If you lead a company today, you probably feel the pressure.
The noise is deafening. Artificial Intelligence is being talked about as the next gold rush, and rightly so. With the arrival of AI agents, technology accelerates and business opportunities are exponentially amplified.
But I want to be very clear: do not let yourself be sold to again.
I am not talking about the chatbots or assistants they sold you in recent years (I warned you). I am talking about true autonomous agents: digital entities capable of reasoning, planning, executing complex workflows, and making decisions with minimal human intervention.
However, if you believe the solution is to "buy AI," you are falling into a dangerous trap. AI is not bought; it is integrated. And the real game is not technical.
While corporations debate in endless committees about which software to purchase, the risk grows at the margins.
The democratization of these exponential technologies has leveled the playing field. Today there is a real possibility of suffering a disruptive attack from a Startup managed by a single person or a tiny team, without employees, without fixed costs, and without the bureaucracy that slows down giants.
These Startups and "Opportunistic Startups" use AI and agents to operate complete value chains. They do not need large investments in assets; they leverage technology to scale and capture underserved niches at a speed that hierarchical structures cannot match.
It is true that adoption timing can give you some tactical advantage today. But in the long run, tools become commoditized. We will all use the same agents. We will all have access to the same "voice prompt" to design a physical product or build a business.
When technology is accessible to everyone, it ceases to be a competitive advantage. Porter clearly states that operational effectiveness (performing activities better than competitors) is rarely a sustainable source of advantage.
So, where will the winners of the next decade be determined?
It will not be in who has the best algorithm, but in who has the best strategic architecture.
Winners will be defined by business strategy, by the quality of decisions, and by the applied innovation methodology. It is about how we leverage AI for real value for business stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers) and how we design mechanisms to capture that value.
AI is an accelerator, but if you accelerate a defective business model or an inefficient bureaucracy, you will only reach disaster faster. We must act on the business model and the operating model, not just on the technology layer.
Many companies have spent two decades escaping this profound change. They have spent years putting makeup on their structures, sustaining the status quo, and protecting obsolete hierarchies.
They have been manipulated with "Agile washing" by the same elite consulting firms that today face their own crises. They were sold agility rituals --post-its, scrums, squads-- without the true cultural and strategic transformation necessary for real adaptability.
Today, that makeup no longer hides the wrinkles. Companies must grow up all at once.
My advice is direct: Avoid the noise and the shine of AI. Focus obsessively on strategy and innovation: on increasing value for stakeholders and its capture. That is what meta-AI (as I call thinking and co-creating with AI) and projects must leverage.
No matter the time or place where you are, do not divert your focus from the right competitive decisions. There is a lot at stake and every choice is fundamental.
