Here’s a great business book title for any would-be thought leaders: “How this-or-that amazing development rewrites the rules of business.”
We often hear that some technology rewrites the rules. Currently, it’s AI. Previously, it was blockchain (remember that?), and there have been many other developments beforehand.
Whatever the new technology though, certain fundamentals don’t just evaporate. That makes things tricky. It requires judgement. AI is a huge change that requires three simultaneous acts of mental agility:
- Face reality: Accept that it’s happened (even at a tech-forward firm like Accenture, the FT recently reported resistance from senior people).
- Move decisively: Commit to changing some things – even radically – to exploit the opportunities.
- Stay grounded: Don’t lose sight of the unchanging fundamentals (customers, cash, ROI and so on).
I recently facilitated a roundtable discussion among leaders wrestling with all this. Here are a few notes from that discussion.
- Time and Money. For people who bill in time units, there’s an interesting conflict. If work that once took 10 hours now takes, say, 2 or 3 (including checking), how much do you bill? The choices seem to be: use technology to try to achieve cost leadership, or find another way to create, articulate, and charge for value.
- Technology helps… until it alienates. What does it profit you to cut your costs so much that customers find your offerings unacceptable? What should your business’s Tech/Touch ratio be?
- Possibilities – and current limitations – of AI coding tools. Yes, they can build lots of “Minimum Viable Products” quickly. That’s hugely valuable to understand customers and develop value propositions. But getting to production-quality is another matter.
- Risk and governance. AI – especially the agentic variety – is amazing, but you still need to understand security, architecture, testing and so on. If you don’t, you risk becoming a hapless Sorcerer’s Apprentice who learns a bit of magic and creates chaos.
- Vital non-tech investments. Properly learning prompting and other AI skills requires effort. Workday’s research suggests that the companies getting the most out of AI are reinvesting gains in upskilling their people, not just more tech. But performance on new skills often follows a J-curve – you have to invest for a while before you see a return. Are leaders allowing the required slack – for their people and for themselves?
Overall, as technology changes, value creation and good management basics remain the timeless disciplines.
© Andy Bass 2026