Companies still don’t know how to incorporate AI in a holistic way, says Wharton expert

Good morning. Wharton professor Eric Bradlow, who serves as the vice dean of AI and analytics, calls AI the most consequential innovation of his lifetime. A computer scientist and statistician, he’s drawn to AI for its ability to sift massive data sets, solve complex problems in seconds, and democratize knowledge—especially in business.

In a video series by Wharton faculty on American business innovations, Bradlow discusses his viewpoint on AI and business: “We as humans are going to benefit a lot from artificial intelligence well before businesses make the type of transformations that everyone is predicting,” he said.

So I asked him what he thinks is the biggest bottleneck preventing companies from realizing AI’s potential—is it the technology itself, organizational change, incentives, regulation, or something else?

“I think it is organizational change, and still the need for humans in the loop,” he told me. “Organizations still don’t know how to incorporate AI in a holistic way.” The real constraint, he argues, isn’t the technology itself, but whether leaders can redesign work so humans and AI operate as partners.

Bradlow has been at Wharton for 30 years, has led a data science program for 20 years, and has focused on AI for the past decade. He is part of the research team that worked on the Wharton-Accenture Skills Index, an empirical benchmark that tracks more than 150 million unique U.S. profiles and 100 million job postings. The rise of large language models is making deep expertise more—not less—valuable, because “who’s going to train it? A person with deep skills. Who’s going to assess whether it’s correct? Someone with deep skills,” he told Fortune.

In Wharton’s video series, Bradlow also argues that in the age of AI, companies should redeploy employees to higher-value work: “The smart companies won’t get rid of people. The smart companies will redistribute talent.”

However, some companies have taken the position that true AI integration isn’t just automating tasks—it requires redesigning how work gets done, which may mean fewer people overall rather than simply different roles. I asked Bradlow about that viewpoint.

“The biggest opportunities with AI are not cost reductions, but revenue enhancement,” he said. “Firms will expand into entirely new business models, which will require the redistribution of talent among both existing and new employees.”

That also suggests a need for AI training and reskilling. As employees move into new roles, they’ll need new skills to succeed. In speaking with CFOs, I know training and reskilling in the age of AI is top of mind.

For leaders, the challenge is to invest in skills, governance and accountability as aggressively as they invest in models and infrastructure—otherwise, AI’s promise will remain stuck at the pilot stage instead of reshaping how the business grows.

Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com