Attribution
The problem of isolating how much of an observed business change (especially a revenue lift) was actually caused by the AI, rather than by marketing, seasonality, pricing, or the economy. Hard attribution is why the revenue stream is the least provable and why revenue-AI projects need a control group and an independent measurer designed in before launch.
Defined in 3 GAGE programs, which carry 5 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in Business AI Transformation.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
The problem of isolating how much of an observed business change (especially a revenue lift) was actually caused by the AI, rather than by marketing, seasonality, pricing, or the economy. Hard attribution is why the revenue stream is the least provable and why revenue-AI projects need a control group and an independent measurer designed in before launch.
The discipline of establishing how much of an observed change is caused by the AI versus other forces (team changes, workload, parallel process changes). The defining test of whether an AI ROI claim is defensible.
The claim that the AI specifically caused a benefit. Attribution fails when a benefit with many simultaneous causes (layoffs, product changes, seasonality) is credited entirely to the AI.
The problem of proving that an AI (rather than some other factor) caused an observed business outcome. Solved most convincingly with a holdout, and only approximately with correlation.
The problem of separating the AI's effect from everything else that could explain an outcome (other initiatives, season, chance). Solving it credibly requires a control or a defensible substitute; a raw before-and-after does not solve it.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- Measuring AI ROI: Productivity Gains That Matter · AI in the Workplace and Team Leadership, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- The honest ROI: measuring what the AI actually changed at your organization, not what the vendor promised · The Money: Budgets, ROI, and Risk, AI Governance: Applied Mastery
- The Business Value Chain of AI · AI Literacy for Decision Makers, Business AI Transformation
- Analytics, Telemetry and Observability · Technology, Platforms and Vendors, Business AI Transformation
- The AI Value Office and Experimentation Discipline · Implementation from Pilot to Scale, Business AI Transformation
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.