, AI research focused on mimicking human intelligence and solving theoretical problems like playing chess. It wasn’t until the 1980s and 90s that AI started being applied to real-world business problems.

One of the first business uses of AI was in financial services for fraud detection and credit-risk modeling. Banks and credit card companies started using machine learning algorithms to analyze transactions and identify patterns that could indicate fraud. This allowed them to catch fraudulent behavior faster than relying on humans alone.

Over the next few decades, AI spread to other business functions like marketing, sales, customer service, and supply chain optimization. In marketing, AI has enabled more targeted advertising by analyzing consumer data and search trends. In sales, AI analyzes sales data and signals to predict customer churn.

More recently, AI has made its way into the boardroom to help inform executive decision-making. According to a study by McKinsey, 23% of executives currently use AI in some capacity in their decision-making process. The most common boardroom uses are generating insights from data, automating routine tasks, and forecasting trends.

For example, retailers use AI to analyze point-of-sale data, web traffic, inventory levels, and more to detect sales trends and optimize pricing. Consumer product companies use AI to refine product development and understand consumer sentiment through social media data. Energy companies use AI to forecast electricity demand based on weather data.

The future points towards even greater adoption of AI in the boardroom. According to a survey by MIT Sloan Management Review, 85% of respondents expect AI will enable their companies to obtain or sustain competitive advantage. The top use cases will involve accelerating processes, enhancing decision-making, and helping shape overall strategy.

As AI capabilities grow, it will become an essential partner for business leaders in strategy development and long-term planning. With access to more data and sophisticated analytical tools, AI can help leaders identify blind spots, predict outcomes of strategic options, and point out risks that may not be obvious to humans alone.

Overall, AI is poised to become the next major technological driver of innovation in management and strategy alongside earlier waves of change brought by the Internet and big data. Companies that effectively harness AI have the opportunity to disrupt industries, reshape business models, and gain significant competitive edge. Business leaders who want to stay ahead of the curve need to start building up their organizations’ AI capabilities today.