Playing AI to Win the Business

Why to play?

Learn about the business opportunities offered by AI in a fun way and discover what makes a successful AI strategy through this cooperative card game.

Who to play?

You can play the game alone, with a partner, or with a group of people. If you are playing in a group, one person should be the game moderator and guide the game. This person should know the game, its rules, and also the potential applications of AI.

Important: the goal of the game is not for one person to win, but for everyone to win together.

When to play?

The game could be played as an icebreaker at the beginning of an AI workshop or training. Depending on the size of the group, the intensity of the game, and the experience of the players, the game lasts between 15 to 45 minutes. The duration is determined by the players or the moderator themselves.

How to play?

0. What is the goal of the game?

The aim is to create an effective AI strategy either individually or as part of a team within a set timeframe. An effective AI strategy identifies the business fields within the company where AI applications can be implemented to meet business goals. The AI strategy is successful when it leads to a business case, signifying that the value add of the AI applications to the business goals outweigh their costs.

For this, we calculate the AI ROI, which is defined as follows:

ROI = (Value - Costs) / Costs

During the game, you apply various AI use case cards for different business fields to achieve a particular business goal. Each AI use case has different costs (indicated by 🔴) and provides a certain business value (indicated by 🟢) depending on the business field. In the end, the values of all AI use cards are added together, and when it comes to costs, only the highest cost of the use case within a business field is taken into account.

So, make good choices about which AI (card) you play and where you play it, because strategy is all about choices.

Let's start game.

I. Who are we?

Would you like to play using your own company as an example? Then you can skip steps 1 to 3 and directly enter the name of your company. Otherwise:

1) Ask the participants for their locations (continents, countries, or cities) and have them write it down on sticky notes.

2) Let the Miro AI ideate companies from those locations.

3) Choose one company for the game, e.g. by a quick vote. Everyone should know the company.

4a) Decide how long you want to play. The shorter the time, the more difficult it is; the longer the time, the easier it becomes.

4b) Start the timer. The game begins!

II. What is our winning aspiration?

5) Conduct a poll about the company's goal: What do you want to achieve with AI? You can also define your own goal if necessary.

III) Where will we play?

6) Make a choice where NOT to play: So, which business areas we can ignore in the following AI use case ideation. Put the black cards from the top on the grey placeholders for the business fields (aka primary and supporting business activities).

Note: If a business field is occupied with a black card, no AI cards can be placed there later.

IV) How will we win?

You can choose to play either together or in turns. If you play in turns, each person spins the AI wheel once and then places an AI card. Others can offer advice to the player whose turn it is.

On the other hand, if you play together, everyone can suggest where to place the AI cards, and you must come to a group decision on their placement.

Repeat the following steps until the timer (see step 4) runs out:

7a) Spin the AI wheel: When the wheel stops, you will discover which type of AI you can use in the next step. The types vary in complexity—also known as AI maturity. More complex/mature AI applications typically come with higher costs, but they also tend to offer greater value.

7b) Take an AI card from the deck that matches the color of the item on the spun AI wheel, which indicates the AI maturity level.

7c) Choose the business activity or field where you want to use the AI card. You can place the card in a field that already has another AI card (regardless of the color), but you cannot place it in a field that is blocked by a black card.

7d) Describe how this AI card / AI use case benefits this business activity, specifically in helping the specific company achieve its established goal. The moderator will determine if your choice is reasonable. If the moderator rejects your proposal, you can either submit a new proposal or apply the card in a different business field. The process will then restart at step 7c.

Using a joker card allows you to propose any AI use case, but you need to explain the use case to the moderator, who must find it reasonable.

If the timer is still running, return to step 7a. If the timer has expired, proceed to step 8. When a stack of AI cards is depleted, the ideation process also concludes, and you should move on to step 8 as well.

Note: An alternative game variant is to allow the players to flip the card before they place it in a business field during the AI use case ideation.

V) How well did we play?

8) After the time is up, we will calculate the costs and values of the AI use cases for each business field in the use case scoring table. Go through all business fields one by one and follow these steps:

8a) From the AI cards in the business field, identify the AI card with the highest costs 🔴 and record this amount in the appropriate row of the table under the 🔴 Costs column for the respective business activity/field.

8b) Flip the AI cards. The back will display the corresponding value 🟢 for each business activity. Add these values together and enter the sum in the 🟢 Value column for the relevant row of the business activity.

Once you have completely filled out the use case scoring table, go to step 9 for the highscore table. At the bottom of the use case scoring table, you will find the total value and the total cost for your AI strategy.

VI) How much did we win by?

9) Note the data of the current game (title, date, facilitator, company, goal) and especially the 🔴 total costs and 🟢 total value determined in the previous table/step in the highscores table.

Your AI strategy's ROI is automatically calculated and shown as a percentage:

• A positive percentage means you have a positive return on investment (you earned more than you spent): you won!

• A negative percentage means you have a negative return on investment (you spent more than you earned): you lost! Try again.

You can also compare your ROI to other games/AI strategies, to see if you are performing above or below average. If you are below average, play another game. You will definitely do better the second time!

Where to find more?

Datentreiber offers you not only this Miroverse template, but also:

• The Data & AI Business Design Kit offers numerous open source canvases for applying the Data & AI Business Design Method.

• In addition, the free Data & AI Business Design Community is available for exchange, events, and expert content.

• Paid online and onsite training courses with certification are available at the Data & AI Business Design Academy.

• Many additional management tools, workshop templates, and project blueprints are available from our commercial Data & AI Business Design Bench.

• Our Data & AI Business Consulting offers support for your data & AI strategy, innovation, and transformation projects.

If you are interested or have any questions or feedback, please contact us at: info@datentreiber.de.

Copyright: All rights reserved by Datentreiber GmbH.