Most firms are optimizing the wrong variable
Most firms are optimizing the wrong variable.
They’re treating AI like a cheaper labor substitute: reduce cost, automate steps, accelerate workflows.
That’s fine. It usually shows up as margin.
But it rarely shows up as growth.
The uncomfortable part is why: efficiency upgrades don’t force you to change what you sell. They let you keep your current org chart, your current pricing, your current customer promise. Everyone feels productive. Nothing strategic moves.
I’ve seen the meeting where a team demos an “AI-enabled process” that cuts a report from two days to two hours. The CFO is happy. Then someone asks, “So what do we do with the report now?” Silence. Faster doesn’t matter if the decision cycle didn’t change.
Disruptors start from a different constraint.
They ask: what becomes sellable when the cost of producing, tailoring, or supporting something approaches zero?
That’s not a tooling question. It’s a product and business model question.
Phase one makes you leaner.
Phase two makes you different.
If AI makes execution abundant, the scarce thing becomes judgment about which outcomes are worth executing at all.