Rise of the strategy machines

Abstract

Just as contemporary autonomous vehicles can take the wheel under certain conditions, well see situations in which strategic decision making can be automated. Other situations, however, will require that a human strategist take the wheel and change direction. Big-picture thinking is one capability at which humans are still better than computers and will continue to be for some time. Machines are not very good at piecing together a big picture in the first place, or at noticing when the landscape has changed in some fundamental way. Good human strategists do this every day. In a world of smart, strategic machines, humans need to excel at big-picture thinking in order to decide, for example, when automation is appropriate for a decision; what roles machines and people will play, respectively; and when an automated strategy approach their organization has implemented no longer makes sense. There is a level of sense-making that only a human strategist is capable of at least for now. Its a skill that will be more prized than ever.