We were with two executives last week who will begin planning for 2027 and beyond in a few weeks, and we were double clicking on new ways to use AI to improve strategic planning process and outcomes.

What we notice is that leaders are already out in front on this. Gallup’s February 2026 workforce study found that 67% of leaders in organizations that provide AI tools use AI daily or a few times a week, more than any other role. The opportunity now is to bring that everyday curiosity into how we plan.

Part of becoming an AI Data Strategist (which we all need to work toward) is to shift our mindsets about what it means to be strategic. Instead of coming up for air when it’s time to plan, AI compels us to think about data strategically, every day.

As Harvard Business Review highlights in “AI Is Revolutionizing Strategic Decision Making” (September-October 2026), generative AI and multi-agent systems now allow leadership teams to explore far more strategic options than any planning team could debate on its own.

Three Tips to shift our AI utilization mindsets from FINITE to INFINITE possibilities to add value:

1) Competitive Advantage

On our current platforms, we can create an AI Competitive Advantage project and drop in data about our competitors every time we see it.

• Think about new and novel ways to aggregate data that offer up strategic options about our competitors.
• Challenge ourselves to bring a few new ideas for leveraging differentiators against competition into the planning process, using challenge, opportunity and pay-off for clarity in potential strategic choices.

An example: over the past year, our competitors are offering AI generated options that lack business judgement and insight, and we see a way our company can do better.

The payoff is real. In McKinsey’s 2026 State of AI survey, organizations most often named innovation and competitive differentiation among the enterprise-wide benefits they are gaining from AI.

2) Customer Insights

On our current platforms or with a new agentic tool, we can drop in what our customers love about what we do, what they are frustrated with, and what they ask for that we are not offering currently.

• Consider creative ways to gather and report on customer insights that can become viable strategic options.
• Challenge ourselves to bring newly correlated customer insights into the planning process by focusing on the problem, solution and projected outcome to push toward more strategic options to consider.

An example: higher education is responding to students who are seeking AI certifications, minors and degrees to be viable in the future economy, and we have new insights about how to position our college to better compete with student data that is national and regional.

The demand signal is strong. Coursera’s 2025 Microcredentials Impact Report found that 93% of students believe generative AI training belongs in degree programs, and 89% say they are likely to enroll in a program that offers generative AI microcredentials.

3) Work Flow and Process Efficiency

Work flow and process efficiency can be captured with an agentic or AI project.

• Seek to integrate AI in game changing ways every day that can create BIG value add differentiators with all key stakeholders.
• Challenge ourselves to create and pilot the next leap in innovation with our teams and bring the test case into the planning process with multiple strategic options.

This is where the leading organizations are separating themselves. McKinsey’s 2026 research found that nearly three-quarters of AI high performers have fundamentally redesigned their workflows, compared with about a quarter of other organizations.

An example: We are utilizing AI with 360 assessment data, written comments, focus groups and engagement data to clarify high potential leader development that is razor focused on top executive growth and development needs for our clients. It is far better actionable data that we are able to aggregate in a fraction of the time. This helps leaders to focus on the real difference makers in career mobility.

Bringing It Into Our Planning

Succeeding with AI in strategic planning begins with thinking more strategically every day about the data that is within reach.

It also helps to bring our people along. Gallup found that employees who strongly agree their leadership has communicated a clear AI plan are three times as likely to feel very prepared to work with AI. Our strategic plans are a natural place to share that clarity.

Real innovation begins with collecting and reporting on data with uncommon curiosity and creativity. This also helps expand strategic choices with data to fuel infinite future possibilities!

As we prepare for 2027, which of these three areas holds the most untapped data for our teams?

Sources

Gallup, “AI Use at Work Has Nearly Doubled in Two Years,” June 2025

Gallup, AI use by role, survey of 23,717 employed U.S. adults, February 2026 (reported by Axios, April 13, 2026)

Harvard Business Review, “AI Is Revolutionizing Strategic Decision Making,” September-October 2026 (summary via IADS)

McKinsey & Company, The State of AI, August 2026

Coursera, Microcredentials Impact Report 2025 (reported by Campus Technology, May 21, 2025)