AI Revolution: From Tactical to Strategic

The Explosion of Artificial Intelligence

We have recently gone through several supposed technological revolutions: Virtual Reality, extended reality, the metaverse, Web3. While all of them have left a trail of innovation and technology that will undoubtedly be relevant in the near future, they have also generated a sense of weariness and distrust.

However, this time it seems to be real. Artificial intelligence has been with us for many years. I remember organizing talks about neural networks in the mid-90s, and although it feels like yesterday, it has already been almost 30 years. In the past two years, and especially in the last six months, the technology has experienced a true explosion. And there couldn't be a more suitable word to describe it.

It’s neither random nor serendipity. AI, in its form of neural networks, has been with us for almost 80 years. The original models date back to the 1940s and the multilayer perceptron to the late 1960s. We are at a technological moment where this technology can start to show its true power and bear fruit. The two limiting factors that slowed its evolution—the processing power and the availability of vast datasets—have reached a threshold that allows its full development.

AI Won't Change Our Companies

This is a new and strange world. Strange because many paradigms are changing, although this is not emphasized enough. Our perception of things may not be as accurate as it should be. Things we assume about technology and intelligence are changing, which can lead us to make erroneous assumptions.

The first erroneous assumption is that AI will change our companies. It’s not like that, or not exactly. Computers didn’t change companies. Mobile phones and email didn’t either. The ones who will change your companies are you, using AI. AI is a powerful and distinct tool, but it is the person who handles it that gives it purpose. It has no implicit purpose. You are not passive subjects of a change directed by AI; you are the ones who can direct it and make it possible through its use. This is the premise of our "AI Everywhere" initiative, in which we frame the latest webinar on “AI-Assisted Strategy”, which we presented a few days ago and is now available on our YouTube channel. Our goal is to help you deploy the full potential of this new technology, making you feel secure and supported in the process.

Another assumption that needs to be changed is how we understand the functioning of technology. We are used to classical, deterministic computing, where an action always results in the same reaction and programs operate predictably. This changes radically with neural networks, which are non-deterministic systems. They are not programmed; they are trained. Their functioning relies on a mechanism similar to the human brain to generate responses. This must be considered when developing projects with this technology and putting them into production.

Strategic Implications

In the field of strategy, it is crucial to know how, when, and for what to use the available models and tools. You need to understand their limitations, what can be asked of them, and what must be provided for them to help as needed.

Regarding strategy itself, I can add little that you do not already know about its implications in organizations, whether large or small, especially in this particular era we are living in, where constant changes and market uncertainties keep us all on edge.

At SNGULAR, we have worked intensively to put our technological and business experience at the service of strategy. One way to do this is through the webinar I mentioned a moment ago, where you will meet colleagues with vast experience in helping companies conduct the type of strategic analysis and decision-making necessary to align their organizations.

Another way involves recognizing organizations as complex systems, full of problems that have not yet been solved and for which, therefore, there are no good practices yet. This is an approach to strategy that comes from the discipline of Complex Problem Solving. In this line, Singular Solving and SNGULAR have launched Unconventional CPS, which aims to find meaning within the situational context of companies, to propose hypotheses that explain the causal relationships between the problem and its consequences. From this understanding and these hypotheses, strategic cores with purposes, actions, and decision-making criteria can be proposed to increase the chances of success. As you can see, a different approach for which the use of thinking patterns, methodologies, and tools does not respond to the traditional approach.

AI as a Catalyst

In the case at hand, artificial intelligence is a catalyst for a well-established process that our colleagues know well and have applied successfully many times. In this process, Artificial Intelligence provides a mechanism that magnifies the capacity for information processing and conclusion-making, offering you a co-pilot capable of accompanying you in the analysis process, doing so with deep knowledge of your organization, based on your own data sources and documentation. More than ever, the decisions made and the processes implemented will be based on information that AI allows to be more extensive and in-depth than what humans, with our more limited bandwidth, can manage.

Let's not forget that AI has no purpose; we give it one. The goal is for our purpose and intention to be enhanced by the extraordinary power of this technology.

But let’s not forget, and this is another key point of AI-Assisted Strategy, that this artificial intelligence has no purpose; we give it one. The goal is for our purpose and intention to be enhanced by the extraordinary power of this technology.

Overall, SNGULAR’s AI Everywhere vision is that AI will not transform companies, sectors, or business models; people will, likely with the help of AI.