Companies Leverage Generative AI to Accelerate Business Execution

Companies across industries are discovering that generative AI's biggest advantage isn't precision—it's speed. New research from MIT Sloan reveals how businesses are pairing AI with data analytics to execute projects faster than ever before.

The Speed Revolution

According to the 2024 MIT Sloan Master of Business Analytics Capstone Project, companies are moving beyond "legacy machine learning" approaches that focus on precision. While traditional AI excels at individual-level targeting and predictions, generative AI "unlocks speed," explains MIT Sloan lecturer Jordan Levine.

The program analyzed 41 real-world projects where companies partnered with students to solve business problems using data analytics. About half of these AI-powered solutions are now live and actively supported.

Key Applications Driving Results

Drug Development Acceleration

• Pfizer reduced drug knowledge transfer from 9 months to weeks using AI to classify 33,000+ documents
• Takeda now designs clinical trials faster by benchmarking against 500,000+ trials using generative AI

Customer Response Speed

• CogniSure extracts critical information from thousands of PDFs and emails to deliver insurance quotes faster
• Comcast improved real-time response to 6 million monthly calls using AI-powered agent assistance
• CMA CGM replaced experience-based pricing with AI recommendations using 70 million transaction records

Communication Efficiency

• Dick's Sporting Goods automated personalized email campaigns, improving click-through rates
• McKinsey & Co. labels 26,000 documents annually with AI, up from 50% manual accuracy

The Workforce Impact

While speed is the primary benefit, companies must balance accuracy and consider workforce implications. Accenture developed tools to help clients predict generative AI's impact on large enterprise workforces, analyzing 851 jobs, 332 tasks, and 7,748 skills to guide technology deployment and reskilling initiatives.

The takeaway? Companies that combine generative AI with strong data analytics aren't just working smarter—they're working significantly faster.

🔗 Read the full article on MIT Sloan