The Data-Driven Leader: Leveraging Data and AI to Create Business Impact

Unlock the power of data and artificial intelligence to transform the way you lead and make business decisions.Business leaders, executives, and decision-makers will find a proven, practical roadmap for understanding the essentials of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning—without getting lost in technical jargon. Written with a strong business focus, this guide demystifies concepts like data quality, visualization, predictive analytics, and generative AI, showing how they directly impact strategy, operations, and innovation.You’ll discover why “no data, no AI” is more than a slogan—it’s the foundation of every successful project. Through engaging examples and real-world use cases, the book explains how to collect the right data, improve its quality, and turn it into actionable insights. With clear explanations of summary statistics, data visualization techniques, and machine learning basics, readers gain the ability to ask the right questions and collaborate more effectively with data professionals.From sales forecasting and customer targeting to the opportunities and pitfalls of generative AI and chatbots, this book brings theory into practice. It highlights best practices in data science, including project management, governance, and cross-functional collaboration, while also addressing the limits of AI and the importance of responsible, ethical use. Each chapter ends with key takeaways, ensuring readers not only understand the concepts but also know how to apply them within their organizations.This is the definitive business introduction to data and AI—practical, insightful, and designed to help you turn information into impact.There are many things to like about this clear and concise book, but my favorite aspect of it is that it describes all forms of AI and puts generative AI in perspective. If you want to understand the role of data, analytics, and AI in your organization, this is a great place to start. Thomas H. Davenport Distinguished Professor, Babson CollegeResearch Fellow, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Author of “Competing on Analytics”, “All In on AI”, and “All Hands on Tech”AI without data is like a rocket without fuel. In “The Data-Driven Leader”, Sandro Saitta begins exactly where every book on AI should—with data—then takes you on a practical, well-illustrated, business-savvy journey into the future.Douglas B. Laney, data, analytics, and AI strategy advisorAuthor of “Infonomics” and “Data Juice”“The Data-Driven Leader” tackles what I genuinely thought was impossible: making data and AI approachable for literally every professional out there. This book doesn’t just succeed at that impossible task—it has this wonderful side effect of making our entire field more inclusive and welcoming. Tiankai FengAuthor of “Humanizing Data Strategy” and “Humanizing AI Strategy” Read more