AI should transform the strategy process—but never make the final call, researcher argues

A practitioner article published in the SMS Explorer, "AI Will Help Formulate Strategy, But Should Never Finish It," by Michael Olenick challenges a growing assumption in the business world: that generative AI can take strategy off executives' plates. As AI tools grow more capable, the debate has shifted from whether AI can contribute to strategy to whether it should lead it. Olenick, drawing on more than two decades of AI-aided strategy research, argues it should not—and explains precisely where the line must be drawn.