An AI strategy isn’t just a collection of use cases—it’s a vision for how to win in an AI-native world, backed by a clear plan for getting there. Start with a vision of your AI-driven future, determine your role within it, and then build your roadmap step by step.
We’ve developed an AI Strategy Framework that will take you from vision to roadmap and enablers.
Let’s dive into the AI strategy framework, focusing on how to create a coherent blueprint that aligns with both the current drivers of change and your long-term vision for success.
Strategic principles
The AI Strategy framework (and any good strategy) starts by looking at the market drivers. Two important principles here are the outside-in perspective and a future-back approach.
Much like previous revolutionary technologies such as electricity, digital, or mobile, AI adoption will unfold in three waves.
Outside-in perspective: rather than creating a strategy rooted in current way of working, we deliberately start from analyzing external AI market drivers. We ask, ‘What will AI change in your industry? What will remain constant?’ This approach ensures that strategy is driven by the bigger picture, not just internal adaptation.
Future-back approach: Instead of adapting AI to fit current practices (a present-forward approach), we envision what the next evolution of your business could look like at its peak—your “wave three” transformation. Whether it’s a specific function, a department, or the entire organization, we picture what a fully realized, AI-powered future would entail, and work backward to chart the steps needed. This ensures that actions taken in the near term (wave one and wave two) strategically build toward the long-term vision, rather than simply optimizing today’s processes that may soon be outdated.
Looking at what will change and what won’t
When planning your AI strategy, it’s just as important to consider what will not change as what will. This balance helps in building a coherent blueprint for success.
When considering AI market drivers we think about what will change and what won’t. For example, imagine a world where personal AI assistants handle our shopping—AI suggesting and even buying clothing on our behalf. This would transform the customer journey, touchpoints, and how brands engage with consumers. Yet, some experiences will likely remain unchanged. Humans will still touch, feel, and interact with packaging, fabric textures, and other sensory elements—experiences that remain vital even if the purchasing decision is automated.
This dual perspective helps us anticipate what AI will disrupt and what will persist—positioning you to lead, not just react.
To help you imagine what might change, we’ve built the AI Opportunity Radar:
This practical framework can help you think through what the possibilities are in imagining what might change in your industry or for your company based on that outside-in future vision.
The radar starts from AI’s technological capabilities and then you have a brainstorm around first order possibilities and second order possibilities. Thinking through the second order possibilities, you push yourself into wave 3 type thinking.
Defining your ambition with AI: How can you drive your corporate strategy? Based on that outside-in perspective, you get to defining your ambition with AI. The most important point here is that your AI ambition must be fully interlocked with your overall corporate strategy—it shouldn’t exist in a silo. Instead, AI should contribute to, influence, and evolve your corporate strategy, especially as you consider competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage: How can you reinforce existing advantages with AI?
Key objectives: Setting your key objectives and value drivers. This includes decisions around whether to use AI primarily for margin optimization, efficiency gains, or full-scale corporate growth.
As a third step in the AI strategy framework, you build a roadmap to drive your transformation.
In the roadmap, you will work through the three wave of AI adoption; efficiency (wave 1), enhanced quality (wave 2), and new systems (wave 3). On the left, write down big organizational jobs-do-be-done in your future market, and think through what that will look like in wave 3, 2, and 1.
Example: Product Development
Initially, AI might be used to analyze customer insights faster (Wave 1) or generate better insights for product innovation (Wave 2). But thinking towards Wave 3, you might envision an autonomous product engine that continuously tests and deploys new features, ultimately skipping the traditional process of gathering customer insights altogether.
This is why it’s crucial to maintain a vision for Wave 3 and evaluate whether your current investments will still be relevant in the future. We advocate for a forward-thinking approach: what you invest in today should build towards what matters tomorrow.
The last component of our framework is to think through the enablers of your AI strategy and roadmap. These include:
These five key enablers must evolve as your AI capabilities grow.
These five key enablers must evolve as your AI capabilities grow.
We’re moving from siloed decisions to integrated systems—both in terms of data lakes and organizational structures. Decision-making is transitioning from executive-led to more data-driven, real-time insights powered by AI agents. Processes are becoming more autonomous, shifting away from rigid stage-gate models towards self-steering approaches.
Moreover, we’re seeing a shift from a short-term ROI mindset in Wave 1 to a longer-term focus on transformation, positioning companies to win not just today but in the future. Finally, annual planning cycles are being replaced by more adaptive processes that can keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI capabilities and opportunities.
By understanding these enablers and shifts, you can build a foundation that supports the successful execution of your AI strategy—not just in the present but with an eye towards future opportunities and transformations.
Winning in an AI-native world requires a clear vision, a coherent strategy, and an actionable roadmap. By leveraging our AI Strategy Framework, you can navigate this complex landscape with confidence, aligning market drivers, ambitions, and enablers to build a future-proof AI strategy
Keen to dive deeper? We help you set a strategy from Wave 1 efficiencies to Wave 3 transformations, unlocking the full potential of AI for your business.
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