The Role of AI in Transforming Business Headquarters

Artificial Intelligence (AI), and particularly Generative AI (GenAI), have significant potential to drive efficiencies in businesses – however, it is often not being utilised to its fullest potential. Most companies have a long list of use cases for AI – some of which have been successfully installed – but this is not a comprehensive AI strategy. To see the full benefits of AI tools, businesses must adopt a structured, forward-thinking approach to implementation and long-term use.

AI Use Cases

Use cases for AI currently almost solely focus on enhancing efficiency. Our study of over 200 applications revealed that most improvements were incremental, offering measurable time and resource savings, with only 20% of use cases impacting business models.

Incremental efficiency gains, such as AI fact-based negotiations, identification of invoice errors or creating marketing content, offers measurable time and resource savings. Business growth driving use cases include online offers, customer targeting and product offer and own brand improvements as well as reduced product development cycles.

AI driven business transformation (especially if focused on efficiency gain or cost improvements only) must not target a single use case implementation. It requires a more holistic picture:

• If efficiency is the goal of AI adoption, businesses should consider how an AI-digital headquarter could look, and if this can be used to reduce operating costs.
• If business growth is the goal, businesses should consider how an AI-digital G2M strategy could look – including shortened product development, and improve product offering, and how consumer data can be used to improve sales channel life cycles.

Efficiency Potential Across Departments

The potential for AI impact varies across departments, with some functions being more suited for automation than others. We found the highest potential for AI in Marketing, IT, Category Management & Procurement, and E-Commerce:

• Marketing: Content creation and campaign optimisation are ripe for automation. AI can draft press releases, personalise ad strategies, and manage digital campaigns.
• IT: From coding support to cybersecurity enhancements, IT departments benefit from AI’s ability to process large datasets and automate complex workflows.
• Category Management & Procurement: AI can support with contract analysis, identifying cost-saving opportunities, and ensures better supplier negotiations.
• E-Commerce: Automating customer service interactions and optimising product listings enhance the customer journey and operational efficiency.
  Departments like HR and finance also benefit, though their tasks (e.g., payroll, compliance) tend to adopt AI more slowly due to complexity and sensitivity.