Artificial intelligence, capable of quickly and accurately extracting valuable insights from large datasets for product and service development, is often said to mark the beginning of a new business era. Some call it the era of adaptive, innovative, and human-centered strategies.
I’m reflecting on this because while AI creates opportunities, it doesn’t just increase efficiency—it fundamentally reshapes corporate operations and leadership paradigms. Is it becoming a new tool for leadership confidence? How does it align with successful leadership strategies? Competition or collaboration?
One of the challenges is that operational databases, adapting to real-time processing, constantly change as they must always reflect the most up-to-date information. As the literature states, „Of course, a well-structured database retains the data necessary to restore previous states and analyze past processes.” My personal experience, for instance, is that while we can retrieve our company’s bank transaction history for the past three months (including transaction details and balances), accessing older data is no longer possible directly—or for free. Although the bank archives this information, retrieving it requires a special request, even for justified cases.
Generative AI systems, such as GPT-4 or Gemini, are not only capable of analyzing data but also creating new content. This could form the foundation for new business models and enhanced customer experiences. Generative AI provides flexible, creative, and contextually relevant responses, though it demands high computational power and may occasionally produce inaccurate or unreliable outputs.
According to the EY-Parthenon CEO Outlook Survey, the most confident leaders focus not only on revenue growth but also prioritize enhancing employee and customer experiences. Do successful leaders, then, not choose between traditional and generative AI but rather integrate both into an intelligent, adaptive system? What does that mean in practice? For example, in banking customer service, traditional AI categorizes customer requests, while generative AI generates personalized, natural-language responses. In e-commerce, traditional AI makes personalized product recommendations based on purchase history, while generative AI creates interactive and engaging product descriptions.
The CEO Outlook Survey highlights that 60% of successful leaders consider improving employee and customer experiences as their top priority. It also outlines five key strategic mindsets for success:
- Transformational Thinking – Cultivating a corporate culture of continuous learning and innovation.
- Human-Centric Approach – AI does not replace but enhances human capabilities.
- Long-Term Value Creation – Focusing not just on financial outcomes but on sustainable growth.
- Risk Management Strategy – Leveraging AI to foresee and proactively address market challenges.
- M&A and Technological Acquisitions – Accelerating innovation and competitive advantage.
As AI evolves, we increasingly see systems that not only process data but also support complex decision-making. Leading companies are not focusing on choosing between AI and human labor but rather on how they can collaborate effectively. Decision-support systems provide managers with structured reports and real-time data processing while also utilizing mathematical and analytical models to generate forecasts, analyses, and strategic recommendations.
The most confident leaders recognize that true transformation is multidimensional. By 2025, one of the fastest-growing aspects of AI will be AI-driven strategy development. This means that businesses must adapt to AI, rather than forcing AI to adapt to them. Furthermore, fostering a corporate culture where AI enhances rather than replaces human skills will be critical. Successful leaders rely on data-driven decision-making rather than intuition, making AI-powered analytics and decision-support systems an essential technological tool for the future.