To be sure, as a long-standing Silicon Valley darling and a key member of the Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (FAANG) cohort representing US big tech, much of Netflix’s story thus far has been inextricably linked to technology. The company’s tango with machine learning and algorithms dates back to the early 2000s, when its proprietary Cinematch algorithm formed the basis of personal movie recommendations on the then NetFlix. com. In fact: Since 2010, the company has taken to publicly documenting various aspects of its multi-pronged tech strategy via deep dives and technical reports on its official Netflix Tech Blog (https://netflixtechblog.com/).
With recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) pushing the technology into mainstream awareness — everywhere, all at once — one question looms large: What defines a true digital or AI success story? The importance of this question is underscored by the growing divide between digital and AI leaders and their peers: a 2024 McKinsey study reported that the spread between industry leaders and laggards has grown by 60% over the three-year study period. Tellingly, technology represents only one of the six factors behind successful digital transformation, the others being strategy, talent, data, implementation and scale. The idea, then, is this: technology — increasingly, AI — alone does not guarantee success, any more than a dotcom suffix did in the 2000s. However revolutionary, AI only delivers value when paired with business acumen. What do we mean? Using real-life case studies, we think, will provide readers a better understanding. Let’s start with Netflix.
Case study: Netflix
