Shaping your AI strategy - 4 foundational perspectives
Philippe De Ridder
Founder & CEO
AI is transforming how we work, live, and do business. Right now, we’re in a kind of liminal space, transitioning from the familiar world into something fundamentally new.
We’re moving towards a more autonomous world, where AI-driven systems, products, and agents independently perform tasks, optimize experiences, and even run businesses.
This evolution represents the next major wave of transformation, similar to moving from analog to digital.
So how do you navigate this transformation and build a strategy that can set yourself up for success in this new age?
The following are four foundational perspectives to consider to effectively shape an AI strategy that ensures both immediate benefits and long-term competitive advantage.
Let’s dive in.
1. The three waves of AI adoption
AI adoption will unfold in three waves, much like previous revolutionary technologies such as electricity, digital, or mobile.
The first wave involves applying AI to existing ways of working, focusing on time savings, cost reductions, and efficiency gains. Many of you may recognize this wave from the AI investments happening in your own organizations—where AI is being used to automate routine processes and streamline workflows.
The second wave is about leveraging AI for better quality and enhanced outcomes. It’s not just about being faster or cheaper; it’s about delivering superior results and higher standards. This shift often requires rethinking how existing systems work and finding opportunities for AI to elevate what’s possible.
The third wave is where things truly transform—it’s about creating entirely new systems and redefining markets. This is the level of change we’ve seen with digital disruptors like Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and others, who used technology to build new categories from the ground up. Early AI applications often mimic existing structures (like a digital newspaper initially being just a PDF version), but true transformation comes when we start creating personalized news feeds, dynamic experiences, and new business models that wouldn’t have existed without AI.
The key takeaway here is that treating AI purely as a productivity tool is a mistake. Yes, AI can improve productivity, but its real potential lies in creating something entirely new. Think of video generation as an example. In the first wave, AI can help edit videos faster and cheaper. In the second wave, it can generate higher quality, more engaging content. By the third wave, AI might enable personalized movie experiences—content tailored in real time for an audience of one, whether it’s a unique TikTok stream or a commercial generated just for you.
It’s important to understand that success in the first wave doesn’t guarantee success in the third. Businesses must plan their AI strategies with a vision for all three waves, ensuring that investments made today help build towards transformative opportunities tomorrow. We advocate for a portfolio approach: invest across all three waves, with a clear vision for the third wave in mind.
2. The cost of digital is approaching zero
The second foundational perspective is that the cost of anything digital is approaching zero. Decades of Moore’s Law have driven down the marginal costs of storage, bandwidth, and computing power, as you can see in the graph on the right. Now, with generative AI, the marginal cost of producing anything digital—software, creative campaigns, music, videos—will also fall dramatically. It’s not just the financial cost but also the time required that’s decreasing, opening up a world of possibilities.
Imagine making a Hollywood-quality movie from your desk. In the future, you might be able to choose actors the way you choose fonts, thanks to emerging IP marketplaces. We also envision instant user experiences (UX), where interfaces are created in the moment, ads are generated in real-time, and entertainment adapts continuously—all made feasible by the declining costs and increasing speed of AI-driven production.
We believe that by next year, there will be more AI agents than humans on the planet. And if we consider the predictions by some, including Elon Musk, we may have more humanoid robots than people by 2040. While that timeline may be further out, the implications are profound.
The reduction in cost and time for digital production is reshaping what’s possible—and businesses need to be ready to seize these opportunities.
3. Engineering intelligence and biology
Our third perspective focuses on the intersection of intelligence and biology. Today, much of the focus is on the engineering of intelligence—artificial intelligence. But we also need to consider the engineering of biology, which will be just as transformative.
For example, GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy have transitioned from diabetes treatments to addressing obesity, and now new applications are emerging, such as reducing risks for anxiety, Alzheimer’s, and cardiovascular disease. This could be the beginning of the “engineering of craving” and biological enhancements that reshape our health and well-being.
On the intelligence side, AI is still mostly accessed through chatbots, but soon it will be embedded in our daily lives—integrated into AR glasses, AirPods, and more.
Eventually, we may reach the point where AI and biology converge, with technologies like brain-computer interfaces taking the lead. This intersection could redefine what it means to be human—giving us near-perfect memory, constant AI assistance, or even extending our lifespans.
4. Competitive advantage in an AI-Driven World
Adopting AI in itself will NOT lead to a competitive advantage.
AI is a general-purpose technology—everyone has access to it. The question is how you use it to build something unique.
Here are 4 angles and strategy archetypes you need to think about as you aim to set an AI strategy and build competitive advantage.
One strategy is to be the first in your industry to adopt each new wave of AI, gaining a temporary edge each time. However, this advantage can quickly fade if you miss a step. More sustainably, companies can deploy AI to reinforce their existing strengths, as Apple has done—integrating AI to enhance product quality rather than chasing trends. The most ambitious goal is to build something that competitors simply cannot replicate, though this isn’t feasible for everyone. Alternatively, businesses can use AI to create entirely new business models, much like the two-sided marketplaces that emerged during the digital revolution (e.g., Airbnb, Amazon).
Setting your AI strategy
As you look at setting a future-proof, winning AI Strategy, these four perspectives will help you frame how to approach this transformation strategically.
Keen to dive deeper? Explore how we work with AI Strategy
