MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Improve Key Performance Indicators With AI

Improving key performance indicators is a clear mandate for most organizations. According to our seventh annual global executive AI survey, 7 out of 10 respondents agree that enhancing KPIs — not just improving performance — is critical to their business success. As one executive notes, “We need to evolve our KPIs all the time so we don’t run our business on legacy metrics.”

A growing number of companies now use AI — in a variety of ways — to accelerate that evolution. “I’m very excited about what machine learning can do in terms of having our senior leaders move away from metrics that look backward to metrics that can look forward,” says Avinash Kaushik, chief strategy officer at digital marketing agency Croud and a former senior director of global strategic analytics at Google.

About the Author

Michael Schrage is a research fellow with the MIT Sloan School of Management’s Initiative on the Digital Economy. His research, writing, and advisory work focuses on the behavioral economics of digital media, models, and metrics as strategic resources for managing innovation opportunity and risk.

David Kiron is the editorial director, research, of MIT Sloan Management Review and program lead for its Big Ideas research initiatives.

François Candelon is a senior partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group and the global director of the BCG Henderson Institute, where his research focuses on the impact of technologies on business and society. He can be contacted at candelon.francois@bcg.com.

Shervin Khodabandeh is a senior partner and managing director at BCG and the coleader of BCG’s AI business in North America. He is a leader in BCG X and has over 20 years of experience driving business impact from AI and digital. He can be contacted at shervin@bcg.com.

Michael Chu is a partner and associate director at BCG who focuses on applying AI and machine learning to business problems in commercial functions, including optimizing pricing, promotions, sales, and marketing. He can be reached at chu.michael@bcg.com.

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