Five Maturity Levels of Managing AI: From Isolated Ignorance to Integrated Intelligence

To guide future discussions about managing artificial intelligence (AI), this article suggests an AI management framework with five maturity levels, which are comparable to the five levels of the autonomous driving framework from no automation to complete automation. If companies move beyond Isolated Ignorance (Level 0), they are characterized by an Initial Intent (Level 1), which typically evolves towards an Independent Initiative (Level 2). A more advanced management leads to Interactive Implementation (Level 3) and Interdependent Innovation (Level 4). On this basis, a close combination of AI and human knowledge enables a sustainable competitive advantage with Integrated Intelligence (Level 5). This framework draws on the intelligence-based approach to company performance, and it provides the basis for an AI maturity assessment in organizations. It further helps to identify many firms’ managerial challenges as well as major organizational limitations even in those firms that are often considered as AI leaders.