Leveraging the multiplying forces of AI does not mean abdicating responsibility for decisions.

Like the outsourcing decisions of the 1990s and 2000s, outsourcing your strategy decisions to AI is an option fraught with pitfalls and risks. But, when properly framed, AI's contribution can be highly beneficial. It can enhance possibilities and increase the robustness and speed of our choices.

Let's see how to take full advantage of it without falling into simplification or even disempowerment.

The Experience: AI as a Catalyst for Reflection

Over the last year, I repeatedly tested advanced LLM models against Roger Martin’s Strategy Cascade. The five choices he proposes for building a coherent strategy enable a structured and iterative approach.

The different case studies helped identify options to address specific strategic challenges. In each case, I identified the role of AI, described the context, detailed the history, and framed the constraints. I took care to specify that I would welcome additional questions to improve the quality of the thinking and suggestions.

The first drafts of responses were quite astonishing!

The additional AI questions asked me precisely for the clarifications needed to better understand the current strategy and challenges. The AI proposed options for me to explore to answer the question “How Might We…?” The options presented were solid and relevant. Surprisingly, they were on par with what a workshop with an executive team could generate.

The subsequent conversations led to a detailed exploration of the various options, incorporating in-depth research thanks to the DeepResearch features. The exchanges pushed the scenarios by leveraging integrative thinking and the need to identify and test hypotheses regarding the variables associated with the success conditions of the choices.

The quality of the content generated during these exchanges is impressive. We are not talking about “one-shot” commands here. These are exchanges and explorations built upon the responses.

For those who know how to contextualize, write commands, and articulate the exchanges to enhance the depth of the argument, it is a game-changer! This is true, even though AI cannot perform the tests and validations associated with the hypotheses behind the choices.

The Pitfall of Disempowerment

The democratization of AI can significantly contribute to the formulation of organizations’ strategies. However, will that actually happen?

As with outsourcing, the mistake to avoid is letting go of our capacity for reasoning and applying the answers without safeguards or a critical perspective.

First, because it is essential to understand the limits of the answers (think of hallucinations), and second, because the key benefit of the strategy formulation process is that it is led by a team.

A collaboratively executed process facilitates alignment, debate, team cohesion, enriched thinking, and ultimately the deployment of the selected strategy.

AI as a Team and Decision Multiplier

A strategy that emerges from such an exercise becomes everyone's business!

This collaborative perspective must remain central to the idea of using AI for strategy formulation. AI can increase possibilities and enhance robustness. However, it remains an assistant to the reflection. It cannot replace the collaboration of the organization's members.

These use cases highlight for me what the CEO of Fiverr mentioned to his teams in 2025:

"You must understand that what was once considered 'easy tasks' will no longer exist; what was considered 'hard tasks' will be the new easy, and what was considered 'impossible tasks' will be the new hard."

AI allows us to increase our capacity for reflection and elevates the quality of our choices and decisions. Thanks to our capacity for critical reasoning, it acts as a multiplier, allowing us to create better opportunities to explore as a team.

Augment, Don't Replace

AI thus has the power to be a formidable catalyst for the quality of our choices and the speed of our execution, as demonstrated by the experiments.

Its true advantage is revealed when it is integrated as an assistant to collective reflection.

The most costly mistake would be to see AI as a way to outsource the decision-making, because it is the intelligence and cohesion of the team, armed with AI, that allow us to transform the difficult into the possible and ensure the deployment of the strategy.

Integrate AI as an Assistant

To ensure a judicious complementarity of AI in strategy formulation and strategy management, here are a few elements to keep in mind:

• Master the Tools: Ensure your teams master artificial intelligence tools in their context of use and contribution to the organization.
• Frame the Use: Select the decision models, usage frameworks, and data governance. Understand where and how AI can enhance reflection and execution.
• Avoid Copy-Paste: Learn how to write commands, case studies, and how to integrate AIs (the right tools).
• Responsible Use: Explore the limits for responsible use. Keep in mind the issues related to bias, security, confidentiality, and ethical use.

Integrating AI into your strategy management process will allow you to:

• Explore different avenues for value creation and differentiation through a keen understanding of key variables related to competition and your customers.
• Increase the quality and robustness of your choices.
• Accelerate the capture of weak signals (customers, competitors) to monitor the conditions for your strategy's success and the potential for greater agility.

Next Step: Identify three questions you will ask AI this week to test the foundations and robustness of your current strategy with your executive team.

Have a good week,

Eric L’Heureux

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