[TUM X Boston Consulting Group AI Strategy Research Cluster] Organisational pathways for AI success: Call for Research Applications

Project Study or Master Thesis with <put the name of your company here>.

📌 Key facts

🔹 Mission: We, the AI Strategy Research Cluster TUM X BCG, explore how organisations can generate value of AI through organisational structure, processes, technology, people and governance. Our goal is to uncover the organisational factors that determine whether AI creates real impact or fails to deliver.

🔹 Starting date: Start anytime. Applications open now!

🔹 How to apply: Send an email including your CV and grade report, and research interest (Details at the end of this page).

• 📌 Key facts
• 💡 Background
• 🧠 Topics of Interest
• 🦾Who We Are
• 🎓 Expectations
• 📄 Requirements to any Work
• 📬 How to apply

💡 Background

Our AI Strategy Research Cluster at TUM x BCG is on a mission to uncover how AI truly creates value beyond the hype. While many organisations have launched GenAI initiatives, few can demonstrate measurable top- or bottom-line impact. We believe that one potential missing link lies in how humans interact with AI: How they trust it, adapt to it, and integrate it into workflows and decision-making. From cognitive biases in Human-AI interaction to cross-level productivity effects and organisational learning loops, we investigate what really drives or hinders AI success. Our work blends behavioural science, organisational theory, and rigorous empirical methods to tackle one of the most pressing questions in today's digital transformation: What conditions must be met for AI to deliver on its promise? Join us to push the frontier of AI research and help shape the future of human-centred AI adoption in real-world organisations.

🧠 Topics of Interest

• Identifying OpModel characteristics for AI success - Systematic literature review: Identify and synthesise the operating model characteristics that are most strongly associated with successful AI implementation in organisations
• Validating AI Maturity Frameworks - Systematic literature review: Review and compare existing frameworks for assessing AI maturity, highlighting their conceptual foundations, dimensions, and limitations
• Assessing AI Maturity with Advanced Methods - Data-driven analysis: Develop and apply advanced analytical methods (e.g. NLP on corporate disclosures, benchmarking of financial and innovation data, etc.) to assess the AI maturity of a target set of companies
• Validating AI Maturity Measures - Validation study: Critically examine the validity and reliability of different AI maturity measures by comparing conceptual models with empirical evidence from organisations

🦾Who We Are

We are a research collaboration between the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), focused on exploring the business value of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Generative AI. Combining academic depth with industry relevance, we investigate how AI creates measurable impact across organizations spanning people, processes, platforms, and policies. Our work is grounded in real-world implementations and aims to produce actionable insights for both scholarly and managerial audiences. The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future. Topics such as Agile Organisations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership, and Teams. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies, and organisations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs

🎓 Expectations

• Applicants should have interest in Organisation-AI Interaction, basic knowledge of organisational and behavioural concepts and dynamics, and motivation for interdisciplinary thinking (management, computer science psychology, organisational behaviour)
• Strong academic track record
• Reliable, structured, precise and self-driven working style

📄 Requirements to any Work

We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:

• Infograph - visually represent some of your work (find examples here)
• Slide Deck - summarise your research and possibly present it
• optional: Medium Article - let people outside the university know about your research and start your personal brand

Please note that these deliverables are not officially required.

📬 How to apply

📌 Send us a brief application including:

✅ Your CV

✅ Your Transcript of Records/Grade Report(Transcript of Records)

✅ Your preferred starting date & your research interest/motivation

📩 E-Mail an: sophie.merl@tum.de // Sophie Merl

Please reach out in case of any question! We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you! 🚀