The Future Is Shrouded in an AI Fog

AI’s rapid advance is creating new limits on leaders’ visibility into the short-term future and challenging the criteria they use to commit to forward-looking investments. Staring into this fog, leaders will be tempted to trade the potential future gains from skyscrapers and railways for the temporary utility of tents and bicycles. In this uncertain environment, the best approach is to optimize for the unknown. Leaders should seek to master optionality, learn to stage-gate capital, remain agile in their identities, and to build adaptable organizational systems.