“My takeaway from my work with organizations as they grapple with artificial intelligence is that not only do most companies not need an AI strategy, but they shouldn’t have one at all. Going down that road will be, at best, a distraction. [..]
Much of it comes down to data. Poor data quality—incomplete, biased or unstructured—affects AI performance in the same way it can have an impact on any other technology. If you don’t have good data, you can have great strategic intent, but you won’t be able to execute it. The strategy will simply divert attention from what the company really needs to do. [..]
If you look at how organizations are deploying AI now for significant business value, it is usually in combination with other technologies and integrated into workflows. [..]
Rather than a separate AI strategy, organizations need a strategy that considers all technologies. Having a strategy focused on AI alone would, again, be a distraction at best. [..]
Given where most companies are starting from, the priority shouldn’t be about building a top-down overarching AI strategy.
This can come later. It is about encouraging employees to use AI tools, to experiment and try things out, and to pursue ideas organically rather than following “management direction.” It is also important that there are guardrails to ensure that any tool is used properly, responsibly, and in a way that doesn’t put the organization at risk. The best ideas are most likely to come from the bottom-up, by those engaging in their day-to-day work and supporting customers. Technology doesn’t drive change, people do.
Achieving a certain level of digital maturity across an organization can take years, particularly if cultural change is also needed. Thinking that a magical digital strategy will force that maturity is like thinking that putting a suit on a 2-year-old will make him an adult. It won’t. [..]
This is similar to the case I made in an earlier article, arguing that companies shouldn’t even have a separate information-technology department. If you separate technology—and even worse, a particular kind of technology, like AI—from the business units, you will separate the people responsible for improving the company’s productivity and bottom line from the people responsible for implementing the technology. That disconnect will inevitably result in a failure to use technology in a way that improves a company’s results. If the solution to every problem is AI, then you’re not going to find the best solutions to most problems. [..]
Companies that cleaned up their data; modernized their technology infrastructure; reduced technical debt; simplified, standardized and automated processes; established data governance; increased digital literacy; and put in place guardrails focusing on responsible use are in a position to leverage what AI offers. But most companies haven’t done that.
In the end, if a company is like most companies, and has been slow to embrace the changes that are imperative in a digital-first world, it isn’t going to leapfrog other companies just because it has an AI strategy. The company is going to have to take baby steps. And no AI strategy—however well-intentioned, however pretty it sounds—is going to make a bit of difference.”
J Peppard, Wall Street Journal, C-Suite Strategies, 2025.3.17