McKinsey & Company · November 2018 · Playbook

The executive's AI playbook

The executive's AI playbook is a 2018 guide from McKinsey & Company. Its core idea: size the AI opportunity by industry, then build the data, tech and practices to scale beyond pilots.

Read the original report ↗Cite2 min read · Summary updated
Pilot purgatory
size the AI opportunity by industry, then build the data, tech and practices to scale beyond pilots
Source: McKinsey & Company, The executive's AI playbook, November 2018.

Key ideas

  1. 01
    Interactive tool that sizes the AI value opportunity by industry using McKinsey market data.
  2. 02
    Outlines the data and technology capabilities a company needs to capture that value.
  3. 03
    Collects best practices aimed at moving AI efforts out of pilots and into organization-wide use.

What it means for you Draft

For executives at $10–100M companies

This is a 2018 interactive built before generative AI, so treat it as background on the idea of pilot purgatory rather than current guidance. A $10–100M leader can skip the industry value-sizing, which is pitched at large enterprises; the only lasting lesson is that pilots without a plan to scale rarely pay back.

Limitations

Medium trust.Reputable firm with proprietary data, but McKinsey sells AI consulting (QuantumBlack), method is not disclosed, and content predates generative AI.

About the publisher: Sells AI strategy and implementation consulting.

Cite the original

McKinsey & Company. "The executive's AI playbook." November 7, 2018. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-executives-ai-playbook