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Topic

Desk thesis

AI Strategy

How organizations build and execute AI strategies that move beyond experimentation to measurable business outcomes.

AI strategy is a portfolio of bets, constraints and operating choices — not a list of pilots.

AI Strategy

Lead analysis

Editor's picks

Board questions this desk answers

  • Where does AI change your unit economics first?
  • Which capabilities should be built vs. bought now?
  • What strategic moat can be created in 12-18 months?

Signature formats

Board Brief
Strategy Lens
Portfolio Note
Decision Memo

Latest in this topic

Where AI Truly Creates Competitive AdvantageAI Strategy · Lead Analysis

Where AI Truly Creates Competitive Advantage

This article answers where to strategically fund AI initiatives to build durable business advantage. The mechanics of defensibility and the initiative copyability test are covered in strategy-ai-moat-not-model.

2026-06-01·9 min read
AI Strategy Is a Portfolio of Decisions, Not a Project ListAI Strategy · Lead Analysis

AI Strategy Is a Portfolio of Decisions, Not a Project List

Companies often begin AI strategy by collecting ideas: a chatbot for customer support, a copilot for sales, document automation, predictive analytics, content generation, HR tools. Such a list creates a sense of motio…

2026-06-01·12 min read
The CEO's AI Decision MapAI Strategy · Lead Analysis

The CEO's AI Decision Map

AI is no longer a topic a CEO can treat as a technology initiative managed by IT, data science, or innovation teams. Not because the CEO should understand model internals. Because the most important AI decisions conce…

2026-06-01·11 min read
Why AI Pilots Die After the DemoScaling AI

Why AI Pilots Die After the Demo

The demo works. The pilot impresses. Then nothing changes. Here's the structural reason — and what to do about it.

2026-05-22·6 min read
How to Build an AI-Ready Operating ModelScaling AI

How to Build an AI-Ready Operating Model

An AI-ready operating model is not a technology architecture. It is an organizational design that allows AI to produce consistent business outcomes.

2026-05-15·10 min read

All articles in this topic

Where AI Truly Creates Competitive Advantage

This article answers where to strategically fund AI initiatives to build durable business advantage. The mechanics of defensibility and the initiative copyability test are covered in strategy-ai-moat-not-model.

2026-06-01
9 min read

AI Strategy Is a Portfolio of Decisions, Not a Project List

Companies often begin AI strategy by collecting ideas: a chatbot for customer support, a copilot for sales, document automation, predictive analytics, content generation, HR tools. Such a list creates a sense of motio…

2026-06-01
12 min read

The CEO's AI Decision Map

AI is no longer a topic a CEO can treat as a technology initiative managed by IT, data science, or innovation teams. Not because the CEO should understand model internals. Because the most important AI decisions conce…

2026-06-01
11 min read

The AI Transformation Gap CEOs Can No Longer Ignore

Most organizations are experimenting with AI. Very few have redesigned the operating model, governance and processes required to scale it.

2026-05-28
9 min read

Why AI Pilots Die After the Demo

The demo works. The pilot impresses. Then nothing changes. Here's the structural reason — and what to do about it.

2026-05-22
6 min read

Why AI ROI Is Harder Than It Looks

Organizations measuring AI return on investment consistently undercount both costs and benefits. Here is how to measure it properly.

2026-05-18
7 min read

How to Build an AI-Ready Operating Model

An AI-ready operating model is not a technology architecture. It is an organizational design that allows AI to produce consistent business outcomes.

2026-05-15
10 min read

When AI Becomes the Core of Digital Transformation

Digital transformation programs designed before generative AI need rethinking. AI is no longer a workstream — it is the architecture.

2026-04-28
9 min read

Use-Case Portfolio: How to Select AI Projects for Scale

Most organizations do not have an AI idea problem. They have a selection problem: which ideas truly deserve scale investment. When every business unit submits a "strategic" use case, the portfolio inflates and decisio…

2026-06-01
7 min read

Agentic Enterprise: The New Operating Model for an AI-Agent Company

Many organizations still treat AI agents as another automation layer: fast summaries, document assistance, customer-support help, and sometimes a few workflows embedded in CRM or ERP. This approach improves local prod…

2026-06-01
7 min read

Capital Allocation for AI: A Decision Framework for CFOs

In many organizations, AI is funded like a trend: one budget for rapid pilots, another for licenses, a third for the "platform," and a fourth hidden in operating costs across business teams. After 12 months, the compa…

2026-06-01
6 min read

How the Board Should Fund an AI Portfolio

In many companies, first AI budgets come from leftovers: some from innovation, some from IT, some from business-function budgets, and some from tool purchases already embedded in existing licenses. That is enough to s…

2026-06-01
9 min read

How to Write an AI Investment Thesis for Your Company

Most AI programs begin with a list of use cases and fast expectations: lower cost, higher productivity, better customer experience. That is enough to launch pilots. It is not enough for capital allocation. Without an…

2026-06-01
9 min read

AI Moat: Why the Model Alone Is Not Enough

This article focuses on the anatomy of the AI moat and on evaluating the copyability of advantage across five defensibility layers. For a broader strategic assessment of an advantage portfolio, see strategy-ai-competi…

2026-06-01
12 min read

Economics of Enterprise AI Platforms: Cost, Lock-in, and Optionality

The "buy or build an AI platform" debate is usually framed incorrectly. In many organizations, the real question is different: how to design platform economics so that cost at scale falls faster than complexity rises,…

2026-06-01
10 min read

From Digital Strategy to AI Strategy: What Changes?

Digital transformation taught organizations how to digitize processes, integrate systems, and improve access to data. AI strategy shifts the center of gravity, however. It is no longer only about making processes fast…

2026-06-01
9 min read

Strategic Mistakes in First AI Programs

First AI programs rarely fail spectacularly. More often, they consume organizational energy, produce a series of local wins, and leave leadership with a hard question after a year: why is business impact still limited…

2026-06-01
8 min read

AI Geopolitics and Supply Chain Risk Across Models, Cloud, and Data

Over the last two years, AI risk has stopped being only a matter of model quality and data security. It is increasingly shaped by geopolitics: chip export controls, trade tensions, data transfer restrictions, digital…

2026-06-01
6 min read

When Not to Deploy AI

The most expensive AI mistakes do not come from deploying too little. They come from deploying in the wrong places, at the wrong time, with the wrong decision logic. In many companies, market pressure is now so strong…

2026-06-01
8 min read

AI Board Dashboard: Which Metrics Actually Matter?

Most AI dashboards look impressive and are strategically useless. They show the number of launched pilots, the number of GenAI tool users, prompt volume, or the number of teams "covered by transformation." The problem…

2026-06-01
7 min read

AI Strategy in Central and Eastern Europe: Where the Region Has Advantage and Risk

In the AI debate, Central and Eastern Europe is often framed through two extremes. The first says the region is a "talent back office" for global firms, but will not build its own leaders. The second says CEE can leap…

2026-06-01
9 min read

Buy or Build AI? A Strategic Decision, Not a Technical One

Build-vs-buy decisions in AI are often framed as an architecture dispute: internal platform versus ready-made vendor product. That is a mistake. In practice, this is a decision about competitive-advantage model, deliv…

2026-06-01
6 min read