The AI Playbook
Authors: Siegel Eric 
Published: February 2024

In his bestselling first book, Eric Siegel explained how machine learning works. Now, in The AI Playbook, he shows how to capitalize on it.

“Eric Siegel delivers a robust primer on machine learning, the key mechanism in AI. A forward-looking, practical book and a must-read for anyone in the information economy.”

—Scott Galloway, NYU Stern Professor of Marketing; bestselling author of The Four

“An antidote to today's relentless AI hype—why some AI initiatives thrive while others fail and what it takes for companies and people to succeed.”

—Charles Duhigg, author of bestsellers The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better

The greatest tool is the hardest to use. Machine learning is the world's most important general-purpose technology—but it's notoriously difficult to launch. Outside Big Tech and a handful of other leading companies, machine learning initiatives routinely fail to deploy, never realizing value. What's missing? A specialized business practice suitable for wide adoption. In The AI Playbook, bestselling author Eric Siegel presents the gold-standard, six-step practice for ushering machine learning projects from conception to deployment. He illustrates the practice with stories of success and of failure, including revealing case studies from UPS, FICO, and prominent dot-coms. This disciplined approach serves both sides: It empowers business professionals, and it establishes a sorely needed strategic framework for data professionals.

Beyond detailing the practice, this book also upskills business professionals—painlessly. It delivers a vital yet friendly dose of semi-technical background knowledge that all stakeholders need to lead or participate in machine learning projects, end to end. This puts business and data professionals on the same page so that they can collaborate deeply, jointly establishing precisely what machine learning is called upon to predict, how well it predicts, and how its predictions are acted upon to improve operations. These essentials make or break each initiative—getting them right paves the way for machine learning's value-driven deployment.

A note from the author: What kind of AI does this book cover? The buzzword AI can mean many things, but this book is about machine learning, which is a central basis for—and what many mean by—AI. To be specific, this book covers the most vital use cases of machine learning, those designed to improve a wide range of business operations.

Endorsements:

“Eric Siegel delivers a robust primer on machine learning, the key mechanism in AI. A forward-looking, practical book and a must-read for anyone in the information economy.” 

—Scott Galloway, NYU Stern Professor of Marketing; bestselling author of The Four

“An antidote to today's relentless AI hype—why some AI initiatives thrive while others fail and what it takes for companies and people to succeed.”

—Charles Duhigg, author of bestsellers The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better

“Set aside the hype and focus on getting things to work in practice. This is a crisp, necessary, and deeply helpful guide to getting things done with AI. Essential reading.”

—Mustafa Suleyman, Cofounder and CEO, Inflection AI; author of The Coming Wave

“In this book, Eric brings machine learning to life and provides a roadmap for how to operationalize it in the real world.”

—Will Lansing, CEO, FICO

“This should be requisite reading for any professional serious about driving true value through the power of machine learning. Eric presents a pragmatic approach and it's not just about having the best algorithms—it's about ensuring you have a path to true productionalization at scale.”

—Jon Francis, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, GM

“The AI Playbook grabs you from the first pages. It's an indispensable guide for anyone, both technical and non-technical, interested in discovering how AI is really put into practice.”

—Barbara Oakley, author of A Mind for Numbers; co-instructor of Coursera's Learning How to Learn

“The AI Playbook clearly explains what you need to know and what to avoid to boost your return on AI investments.”

—Terry Sejnowski, President of NeurIPS, Professor at Salk Institute and UCSD, and co-instructor of Coursera's Learning How To Learn

“This book blows the lid off, showing precisely what it takes to boost enterprise efficiencies with AI.”

—Chris Pouliot, Vice President of Data Science & Analytics, Snowflake

“This book is the driver's manual for machine learning—every business and analytics professional should read it.”

—Morgan Vawter, Global Vice President of Data & Analytics, Unilever

“We have all heard about how AI changes everything. But to translate AI into actual value for your organization, you need to read this book!”

—Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance, Oxford; coauthor of Big Data

“The ultimate blueprint for tapping machine learning's full potential.”

—Andy Gray, Data & Tech Advisory Director, Deloitte

“Actually deploying machine learning models is the only way to convert them into economic value. Eric Siegel's book is the single best source for ensuring that data science pays off for your organization.”

