Turn AI hype
into business value:
A roadmap to real results
Why AI, why now? The urgency of AI
AI is not the future. It’s the now.
AI is more than just the next technology — it’s a foundational shift, as transformative as electricity or the internet. It’s already redefining how we work, lead, compete, and grow.
But while AI is everywhere, real business value isn’t.
The companies that thrive won’t be the ones dabbling in pilots — they’ll be the ones embedding AI into the core of their business.
To stay ahead, leaders must move from experimentation to execution — using AI to:
- Drive innovation
- Accelerate growth
- Build resilience
- Stay ahead of disruption
The opportunity is now. So is the risk.
Lead with confidence — before AI leads without you.
AI is daunting. Where do you start?
The pressure to act is real, but the path forward isn’t always clear. With the rapid evolution of AI, GenAI, and agentic AI, the questions pile up: Where do we start? What’s hype vs. what’s real? How do we ensure this drives value — not risk? At IMD, we help senior leaders cut through the noise and turn AI into real business impact.
Three pillars of AI adoption
Organizations should focus on three essential dimensions of AI adoption: business value, data, and people. Together, these elements form a value-data-people framework, a structure for conceptualizing the critical questions that decision-makers must address. What value does the organization aim to create with AI? Does it have access to the required data? And how will employees and stakeholders perceive and adapt to the changes?
José Parra Moyano
Professor of Digital Strategy
Together, they are redefining how businesses operate and how leaders must respond.
Why many businesses fail to unlock AI’s value
AI investment is booming — but results often fall flat.
Why? Because too many companies treat AI as a tech experiment, not a strategic business tool.
Common pitfalls:
- No link to business goals — AI is disconnected from outcomes that matter.
- Siloed pilots — Projects never scale beyond isolated teams.
- Lack of leadership ownership — Without C-suite direction, momentum stalls.
- Cultural resistance — Change is hard without buy-in across the organization.
What sets leaders apart
Some businesses are accelerating. Others are stalling. The difference is leadership.
A growing divide is emerging — not in access to AI, but in the ability to lead it.
Companies like Securitas are using AI to transform their business at scale. They’re aligning strategy, operations, and culture to unlock measurable results — not just experiments, but enterprise-wide change.
Meanwhile, others remain stuck in fragmented pilots, struggling to connect AI ambition with impact — losing ground to faster-moving competitors.
This is the leadership gap.
Those who lead with AI will redefine their industries.
Those who delay risk falling behind — for good.
Businesses that embrace AI are leading. The rest are catching up or falling behind. They’re using AI for everything from repetitive task automation, work quality enhancement, and creativity and innovation. AI leaders aren’t just more efficient, they’re more innovative, more adaptive, and more competitive. Meanwhile, those that delay are left reacting to changes they didn’t initiate. They struggle to attract talent, lose ground to faster-moving competitors, and risk becoming irrelevant in markets shaped by digital and AI disruption. In this new era, embracing AI isn’t optional. It’s a defining characteristic of the leaders who are shaping the future, while the rest scramble to catch up or risk falling irreversibly behind.
Michael Wade
TONOMUS Professor of Strategy and Digital and
Director of the TONOMUS Global Center for Digital and AI Transformation
Bridge the AI leadership gap with IMD
At IMD, we help organizations move beyond pilots and into performance.
Our programs are built for leaders — not technicians — equipping your people to embed AI where it drives real business value:
What makes IMD different
What separates the front runners from the rest?
It’s not access to technology — it’s executive leadership.
Organizations that succeed are those where senior leaders understand AI, embrace GenAI and agentic AI, and know how to embed these technologies into their unique business models.
Securitas case study
Securitas transformed from a traditional guarding company into a digital-first, data-driven security leader.
In 2018, IMD helped Securitas redefine its strategic purpose and create a leadership-aligned transformation roadmap.
The result? A massive shift from <1,000 to over 130,000 digitalized client sites. The launch of Securitas Technology and Securitas Digital, integrating AI and data analytics into core services. The technology-driven revenue grew from 20% to 32%, supported by the $3.2B acquisition of Stanley Security.
Click here to read more.
IMD’s approach—listening deeply, challenging assumptions and aligning us behind a shared purpose—helped reshape not just our strategy, but our organization.
Magnus Ahlqvist
CEO, Securitas AB
IMD – Driving AI impact
AI is rewriting the rules of business. We help you rewrite your playbook.
