CharlieI was the closing keynoter at the Tech Leaders Forum@ATX-ENTERPRISE, one of the flagship annual tech events in Singapore.
My title is "Re-inventing the Enterprise for the AI-first Future", from The Intelligent Reinvention Series™ of futurist keynotes and executive workshops.
My key message?
Using AI is not enough. We have to reinvent the world and our industry, organisation, workforce and career with it. The leaders of tomorrow are re-inventing with AI today, while the laggards merely use, integrate and transform with AI. Exponential value comes from reinventing the core with AI, not slapping AI capabilities at the edges for incremental gains.
| Digital Transformation | Intelligent Reinvention | |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Present-Forward | Future-Back |
| Method | Transform by Analogy | Reinvent with First Principles |
| Change | Continuous | Discontinuous |
| Paradigm | Improves existing paradigm | Develops new paradigm |
| Mindset | Analytical | Imaginative |
| Leadership | Managerial | Entrepreneurial |
| Scope | Point solutions | Systems thinking |
| Outcome | AI-Plus: incremental gains | AI-Native: exponential impact |
If we think that, with AI, we should be doing MORE digital transformation, half the battle is already lost. If we are directionally wrong at the start, we will be dramatically wrong at the destination.
A new operating assumption
We have gone past Digital Transformation into what I call Intelligent Transformation. It is not the extension of the previous phase but the dawn of a new one.
The former was premised on the operating assumption that "Distributing information is rapid and nearly free" and the latter on "Intelligence is abundant and nearly free".
When the most fundamental assumption changes, everything else changes. This is commonly known as the First Principles approach.
First Principles is not just an innovation method but a whole different way of thinking. It anchors almost all of my thinking and teaching about the AI future today.
"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
Wayne DyerFirst principles reinvention in action
Uber did not wrap digital around the taxi business but reinvented on-demand mobility with digital.
Netflix gave up its thriving mail order DVD business in favour of an internet streaming model that is reinvented at its core with digital.
Tesla did not transform the automobile but reinvented it as "computer on electric wheels".
These are first principles reinvention in action, at the advent of the mobile revolution, generating immense wealth and consumer value, whilst disrupting incumbents.
Today, the AI revolution enables first principles reinvention again, only multiple Xs bigger and faster.
Incremental innovation just won't cut it. We have to reinvent.
Make reinvention capability your #1 competitive advantage. The world needs it.
Originally published in Charlie Ang's Intelligent Reinvention Memo newsletter on LinkedIn (Issue 49).
Charlie Ang is an Intelligent Reinvention Strategist, corporate futurist and AI keynote speaker based in Singapore and speaking worldwide. He helps organisations and leaders reinvent, rewire and retool for the Age of Intelligence, and has been featured by the BBC, Financial Times, National Geographic and CNA.