Generative AI and Strategic Decision-Making : The Role of Generative AI in Strategic Decision-Making and its Perceived Operational and Financial Organizational Outcomes

Sammanfattning

Generative AI (GenAI) tools are spreading into managerial work, including strategic decision-making. Yet most research remains conceptual, with no (to the best of our knowledge) empirical studies that link concrete use of GenAI by managers, its organizational effects and adoption challenges at the company level. Hence, we defined our research question as “How can managers leverage GenAI in decision-making, and what organizational outcomes (operational and financial) emerge from its use?” First, a systematic literature review was conducted to define the key usages of GenAI in strategic tasks, the affected operational and financial outcomes by the use of GenAI, and potential adoption obstacles. Next, a questionnaire was distributed to management professionals using purposive sampling. It aimed to ask how they use GenAI in decision processes, what impact they see on selected operational and financial outcomes, and what challenges they face. The responses were analyzed using Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM), applying two acceptance tests - consensus and significance - to only keep relationships that experts both agreed on and considered important. The accepted relationships alongside their strength values were then used to build a Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) showing how GenAI use cases connect to organizational outcomes. Our investigations showed that on average respondents considered a moderate positive impact on the operational and financial outcomes when using GenAI in certain use cases. This means that GenAI can raise the quality and speed of strategic decisions by improving how managers find, make sense of, and compare options.