New IMD playbook 2025

Winning with AI

The business leader’s guide to AI – from strategy to execution

Organizations are racing to invest in AI, with Gartner predicting worldwide GenAI spending could surge to $644 billion in 2025. As investment floodgates open, implementation timelines are shrinking dramatically: two in five organizations are moving from decision to deployment in less than six months, according to IDC.

These high-stakes, high-speed investments demand strategic precision. With AI ROI still uncertain, leaders need proven frameworks to maximize returns while being mindful of the broader impact their decisions will have on their organizations, workers, and the planet.

Drawing on rich research from across the IMD faculty and real-world examples from companies at the forefront of successful AI implementation, this comprehensive playbook equips business leaders to deliver actionable strategies for competitive advantage while managing the associated risks.

GenAI marks a strategic inflection point - yet most leaders aren't ready.
 

Viewpoints from 10 IMD faculty

Executive checklist: Four questions every leader should ask

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AI Maturity Index

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Is AI good or bad for sustainability?

By integrating AI into sustainability initiatives, organizations can transform what’s often viewed as a cost burden into a driver of productivity and efficiency. Listen to this episode of Mike and Amit Talk Tech, where hosts Professors Michael Wade and Amit Joshi discuss with Professor Julia Binder whether AI represents a groundbreaking innovation or environmental burden—and whether it might one day save our planet.

GAIN: Demystifying GenAI for office and home

Understand how GenAI is different from other tech innovations and what you can do to harness its power.

This book argues that GenAI represents a genuine paradigm shift in technological innovation. The authors, the hosts of the popular podcast Mike & Amit Talk Tech, combine academic rigor with practical business insights, incorporating perspectives from diverse industry experts and their own hands-on experience teaching with, and using, GenAI. They maintain an optimistic yet balanced view, acknowledging both opportunities and risks.

The AI-Centered Enterprise

Reshaping Organizations with Context Aware AI

A thought-provoking business book revealing how context-aware AI is transforming organizations and redefining the future of enterprise success.

This book urges business leaders to rethink the fundamentals of generative AI and move beyond short-term, tactical wins. Tools like ChatGPT represent only the beginning of Context-Aware AI-intelligent systems that understand both the content and intent of unstructured human input.

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AI in manufacturing: lessons from the most successful firms

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the manufacturing industry worldwide, driving a new wave of innovation and efficiency.

IMD’s AI Maturity Index demonstrates how leading manufacturers are building competitive advantage through AI transformation, write Tomoko Yokoi and Michael Wade.

AI in the automotive industry: lessons from the most successful firms

Mastering artificial intelligence will be key to the future of the automotive sector; firms that fail to do this risk being left behind.

IMD’s AI Maturity Index unveils the strategic approaches driving transformation among industry leaders.

Four questions to guide the implementation of responsible AI

As AI races ahead and regulators fall behind, the real question isn’t what your system can do, but what kind of organization you become by deploying it.

Answering these four questions will help you ensure you implement responsible AI

How can AI enable business strategy

Artificial intelligence is perhaps the most far-reaching technology ever created. 

Google’s AI business strategist Gopi Kallayil recommends asking yourself three key questions regarding your business strategy and identifies three AI capabilities you need to make it happen.

5 myths holding back GenAI in the workplace

The promise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) isn’t in the code; it’s in the people.

As companies move from proof-of-concept experiments to organization-wide adoption, many struggle not with the AI itself but with the organizational transformation required to integrate it effectively into daily work.

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Digital transformation and AI programs

Digital Transformation and AI Programs

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