Scaling GenAI: Get Big Value From Smaller Efforts

M. Webster and G. Westerman, “Generate Value From GenAI With ‘Small t’ Transformations,” MIT Sloan Management Review, Jan. 22, 2025.

Despite two years of broad experimentation, most companies aren’t seeing the large-scale GenAI transformations they initially envisioned. The challenge isn’t the technology’s potential — it’s understanding how to generate real value at three different levels of investment while effectively managing the risks that GenAI innovations can bring.

Join MIT researchers Melissa Webster and George Westerman as they reveal insights from their study of 21 large companies that are successfully generating measurable value from generative AI. Rather than pursuing wholesale business redesigns, these leaders are working their way up the “risk slope” — starting with low-risk applications and building capabilities for larger transformations.