Enterprise AI spending reaches unprecedented levels.
Most companies are using artificial intelligence to automate existing processes as well as cut costs.
But making that old machine run faster can be a trap that leaves legacy enterprises vulnerable to AI native competitors.
Now in their new book Infinite How Visionary Leaders Transformed today's Businesses into AI.
Companies service now innovation executives argue that winning organizations must in that AI into their structural core rather than bolted onto broken workflows.
Well joining us this morning for a look at the playbook for the infinite enterprise or co-authors Brian Solace head of global innovation and Dave Wright, chief innovation officer at ServiceNow gentlemen.
So much for joining us this morning.
So first, Brian, I do want to start out with you.
Most enterprises are using AI out there, but there are many ways that they are doing this.
So as someone who's studying macro chips, why is using this technology to optimize yesterday's operating model a losing strategy against some of these AI native competitors?
Thank you, Remy.
Uh, it's a pleasure to be on.
As we were just watching in the news segments, uh, before the break, you see companies that are, are naming AI, uh, as they optimized yesterday to better perform for tomorrow, but that makes them a finite organization.
As we see AI native competitors using AI at the very core of what it means to be an organization in 2026, 2027, and beyond.
So what we believe, as we we outlined in the book, is that to compete for the future, you have to reimagine what's possible with AI.
Not just what you could do yesterday, better, more efficiently, less expensively moving forward, but what you could do tomorrow that you couldn't do yesterday.
Yeah, and David, I want to bring you into this conversation and for viewers out there who might not be familiar with the Infinite organization, can you explain this to us?
And given the fact that you argue that traditional org charts no longer explain how a company creates value but workflows actually do, can you walk us through this?
Yeah, sure, so an infinite company isn't a company that grows forever, it's a company that can constantly reinvent itself and apply itself to new areas of business.
So allow itself to develop, to adapt to markets, allow itself to be able to to move into new areas, but it's not about reducing bottom line, it's about increasing top line.
The the interesting thing about most organizations is most organizations will have an organization chart they can show you, but an org chart just shows you who reports to whom.
A work chart is designed to show you how value actually flows through an organization.
And because we've organized around functions for hundreds of years, AI forces us to organize around flows, so it ends up not being a technology change, but this is a fundamental design of how companies think about themselves when they're not forced to be constrained by the fact they have a limited workforce, but they now have to think about how they arrange around infinite intelligence.
Yes, and I do want to mention the fact that we are in the thick of earnings season and of course we've been paying attention to the results, in particular CPX when it comes to the hyper scalers and Brian, surging AI investment has left many C-suites frustrated by a lack of.
Cost savings ROI and especially for some investors out there.
But why does traditional financial ROI fail to measure transformation when it comes to artificial intelligence and how do you calculate a true return on intelligence?
Well, we always ask, if you're going to reduce someone's time or increase productivity, what do you want to do with those savings?
And oftentimes that's where the conversation stops.
We introduce in the book a concept of what we call ROI return on intelligence, where we look at all of the cost factors that are affecting your organization.
But more so, we, we ask some really deep questions, and we also have the answers.
I don't want to just leave you with questions.
But what do you want to do differently moving forward?
If you're going to, if you're going to take time away from someone, what could you do with that time in order to add net new value?
So it's, it's beyond automation.
Now we're looking at augmentation.
How can humans and AI work together to produce greater outcomes that were just not possible before?
And I think that's where CEOs get frustrated because they're limiting AI to cost takeout, not to growth.
Yes, and I do want to expand on that, especially given the fact that headlines are dominated by fears of AI-driven restructuring as well as concerns about headcount reduction.
But as you mentioned, as enterprises deploy agentic AI, David, how do leaders design a human agent operating model that can amplify human judgment rather than creating concerns, especially when it comes to workforce resistance?
So I think this is, this is one of the problems, I think the fear is completely rational, but it's aimed at the wrong target.
The, the real problem here isn't AI taking jobs, it's that your, your organization, as Brian said, only uses AI to cut costs rather than create new value.
So for me, leadership need to be very transparent in what they're doing, but we always say that when it comes down to AI your AI strategy should not be about AI your AI strategy should be about achieving something else from a business perspective and then you think about how you use AI to free up the time and resources to allow you to achieve that business objective.
And finally, to round up this discussion, many executives out there, whether we're talking about the mega publicly traded companies or even medium sized businesses, they might be stuck in pilot paralysis waiting for peer proof before actually committing to change.
So for both of you to close all of this out, what is the very first workflow that a C-suite should be designed today to become customer zero?
I'll start.
I'll turn, I'll, I'll turn it over to you because I'll just set the framing.
Uh, I think most, most of the times what we see with companies is that they, they're still using AI within the confines of their organizational construct, which is decades old and not, not suited for an era of AI.
You don't see AI native companies saying, where can our HR and our finance. and our sales organizations get the most out of their investments.
What they see is a company that's investing itself more horizontally versus vertical silos.
And so with that said, what we're gonna see this, the, the complete reorganization of companies where AI can be optimized horizontally across the enterprise.
And so, Dave, on that note, I'll turn it over to you.
I, I think the uh the one thing leaders need to think about is, is experiencing this, so you need to be customer zero, you don't want to be asking your customers to trust something until you've deployed it yourself.
So our recommendation is always deploy it first internally but run it, run it at full consequence, so choose a workflow that flows across silos, understand how you can apply AI AI to that and perhaps understand how you can design that workflow for the 21st century.
Well, Brian, Dave, we will have to leave it there for today, but thank you so much for joining us this morning and thank you so much for sharing your perspective as well as your insights.
No, thank you, thank you.