—Thomas H. Davenport, Distinguished Professor, Babson College; author of The AI Advantage, Working with AI, and All in on AI

“Finally! A truly actionable analytics book—not too high-level and yet not scary technical. It introduces the bizML paradigm, which strategically aligns the enterprise to launch machine learning properly and profitably.”

—Sarah Kalicin, HR Data Scientist, Intel

“Eric has hit it out of the ballpark again with this manual for taking advantage of what is probably the most important new technology since the advent of the web.”

—Alex Pentland, Professor, MIT Media Lab and MIT Sloan Business School

“This strategic and tactical guide is a must-read for anyone interested in the successful use of machine learning in organizations. Illustrated by case stories, Eric Siegel's book provides a superb introduction for executives, managers, and other business leaders to the world of data literacy.”

—Gerd Gigerenzer, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin; author of How to Stay Smart in a Smart World: When Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms

“If you want to understand how AI and ML really work and add value, The AI Playbook is the best place to start!”

—Randy Bean, Founder, CEO, Innovation Fellow; author of Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Lessons in Data-Driven Leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI

“He's done it again! Eric Siegel, known for making analytics clear and immediately useful, delivers an essential guide to deploying machine learning. This should at least double your chance of successfully getting AI insights into productive use.”

—John Elder, Founder and Chair, Elder Research, Inc.

“The six-step playbook Siegel outlines in The AI Playbook is a masterclass for anyone seeking to deploy machine learning in their organization and generate benefits for their business and their workforce.”

—David Green, coauthor of Excellence in People Analytics, Managing Partner at Insight222, and Host of the Digital HR Leaders podcast

“A highly recommended read, this book provides invaluable insights for business professionals who want to collaborate effectively with data scientists and successfully implement machine learning in real-world scenarios.”

—Spiros Margaris, Founder and Venture Capitalist at Margaris Ventures

“Few businesses know how to deploy machine learning for competitive advantage. In The AI Playbook, Eric Siegel takes you inside companies that have succeeded—and failed. This is a must-read for executives at all levels.”

—Lawrence Ingrassia, author of Billion Dollar Brand Club

“Eric has distilled years of experience and a ton of great advice into an easy-to-follow roadmap for success called bizML. You should adopt this approach now.”

—James Taylor, author of Digital Decisioning: Using Decision Management to Deliver Business Impact from AI

“Eric cuts through the AI hype, giving readers concrete steps to ensure their machine learning initiatives achieve real business impact. It's a fun easy read, but deep on content, with many rich examples.”

—Karl Rexer, PhD, President, Rexer Analytics

“Eric has a deep understanding of the AI landscape, and he has a rare ability to clearly explain ideas from both a business perspective and a technical perspective. I strongly recommend The AI Playbook.”

—Dr. James McCaffrey, Microsoft Research, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

“Eric Siegel has always been at the forefront of next-level technology and level-headed execution. The AI Playbook will directly benefit businesses that have invested in machine learning but struggle to realize the benefits.”

—Jim Sterne, President of Target Marketing of Santa Barbara; author of Artificial Intelligence for Marketing: Practical Applications

“In his new book, The AI Playbook, Eric Siegel delivers invaluable insights, essential requirements, and practical steps for successful business deployments of machine learning, based upon his many years of experience. The book introduces and proposes bizML as a stronger, updated, industry-standard methodology for successful ML projects, seeking to be more pertinent, compelling, and widely adopted than the decades old CRISP-DM methodology. In this aspiration, The AI Playbook succeeds wonderfully.”

—Kirk Borne, founder and owner of Data Leadership Group LLC

“This is the business leader's guide to leading machine learning initiatives from start to finish, and gives business and tech experts enough insight into each other's worlds to be more than dangerous.”

—Pat Yongpradit, Chief Academic Officer, Code.org

“This book is the Rosetta Stone for translating and facilitating the conversation between business and data teams.”

—Vaclav Vincalek, Virtual CTO, 555vCTO.com

“Eric Siegel has developed a framework that provides the structure and method needed for machine learning projects to realize value.”

—Carlos Cruz, Professor and Rsesearcher at FGV (a top-10 global think tank) and FIAP (a top Brazilian tech university)

“The AI Playbook by Eric Siegel sets the practical tone that today's IT operations teams need when adopting AI/machine learning. He delivers an adoption framework to help cut through rising AI/ML hype and execute on projects.”

—Will Kelly, freelance writer focused on the cloud, DevOps, and IT operations