There is no ‘there’
Nearly every leader I speak to shares a particular anxiety about AI adoption. That they're behind the curve. That others have nailed something they haven't.
If nearly everyone feels this way, most can't actually be behind. But that isn't the interesting part.
In previous technology waves, there was a visible adoption curve - you could pinpoint if you were early, late, or somewhere in the middle (or have a consultant tell you). The destination was knowable. You could, eventually, arrive.
AI doesn't work like that. The capability is moving too fast. What counts as ‘advanced’ today won't in six months. The organizations held up as exemplars right now are already making different decisions than they were a year ago. They'll make different ones again this year.
There is no 'there'.
The anxiety is real, but the benchmark it's measuring against isn't.
Which means the right question isn't ‘are we keeping up?’ It's ‘are we set up to keep learning?’
This is what I call the adaptive dimension; the organizational capability for continuous evolution. It's a core part of how I work with organizations navigating AI-driven change, and it's the piece that determines whether everything else compounds or stalls. I'll be going deeper on this in coming editions.
It’s useful to look inwards rather than outward, when you are worrying about being left behind:
How well is your organization actually set up for experimentation and learning right now?
Are your communication lines open?
Is knowledge being shared, or staying trapped in pockets?
When someone has a breakthrough - or tries something that fails - does that learning travel?
Is your culture transparent and supportive enough for people to be honest about what they're finding?
These aren't AI questions, they're organizational ones. A culture that shares knowledge freely and learns from experience can keep pace with a technology that keeps changing.
It is crucial to understand where you are and benchmark where AI can move the needle for you. But sustained success can only come if that feeds a continuous cycle of learning and adaptation.
