Artificial intelligence: Definition, reclassification, impact on business models, the rationale for a digital business and operating twin and Alpha Inc. Case.

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence is a disruptive technology impacting and involving a wide set of scientific and humanistic fields. The latest spring, caused by Big Data and hardware performances growth, is currently providing tangible benefits for firms, breaking through to wider implementation in all industries.

The thesis is based on three different questions: 1. Do complete and detailed definitions and classifications of AI exist? 2. How does AI impact on firm’s business model? 3. Can current AI capabilities be able to correctly run a digital business and operative twin to simulate a firm's ecosystem as a digital twin does inside factories?

The first chapter analyzes a set of definitions of AI and proposed a new one aimed to define AI from a business perspective. Then, a brief historical perspective explains how AI has a different definition and uses through decades and the current situation.

The second chapter goes into a deep analysis of academic and business researchers to group current AI-powered technologies and capabilities and to create a new AI classification that aims to exploit the three main domains of AI: Data, Scientific, and Capabilities.

The third chapter is a result of business model analysis on 60 business cases or solutions involving AI. the chapter has deeply analyzed each Building Block adding deepness through cases and grouping current impact per each area, overall identifying 100 different impacts.

Chapter 4 tries to rationalize a possible set of criteria and questions to estimate the possibility for a digital business or operating twin and create a model to follow this analysis. The chapter also introduces the possible developments on digital B2B open platforms and, lastly, the criteria for considering firms as “bionic companies”.

The final chapter deeply analyzed, through interviews, scientific and business reports, the Alpha Inc. case, a company operating as an AI solutions provider. The chapter summarizes their general rationale and vision and then deeply analyzes their RAMS architecture implemented for a Fashion Retailer, analyzing also impacts and possibilities for a standalone digital business/operating twin.