By ETJ Life – helping PE-backed CEOs thrive in work and life.
Ask a Better Question
Almost every board conversation right now includes some version of “what’s our AI strategy?” It’s the wrong question, and it quietly sends teams chasing tools instead of outcomes.
The better question is this: how are we using AI to drive our corporate strategy? That small shift changes everything. Instead of treating AI as its own separate initiative to go acquire, you hold it to the same standard you’d hold any real source of advantage. Does it strengthen our moat? Does it widen our right to win? Does it make the strategy we already believe in happen faster and cheaper? AI earns its place when it serves the plan, not when it’s the plan.
That framing also calms a lot of the noise. The pace of change is real, and the pressure from every direction is real too. But a CEO who runs AI through the lens of strategy stops reacting to the newest headline and starts making a small number of deliberate bets that actually move the business.
Land the Plane
Here’s the trap almost everyone falls into. A team gets access to powerful tools, everyone starts using them, and the whole company feels more productive. But when someone asks whether revenue per person or profit per person actually improved, the room goes quiet. Activity is easy to see. Leverage is what you’re actually after.
So measure the thing that matters. Tie your AI work to output per head, to margin, to client results, and to the parts of the P&L a board can see. The CEOs pulling ahead aren’t the ones with the most impressive demos. They’re the ones landing the plane, meaning they take a promising capability and pull it all the way through to measurable productivity. That last mile, from interesting to operational, is where the advantage actually lives.
A little structure helps here, especially as usage spreads across teams. Not heavy bureaucracy, just enough shared direction that everyone is building toward the same moat instead of running in a dozen directions. Point the whole organization at outcomes, hold the work to a real number, and AI stops being a line item you’re pressured about and becomes an advantage you can prove.
ETJ Life is a community for CEOs in the Performance season. This perspective reflects ongoing member interactions and real leadership challenges in the seat.