In the deafening buzz of the digital age, a single narrative about Artificial Intelligence has taken hold.
It’s a story about productivity. About efficiency. About crafting the perfect prompt to get a marginally better answer from a machine.
But is that the real game?
Is a leader’s purpose truly to master a tool, or is it to use that tool to map out a new territory of value?
Let’s be blunt: the widespread obsession with the tactics of Generative AI is a dangerous distraction. It’s a siren song luring businesses toward a reef of mediocrity. This is a wake-up call for the decision-makers, the leaders who sense there must be more than simply optimizing the status quo.
This is your call to develop a true AI Strategic Vision. Because in the end, there are only two paths.
The Illusion of Progress: Why “Better” Is Your Enemy
Right now, your teams are likely focused on making things better.
Faster reports. More efficient marketing copy. Quicker data analysis. These are the celebrated “wins” of tactical AI implementation.
But this is an illusion of progress.
Focusing on making your current operations 10% more efficient is a strategic dead end. It’s the business equivalent of polishing the brass on the Titanic. The real risk isn’t that you’ll fail at using AI; it’s that you will succeed at using it for the wrong things.
Every hour your best minds spend on refining prompts for a process that is fundamentally outdated is an hour they are not spending on designing the process that will make your competitors obsolete.
As a leader, you must confront this uncomfortable truth: incremental improvement is the enemy of transformational change. An AI Strategic Vision doesn’t ask, “How can we do this faster?” It asks, “Why are we even doing this at all?”
The Great Divide: Are You a Tool-Manager or a Market-Shaper?
In this new era, leadership is splitting into two distinct, irreconcilable camps.
On one side, there are the Tool-Managers. They see AI as an instrument to be managed, a piece of software to be integrated, a cost center to be optimized. They focus on implementation, training, and tactical execution. They are playing a finite game of efficiency.
On the other side, there are the Market-Shapers. They see AI as a fundamental force, a strategic lever to redefine industries and create new forms of value. Their focus is not on the tool itself, but on the new questions the tool allows them to ask. They are playing an infinite game of possibility.
There is no middle ground.
An organization’s trajectory is determined entirely by which camp its leaders fall into. A true AI strategic Vision is the dividing line. It’s the conscious choice to move from managing a technology to wielding it as a strategic instrument of will.
Which camp are you in?
The Questions That Separate Winners from Losers
A powerful AI Strategic Vision isn’t a complex document; it’s a set of courageous questions that challenge the very foundation of your business. The quality of your AI output is not determined by the cleverness of your prompts, but by the audacity of your questions.
Here are the questions that Market-Shapers are asking right now:
1. Are We Automating a Process or Eliminating It? The Tool-Manager asks Generative AI to write a summary of a weekly report. The Market-Shaper asks AI to analyze the data streams in real-time and predict the report’s outcome, making the report itself unnecessary. Stop asking how to speed up the links in the chain; ask how to eliminate the chain entirely.
2. Are We Answering Our Customers or Redefining Their Needs? Your customers can only ask for what they know. A tactical AI Vision focuses on serving existing needs more efficiently. A strategic one uses AI to model behaviors and anticipate the rhythm of change, creating products and services for needs that customers haven’t even articulated yet. Stop chasing your customer; start leading them to a future they can’t yet imagine.
3. Is Our AI Creating Efficiency or Building a Moat? Lowering operational costs is a temporary advantage. A true AI Strategic Vision focuses on creating an insurmountable competitive advantage—a “moat.” Are you using AI to personalize marketing, or are you using it to build a predictive personalization engine so deeply integrated that no competitor can replicate the customer experience? One is a tactic; the other is a fortress.
Your Wake-Up Call: An AI Strategic Vision Is Not Optional
Let’s end the comforting delusions.
In this moment of technological upheaval, an AI Vision is not a “nice-to-have.” It is not an item for next year’s budget. It is the single most critical factor that will determine survival and dominance.
Enrico Giubertoni
The technology itself is becoming a commodity. Access to powerful Generative AI is no longer a differentiator. The only thing that separates you from your competition is the clarity, courage, and originality of your AI Vision.
Organizations led by Tool-Managers, those who remain trapped in the tactical weeds of prompting and efficiency, will become cautionary tales. They will be the footnotes in the business histories written by the Market-Shapers.
The Choice Is Yours
You stand at a crossroads. Down one path lies the comfort of the familiar: using incredible technology to do the same things a little bit better. It is the path of irrelevance.
Down the other path lies the challenge of the unknown: using that same technology to ask terrifyingly ambitious questions that could reshape your entire business. It is the path of leadership.
Guiding leaders and their teams to focus on that question is the essence of my work. It’s what allows them to channel AI’s inherent power strategically, moving beyond a limiting tactical approach to use it as a lever for their leadership.
