And just like that, AI is reshaping decision-making, leadership, and strategy. Every day, new headlines crowd our feeds about an advancement in AI capabilities. If you can think of it, there is an AI for that. Literally.

How ought we, as leaders, contend with the fast advancement of AI in relationship to our businesses? Where do we even start?

According to Eliot Frick, founder of Bigwidesky, the place to start is a focus on what humans do best. AI should amplify our capacity for imagination, vision, and dealing with the unknown, allowing humans to focus on the things they don’t suck at.

In our recent virtual session, AI Is Not What You Think It Is, Eliot shared how AI changes the foundations of intelligence and leadership in business.

Here’s a look at the key themes and insights from the event:

AI operates as a force that enhances human potential, enabling people to spend more time on strategy, vision, and imagination — tasks that rely on uniquely human capabilities. Eliot highlighted how AI’s strength lies in handling complexity and processing large amounts of data, while humans excel at guiding vision, shaping strategy, and dealing with uncertainty.

As AI surfaces insights that go beyond human perception, leadership increasingly will be designing systems of intelligence rather than relying solely on individual expertise. This shift challenges leaders to redefine how authority and decision-making function within their organizations.

AI excels at pattern recognition and risk management, but it falls short when dealing with true uncertainty. Leaders must use AI as a tool to extend their capabilities, not as a replacement for human judgment.

During the session, participants raised thought-provoking questions. Below are some of the key questions asked and our insights:

The competitive advantage in an AI-driven world lies in the ability to create a compelling vision. AI can amplify intelligence and streamline processes, but it is the human capacity for imagination, leadership, and foresight that sets organizations apart.

Interested in diving deeper into this conversation? Watch the full recording of AI Is Not What You Think It Is

If you’re ready to explore how AI fits into your leadership and strategic plans, schedule a 30-minute conversation with a Bigwidesky futurist to discuss how AI can amplify what makes your business unique.

Schedule your session.

The first article in our “AI Is Not What You Think It Is” series.

The boardroom was unusually quiet. The final slide on the screen showed a forecast that no one had seen before. This was not because the data was unavailable, but because no one had ever thought to make these particular connections. A newly implemented AI system had surfaced a recommendation: divest from what had been the company’s most profitable market for the last decade.

The CFO stared at the figures. “There’s no way this makes sense. What’s the rationale?”

Silence.

The AI didn’t offer a rationale — not the way humans expect. There was no chain of reasoning, no whiteboard diagram, no analyst wading through logic. Just a naked statistically optimal move that emerged from a system trained on thousands of variables.

The room hesitated, caught between two kinds of intelligence: the human demand for coherence and the machine’s indifference to explanations.

For centuries, strategic intelligence followed a recognizable pattern: experience, analysis, decision. Knowledge had a knower. Judgment came from lived expertise. Leadership meant carrying the weight of complex decision-making.

It recognizes patterns beyond human perception and generates insights without narratives. The result is an epistemic shift, one that challenges not just how businesses function but how leaders define their role within them.

The assumption that decision-making is a function of knowledge is no longer sufficient. In an environment where AI surfaces solutions that bypass traditional reasoning, the role of leadership is not to “know” in the way it once did. It is to determine how intelligence itself is structured within an organization.

Companies that view AI as a tool for efficiency misunderstand its implications. The deeper change lies in how organizations define and distribute authority:

These are not abstract concerns.

A national beverage distributor sought to improve how institutional knowledge was shared. Instead of replacing expertise, they created an AI system that captured the thinking of their top training director. Sales teams no longer depended on a handful of senior employees for insights. They had access to an evolving, adaptive knowledge model. The effect was a fundamental shift in how intelligence functioned inside the business.

The executive function in business is changing. What remains uniquely human in decision-making? What happens when leadership moves from direct knowledge to overseeing systems of intelligence?

The next article will explore these questions, focusing on the capabilities that define leadership in a world where AI suggests, and, in some cases, dictates, the path forward.

Bigwidesky works with executive teams to explore how these shifts apply to their industries, offering foresight-informed discovery to uncover the specific ways AI will impact their business strategy. They are focused dialogues on the role of intelligence in shaping the future of organizations.

If you’re ready to explore how AI fits into your leadership and strategy, check out our free virtual session, “AI Is Not What You Think It Is” on February 20 at 11 AM CST. Or, you can always reach out to our futurists for a conversation about your business vision with AI.