CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue of Strategy Science
"Can AI Do Strategy? Exploring the Frontiers of AI-Augmented Strategic Decision Making"
Editors
Felipe Csaszar, University of Michigan
Gwendolyn Lee, University of Florida
Peter Zemsky, INSEAD
Todd Zenger, University of Utah
The deadline for submission is May 1, 2025.
Submissions now open!
Strategy Science invites submissions for a special issue on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in strategic decision-making (SDM). As AI capabilities rapidly advance, particularly with the emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs), some question whether a paradigm shift will occur in how firms generate, evaluate, and implement strategies. This special issue aims to provide a foundational understanding of this potential transformation, including the possibilities, challenges, implications, and limitations that AI-augmented strategy may entail.
By exploring the fundamental question, "Can AI Do strategy?", we hope this special issue will contribute to a deeper understanding of what precisely strategy is. Some of the deeper questions we aim to address include: Do AI and humans differ in their capacities for various forms and outcomes of strategic decision-making? What forms of complementarity exist between human and AI decision-making, and which structures for AI-augmented strategy are most productive? Is AI only useful in accessing the adjacent possible, or can it help build truly counterfactual future states? To what extent does strategy require imagination, experimentation, theorizing, and foresight? Can some of these tasks be automated?
In comparing AI and human capacities for strategic decision-making, as well as productive avenues for integration, we hope papers help reveal the essence of effective strategizing. Is it prediction from backward-looking data analysis? Is it forward-looking causal projection to solve a problem or enable some future state? Is it novel resource recombination? Is it composing novel interventions that transform resources into problem solutions? Or, is it some other process altogether? Current LLMs, potentially coupled with human interventions, may allow us to study these questions more deeply than we have in the past.
Note that our interest in this Special Issue is not on broader issues of how AI will shape the nature of work or decision-making at large, but rather its direct connection to the process of strategy formulation and evaluation.
We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological papers that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- AI-Generated Strategies: Can AI produce truly innovative and effective strategies? How do AI-generated strategies compare to those developed by human strategists?
- AI in Strategy Evaluation: How effective is AI in evaluating strategic alternatives? Can AI enhance or replace the work of strategy consultants and internal strategy analysts?
- Human-AI Collaboration in SDM: How can AI augment human strategists' capabilities? What are the optimal ways to integrate AI into existing SDM processes?
- AI and Strategic Cognition: How does AI impact core cognitive processes in SDM, such as search, problem representation, theory formation, and aggregation?
- AI and Strategy Education: How should business schools adapt their curricula to prepare future strategists for an AI-augmented world?
- Limitations of AI in SDM: What are the boundaries of AI's capabilities in strategy? How do these limitations align with or challenge existing strategy theories?
- AI and Competitive Advantage: How does widespread AI adoption in SDM affect the nature and sustainability of competitive advantage?
- Ethical Considerations: What are the ethical implications of using AI in high-stakes strategic decisions?
- AI and Strategy Tools: How can existing strategy frameworks and tools be reimagined or new tools composed using AI?
- AI and Strategy Process: How is AI impacting the locus of SDM (e.g., use of consultants, top-down versus decentralized)? Might faster cycle times better integrate strategy formulation and execution?
We especially encourage submissions that:
- Provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of AI in real-world strategic contexts.
- Develop theoretical frameworks for understanding AI's role in strategy.
- Explore the implications of AI for strategy theory and practice.
- Critically examine the potential limitations and risks of AI in SDM.
All papers using software will be asked to include detailed replication instructions as an appendix. The goal is to create a repository of knowledge that the field can build upon.
Submission Deadline: May 1, 2025.
Expected Publication: Within one year of the submission deadline.
Submissions should follow the Strategy Science author guidelines. When submitting, please select the checkbox indicating that your submission is for the special issue "Can AI Do Strategy?"
For questions, please contact any of the special issue editors: Felipe Csaszar (fcsaszar@umich.edu), Gwendolyn Lee (gwendolyn.lee@warrington.ufl.edu), Peter Zemsky (peter.zemsky@insead.edu), or Todd Zenger (todd.zenger@utah.edu).
We look forward to your contributions to this exciting and transformative area of strategy research.
With kind regards,
Felipe Csaszar, Gwendolyn Lee, Peter Zemsky, and Todd Zenger
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Felipe Csaszar
University of Michigan
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