Strategy Summit 2026: Why AI Transformation Needs a Human Touch

During the HBR Strategy Summit 2026, Nigel Vaz framed artificial intelligence as an operating system that rewrites how companies decide and execute. He argued that AI is no longer a peripheral technology but a foundational layer comparable to the internet’s impact in the 1990s. This shift forces organizations to abandon yearly planning cycles and adopt faster, continuous decision loops that align with AI‑driven value creation. By treating AI as the core infrastructure of the enterprise, leaders can unlock new business models, accelerate product redesign, and capture competitive advantage before the market catches up.

Vaz warned that linear, siloed thinking cripples AI initiatives. Traditional strategies that separate finance, marketing, and product into isolated roadmaps ignore the data flows essential for an AI‑first world. He recommends selecting problems that are large enough to matter yet small enough to prototype quickly, creating a “sweet spot” where lessons can be scaled across the organization. By embedding experimentation within cross‑functional teams and measuring incremental metrics—such as cycle time, defect escape rate, or cost per release—companies can transform narrow proof‑of‑concepts into enterprise‑wide capabilities without stalling progress.

The conversation turned to responsible AI, where Vaz emphasized that ethics must be baked into technology, not left as abstract policies. Clear data‑governance rules, sandboxed AI tools, and transparent model provenance protect customer information and curb inadvertent model poisoning. He also argued that AI strategy should sit at the business level, guided by customer, employee, and partner outcomes, while IT provides the necessary compute backbone. Leaders who align ethical safeguards with measurable business objectives can balance speed, cost savings, and long‑term trust, turning AI from a risk into a sustainable competitive engine.