It’s a well-worn maxim that companies can’t manage what they don’t measure. But using A.I. transforms both what companies can measure and what they should manage. Several corporations have learned to combine A.I. with Big Data to identify new performance indicators and refine existing ones, which is helping them develop fresh ideas about what drives their performance.

Surprisingly, A.I. often upends traditional assumptions about the drivers of performance, profitability, and growth. Using the technology therefore helps companies transform their performance and sustain that transformation, not just keep track of legacy metrics, making A.I. a critical factor in performance measurement. According to the BCG-MIT 2023 Global Executive A.I. Survey (the Survey), seven of 10 respondents agree that better key performance indicators (KPIs) are critical for success.

Our studies show that the A.I. leaders are using data and technology, such as supervised and unsupervised machine learning or deep learning to measure and manage KPIs in three ways: They create new KPIs with A.I.; they prioritize the KPIs that matter using A.I.; and they improve alignment across the organization with A.I.-designed shared KPIs.