You cannot automate your way to innovation. And you cannot cut your way to growth. That was my message in a short 3-minute video with Jyoti Guptara at the 2026 Global Peter Drucker Forum in Vienna.

So why are so many AI strategies focused on cost-cutting and efficiency gains? Obviously they’re important, but without growth strategies balanced in the equation, you’re operating on a finite timeline.

Jyoti also asked me whether I’m bullish or bearish about AI and innovation.

My answer was that I’m bullish on humanity. But we have work to do.

Making yesterday work better tomorrow isn’t future-proofing. It’s past-proofing. And that’s iteration, not innovation, even with AI.

Innovation is the creation of new value., new possibilities, and new reasons to grow.

You need both iteration and innovation.

But that requires us to ask different questions.

If AI gives us back time, capacity, and resources, how might we invest those gains in something that didn’t exist before?

What could our people create? What customer problems could we finally solve? What could our businesses become?

This is where leadership matters. We need the imagination to see beyond today’s operating model and the courage to build what comes next.

Please watch our conversation, and please share where are you seeing AI create new value, and where are you seeing it reinforce yesterday’s thinking?