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The start of a transformative new project is often compared to the pistol shot at the beginning of a race. The comparison evokes speed, competition, and a clear starting line. For AI, this metaphor is wrong. The arrival of a truly disruptive technology is less like the start of a sprint and more like the ring of an alarm clock. It’s a wake-up call. By the time you hear it, the clock is already running. The world has already changed while you were asleep. This is why, for AI, the conventional wisdom of "Ready, Set, Go" must be flipped. You cannot wait for perfect preparation. You must start by doing. Perhaps you are reading this book because you are already part of a group that has decided to act, or perhaps you are looking for the tools to be the spark that ignites that first action. In either case, the mandate is the same: in the age of AI, you must first Go, then you Get Set.
For decades, the holy grail of business strategy was the pursuit of a "sustainable competitive advantage"—some unique asset, capability, or market position that would allow a company to outperform its rivals over the long term. This concept was all the rage, driving corporate strategy and multi-billion-dollar technology investments. The prevailing wisdom was that owning superior technology was a powerful, defensible moat.
Then, in 2003, at the height of the dot-com boom's second act, Nicholas Carr published an article in the Harvard Business Review with a shocking title: "IT Doesn't Matter." He argued that information technology had become a commodity. Like electricity or railways, he claimed, IT was becoming a basic infrastructure that was essential for business but available to all. As such, it could no longer be a source of strategic differentiation.
The backlash from the technology world was immediate and fierce. Leaders from Microsoft, Intel, and HP decried the argument as foolish and dangerous. How could the engine of modern business not be a source of advantage? Yet, over the next few years, Carr's prophecy was largely fulfilled by a force that was then in its infancy: cloud computing.
The rise of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its competitors turned Carr's theory into tangible reality. Companies began dumping their expensive internal data centers and moving their operations to the cloud. Technology infrastructure was no longer something you had to build; it was something you rented. The very notion of competitive advantage from IT was upended. Your fiercest competitor could get access to the exact same cutting-edge databases, networking tools, and processing power that you could, chosen from a menu of hundreds of cloud products like items at a digital buffet. The advantage shifted permanently from owning the technology to how you used it.
We are at a similar inflection point with AI. While a handful of companies build the massive foundation models, most of us will access this powerful new technology as a utility. This brings us back to the central question: if everyone has access to the same tools, how do you win?
So how do you pick and choose where to launch your first AI project to have the most impact? In business, the question of what to do first is always the hardest. That first step can shape all the steps that follow. When done right, it can build confidence, develop new competencies, and create a powerful flywheel effect that pulls the rest of the organization forward.
To answer this, I have created the AI Strategy Chessboard. It is not a rigid set of instructions, but a landscape of possibilities. It allows you to see the strategic terrain of your organization and the external world, so you can decide where to "drop in a piece" to begin your game. It helps you answer the question, "What should we do now?" by leveraging the existing realities and resources of your company.
The board has two primary axes. The vertical axis measures alignment, from highly aligned and cooperative partners at the top (like internal departments who share your goals) to unaligned and non-cooperative forces at the bottom (like competitors or regulators). The horizontal axis defines the organizational boundary, from your internal Analytics Organization on the left to the External world of customers, suppliers, and society on the right.
The strategic imperative is clear: start your first "Go" projects in the upper-left quadrant. This is your home territory—the area that is internal and highly aligned. Targeting an initial project here means you will face less resistance and have more control, maximizing your chances of an early, momentum-building win.
The colored stars on the board represent the different types of strategic plays you can make, each focused on creating a different kind of value.
This is often the most logical starting point for a company. A Process Core play focuses on using AI to optimize a critical part of the internal value chain. It’s about making your existing operations faster, cheaper, or more efficient. This is a classic "home territory" move.