We don’t just understand AI — we understand how to make it work in your organization. We have a wealth of experience and expertise working with every industry.
IMD was founded by business, for business — and today, we bring that same purpose to helping leaders turn AI ambition into real-world results.
At IMD, you won’t just explore the potential of AI. You’ll build a strategic, actionable roadmap — tailored to your context, grounded in results, and led by senior executives.
AI learning that delivers strategy, not just theory
Whether you’re building individual AI capabilities or driving enterprise-wide transformation, our AI programs deliver results.
Our open programs help leaders quickly gain the skills to apply AI in real-world business contexts. For organizations, our custom programs are built around your strategy, tailored to different leadership levels, and designed to scale.
Every program blends practical experimentation with strategic insight — ensuring AI learning turns into measurable business impact.
Turn knowledge into impact
with our AI open programs
Rooted in our deep AI expertise, our portfolio of open programs is designed to accelerate executive learning and drive real results. You will walk away with actionable roadmaps, tailored strategies, and the confidence to lead AI transformation in your organization — safely, ethically, and at scale. Whether you’re just starting or scaling AI, our courses turn complexity into clarity.
IMD AI and digital transformation programs deliver high value. Attending these programs transformed me with new skills and a fresh mindset. You give back high value to your company because you become an incubator for new knowledge and direction.
Olaf Komitsch
Chief Procurement Officer, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Custom AI programs,
built for your organization
Our programs are personalized at scale — adapting by role, region, and readiness level. Senior leaders engage in immersive, in-person sessions, while broader teams benefit from flexible, virtual delivery. The result: a unified approach to AI transformation that’s contextually relevant, practical, and built to scale.
We create tailor-made AI programs designed around your strategic goals, organizational context, and leadership needs. Grounded in our Value–Data–People (VDP) framework, we help you drive AI initiatives that create business value, are built on robust data foundations, and empower people to lead change.
Learn what works, leverage best practices and get evidence-based advice from one of the pioneers in AI Innovation. Here are some examples of our thought leadership:
IMD’s faculty combine deep AI expertise with real-world impact. Published in top journals, advising global companies on AI strategy, ethics, and transformation. At IMD, you don’t just learn about AI — you learn from the award-winning experts shaping its future.
TONOMUS Global Center for Digital and AI Transformation
The TONOMUS Global Center for Digital and AI Transformation delivers actionable insights and proven best practices to help executives lead successful digital and AI transformations. Through world-class research and real-world analysis, the Center empowers leaders to move beyond theory — identifying what works, what doesn’t, and how to scale impact. These insights directly inform IMD’s digital and AI programs, ensuring individuals and organizations are equipped to turn opportunity into measurable results.
The Center’s focus:
and bring learning to life
AI is not just a topic we teach — it’s a tool we use to transform how leaders learn.
We start by gaining a deep understanding of your organization, using both human insight and AI-enabled diagnostics to map your unique challenges, goals, and context. This allows us to design a custom learning journey that’s tightly aligned to your strategy and adaptable to your leadership levels.
Our learning experiences are personalized and scalable — with AI helping us track progress, tailor content in real time, and support different learning paths across global teams.
Throughout the journey, we integrate AI tools that enhance, not replace, the human experience — enabling safe experimentation, feedback loops, and reflection. The result: learning that’s immersive, relevant, and designed for real-world impact.
Our breakthroughs deliver:
IMD’s AI tool in action
Hear from our Chief Innovation Officer Sarah Toms on how IMD is leveraging generative AI to create the most impactful learning experience possible.
EPFL and IMD – a powerful partnership for the AI age
We collaborate closely with EPFL, one of the world’s leading science and technology institutions, to deliver impactful learning experiences at the intersection of AI, technology, and business leadership. This partnership brings together EPFL’s deep technical expertise with IMD’s strength in executive education and strategic application. Whether through open-enrolment programs or bespoke learning journeys, our joint initiatives help leaders not only understand emerging AI technologies — including GenAI and agentic AI — but also translate them into concrete business strategies and organizational transformation. Together, we ensure that participants gain both the technical fluency, and the business insight needed to lead confidently in the age of AI.
Turn strategy into impact with IMD
IMD helps you move beyond AI experimentation to execution. We work with you to build a practical, outcome-driven roadmap — from identifying high-impact use cases to aligning leadership and scaling capabilities across your organization.
What we deliver:
Our approach
We don’t just teach AI — we partner with leaders to:
Move fast. Move smart. Turn AI ambition into real business advantage with IMD.