We believe that AI will be the primary driver of the fifth industrial revolution. Despite the current imbalance between infrastructure investments and reported business value, there is no doubt that we’re dealing with the most powerful and impactful technical innovation of our lifetime. To unlock the full potential of AI, we need to think differently and take responsibility for where and how the technology is used, and because we’re dealing with a general-purpose technology the responsibility falls on all of us, and especially the business leaders and decision makers who shape our workplaces and the society we live in.

This perspective zooms in on how CEOs and their fellow C-suite executives protect, or build, the competitive edge of their companies. Later, we will publish a perspective on how publicly elected officials can do the same for society.

It is impossible to predict the future. It always has been, and likely always will be. Which makes it pointless to offer any suggestions as to which industries or professions will be most impacted by the AI age. However, we are certain that no industry will be immune to its impact. Timelines and velocity will differ depending on the technological maturity and the other 80% that sets the pace of change, but regardless of which industry you operate within transformation is inevitable.

This means that if executives do not address the AI age as the industrial revolution it is and act with urgency and intent, they will not be executives for much longer. The time is now to prepare for the change that will gradually, then suddenly be here. And by addressing it, we don’t mean buying frontier-lab licenses for all their employees and asking their CIOs for an AI strategy. This requires much more.

So how do you harness the most powerful technology of our lifetime and drive true transformation? Our name is rooted in what we believe is the answer to that question; focusing your AI efforts on the perennial questions sitting at the core of your business. This might sound simple, but evidence suggests that very few do this. Instead, they treat the new technology as an opportunity to explore new questions, trying to imagine how the world will look in the next 5-10 years, what will change and how we can start building for it today. But no one can predict the future. And the further out you move on that timeline, with this rapidly evolving technology, the more risk you introduce of being wrong, and at some point, it will be nothing but a hope for the future without any grounding in reality.

Which is why you should do the opposite. Start by asking what will not change. Will we still have customers in 5 years? Will they still expect superior quality from us? Faster shipment? Better customer service? Second to none customer experience? Fair prices? Regardless of industry and market, all companies carry these questions throughout the years. These questions will not change because they are existential and the reason your company exists. Which is why they are the obvious place to start once you start exploring what new technology like AI can do for you and where it can drive most value.

Once you narrow the scope and become clearer on your ambition and where you’re going to channel your AI investments, it’s important to spend some time understanding what the tech is capable of. Many companies, even the ones that are quite far on their AI journey, are still only addressing efficiency, resource optimization and cost savings. The stuff that will drive productivity metrics. Very few are focused on initiatives that will drive effectiveness, growth and competitive advantage, helping them to do more with more, or scaling without growing.

The truth is that you should be doing both. If you could hire the smartest person on the planet, you wouldn’t just task them with automating your processes and finding efficiency gains – you would hand them your biggest challenges and opportunities. We believe that executives need to think of their AI transformation and AI maturity the same way. Freeing up time for your people to focus on the most important questions is a good thing, but if your AI efforts aren’t pointed at those same questions, you’re leaving most of the opportunity on the table.

“If you could hire the smartest person on the planet, you wouldn’t just task them with automating your processes and finding efficiency gains – you would hand them your biggest challenges and opportunities.”

While this resonates with many of the executives we talk to, most are not very far when it comes to translating the why into a how that pushes them further towards growth, and most find it rather complex to land what it means in practice. Envisioning how AI can drive efficiency and process optimization is simple – difficult, but simple. Envisioning how it can help grow the market, launch better products, drive more value or reach more of the right customers is more complex.

We acknowledge that it can be overwhelming keeping track of the developments in AI and the complexity is real, but it is not the obstacle it appears to be. Yes, if you start with the technology and work outwards the possibilities are endless, but if you instead start from the questions your company has always had to answer, the ones that will still be there in five or ten years, the path narrows quickly. What you’ll get is strategic clarity on the AI agenda, something tangible your leadership team and organization can get behind, and AI investments focused on what will drive the future competitiveness of your company.

Perennial works with executive teams on AI opportunity identification and transformation strategy. This is the first in a series of perspectives on competitiveness in the AI age.