Before diving into pilots or technology choices, consider clarity on your strategic intent. Are you creating something entirely new? Enhancing existing operations? Replacing outdated systems? Each direction may require different approaches, metrics, and success criteria.
Click on a strategy to explore how it shapes your AI implementation
Build something that didn't exist before. Pioneer new capabilities or markets.
Improve current operations with AI. Make what you do better, faster, smarter.
Substitute existing solutions entirely. Offer a fundamentally better alternative.
Connect disconnected systems or stakeholders. Create value through integration.
Break apart monolithic solutions. Excel at one thing instead of being okay at many.
👆 Select a strategic direction above to see how it influences your AI implementation
This strategy is about true innovation - creating capabilities, products, or markets that don't exist today.
Target problems where human constraints (speed, scale, availability) create real pain. Example: Uber solved "can't get a cab at 2am" not "taxis are inefficient."
Week 1 retention >40%, daily active use >20%, organic referral rate >15%. Ignore efficiency metrics until product-market fit.
High risk, high reward. Budget for 3-5 pivots. 70% of initial hypotheses will be wrong. Success requires venture-scale returns.
Leverage AI's superhuman abilities: process millions of data points instantly, never sleep, perfect memory, infinite patience.
This strategy focuses on making your current operations significantly better through AI augmentation.
Find tasks taking 30+ minutes daily or requiring 3+ handoffs. AI excels at: pattern matching, 24/7 availability, perfect recall, parallel processing.
50%+ time reduction, <2% error rate, ROI positive within 6 months. Track: tasks automated, decisions accelerated, exceptions reduced.
Lower risk with predictable ROI. Main challenge: change management. 40% of gains come from process redesign, not just AI addition.
AI as co-pilot: handles routine decisions, flags anomalies, suggests options. Humans retain control of high-stakes choices.
This strategy involves completely substituting existing solutions with AI-powered alternatives.
Current solution must have 3+ fundamental flaws users grudgingly accept. Example: Stripe replaced week-long merchant applications with 7-minute integration.
Migration rate >20% in year 1, NPS 50+ points higher than incumbent, support tickets 80% lower. Track switching velocity.
Need 10x improvement on primary metric (cost, speed, or capability). Budget 2x expected timeline for market education.
Full automation of core process. Human oversight only for edge cases (<5%). AI handles 95%+ of decisions autonomously.
This strategy creates value by intelligently connecting previously disconnected systems, data, or stakeholders.
Map where 3+ systems don't talk, causing duplicate work or missed insights. Example: Plaid connected 11,000+ banks that had no common API.
Integration time from weeks to hours, data accuracy >99%, API uptime >99.9%. Network value = (number of connections)².
Chicken-egg problem: need both sides to start. Solution: focus on one side's immediate value first (Uber started with black cars).
AI as universal translator: auto-maps data schemas, learns integration patterns, self-heals when APIs change.
This strategy involves extracting and perfecting a specific capability from larger, complex solutions.
Find features users love in bloated products they hate. Example: Calendly extracted scheduling from CRM systems no one wanted to log into.
Time-to-value <2 minutes, feature depth 10x incumbent, viral coefficient >1.0. Measure: "would you be upset if this disappeared?"
Low risk if niche is validated. Risk: incumbent copies you. Defense: be 10x better at one thing vs 2x better at five things.
Hyper-specialized AI trained only on your use case. Depth over breadth - knows every edge case in your specific domain.
Combine strategic choices to create your unique implementation approach
Real-world examples of strategic patterns that work
Created an entirely new way to generate art, making professional-quality imagery accessible to everyone
Replaced complex merchant account setups with simple API calls, automating payment infrastructure
Deep strategic thinking tools for agentic transformation
Many organizations possess hidden infrastructure value within their existing assets. This framework helps identify and unlock that value.
Traditional product canvases are insufficient for AI agents. Consider the following to enhance them.
What decisions can this agent make independently?
Where can this agent act autonomously?
How does it interface with other systems?
How do we ensure reliable behavior?
How does this create value?
How does this agent grow?