AI makes it dangerously easy to start everything—and finish nothing. When every idea becomes “possible,” your real job isn’t speed anymore. It’s choosing. This article breaks down strategic thinking in the age of AI as one simple muscle you can practice weekly: choose, commit, cut.
Paolo was proud of his team. They were early adopters. They could draft decks in minutes, write job posts in seconds, and turn meeting notes into action items before the meeting even ended. The output was crazy.
Then the CEO asked a simple question in the monthly review: “So… what moved?”
Silence.
They had activity. They didn’t have direction. And AI, with all its magic, couldn’t answer the question that mattered most: What are we actually trying to win?
That’s the moment you realize strategy isn’t a fancy skill. It’s the survival skill in the age of AI.
Strategy is the skill of making fewer, better moves.
Most people think strategy is planning. It’s not. Planning is what you do after you decide.
Strategy is the decision.
It’s choosing one game to play, and choosing how you intend to win that game, even if ten other games are available. AI makes those other games look tempting because it makes them easy to start. Strategy is what keeps you from starting everything and finishing nothing.
If AI multiplies your hands, strategy tells your hands where to go.
The Strategy Muscle: Choose, Commit, Cut.
You don’t “get” strategy by reading a framework once. You build it the same way you build strength: small reps, done consistently, in real situations.
Here’s a simple way to practice it without sounding like a consultant: Choose. Commit. Cut.
Choose what matters most right now. Commit to it like you mean it. Cut what competes with it.
That’s it. That’s strategy in street language.
Rep #1: Name the win before you do the work.
Mara, an HR lead, wanted to use AI to “upgrade hiring.” That phrase sounds good, but it hides a thousand different goals. Faster hiring? Better candidates? Less bias? Better onboarding fit? Higher acceptance rate?
So we changed one sentence. Instead of “upgrade hiring,” she chose a win that could be measured and felt: “Reduce time-to-hire for sales roles without lowering quality.”
Now AI had a job. They used it to draft clearer job ads, screen resumes against a defined scorecard, and generate structured interview questions. The tools didn’t create the strategy. The strategy gave the tools a target.
If you want strategy to work, start here: Don’t say “improve.” Say what “win” looks like.
Rep #2: Shrink the battlefield to one place first.
A manager tells his team, “Let’s roll out AI across the whole department.” Everyone nods. Nobody knows where to begin. So they begin everywhere. Which means they finish nowhere.
Strategy asks a calmer question: “Where do we start so we can learn fast and show a win?”
One team picked just one process: weekly reporting. They were spending six hours a week compiling updates nobody read. They used AI to summarize key numbers, draft the narrative, and generate a one-page “What changed, what matters, what’s next” report. They didn’t change the whole department. They changed one pain point and made it visible.
That’s what good strategy does. It picks a tight arena. It wins there. Then it expands.
Rep #3: Decide what you will stop doing.
This is the part that makes strategy real.
Because every new initiative is a tax on attention. And attention is already maxed out.
I watched a leadership team get excited about AI content. They wanted thought leadership, internal comms, recruiting posts, founder content, customer education—everything. AI made that “possible.”
So I asked, “What will you stop publishing so this can live?”
Long pause. Then someone said, “Nothing.”
And there it was. The truth nobody wanted to say out loud: if nothing stops, this will die quietly in two months. Not because it’s a bad idea, but because it has no space.
Strategy is not what you add. Strategy is what you protect.
Rep #4: Build the guardrails so AI doesn’t freestyle your brand.
A lot of teams say, “We’ll just prompt better.” That’s like saying, “We’ll just drive better,” while ignoring the fact you have no lane markers.
Strategy creates the lane markers.
One customer support team did something simple but powerful. They wrote three rules: their tone, their escalation triggers, and their definition of “resolved.” Then they trained AI on examples of great replies and bad replies. Suddenly the drafts sounded like the company, not like the internet.
This is how strategy shows up in daily work: it turns “use AI” into “use AI this way.”
Strategy isn’t a gift. It’s a practice.
If you’re thinking, “Okay, but I’m not a strategist,” good. That’s honest. Most people aren’t trained for it. They’re trained to comply, execute, and stay busy.
Strategy can be learned because strategy is just a pattern of questions. And questions are teachable. You don’t need a new personality. You need a new habit.
The habit is this: before you execute, you clarify. Before you clarify, you choose. And before you choose, you accept that you can’t do everything.
That acceptance is maturity.
The 15-minute Strategy Drill you can run every week.
Do this every Friday or Monday with your team. One page. No slides. No drama.
First, answer: “What are we trying to win this week?” Make it plain. Make it specific.
Next, answer: “Where will we focus to make that win real?” Choose one arena, not five.
Finally, answer: “What will we stop, pause, or say no to so we can commit?” If you skip this question, you’re not doing strategy. You’re doing wishful thinking.
Run this for four weeks and watch what happens. Meetings get shorter because decisions get clearer. AI becomes useful because it has direction. People feel less anxious because the team finally knows what matters now.
The one line to remember.
AI will multiply your output.
Strategy will decide if that output matters.
If you want to win in the age of AI, don’t start by learning prompts.
Start by learning how to choose.
