The Rise of AI: Impressive, but Insufficiently Ambitious

Significantly more Dutch companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) in their operations. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The rise of AI seems substantial, but it lags behind developments in other countries. The rise of artificial intelligence appears impressive. AI is on the agenda of almost every board, pilots are mushrooming, and processes are being automated step by step. However, the picture is disappointing once we compare the Netherlands with other countries. Where AI is deployed as a strategic weapon elsewhere, it often remains stuck in optimization here.

Most organizations start by modernizing their operations. AI is used to make existing processes faster, cheaper, and more efficient. This is logical: it is the bread and butter of the organization. Think of customer service automation, reporting, forecasting, or process optimization. There is nothing wrong with that on the contrary. But those who stop there are leaving the greatest potential of AI untapped.

Efficiency is not the true value

AI is not a cost-saving tool, but a growth engine. The true value only emerges when organizations deploy AI to fundamentally innovate their business model and strategy. This requires a different way of thinking. Not: "How do we do the same with fewer people?" but: "What can we do that was impossible yesterday?"

Many AI initiatives get bogged down in 'salami slicing': saving one FTE here, accelerating a process slightly there. This yields temporary gains, but no structural competitive advantage. Especially in a tight labor market, this is a missed opportunity. If AI makes it possible to do more work with fewer people, space is created. Space to grow, innovate, and experiment.

Raise your ambitions

The question leaders must ask themselves is not how many costs AI can save, but what new opportunities it can unlock. Can we serve new markets? Develop new products or services? Create radically different propositions? AI makes it possible to learn faster, serve more personally, and experiment scalably at marginal costs approaching zero.

This requires exponential thinking. Not optimizing within existing frameworks, but breaking free from the 'shit of yesterday': outdated processes, historical assumptions, and legacy thinking. Those who use AI to automate the past gain time. Those who use AI to design the future win the market.

From operations to strategy

Organizations that lead internationally do not just use AI in operations but anchor it in their strategy. They build AI capabilities as a core competency, organize data as a strategic asset, and steer toward value creation instead of efficiency alone. This requires courage, vision, and leadership.

The message is simple: AI is too important to be reduced to an optimization tool. The technology is there. The knowledge is there. Now is the time to scale up the ambition. Because those who only use AI to do something slightly better will be overtaken by organizations that use AI to do things completely differently.

// About the author

Job van den Berg

Mede-oprichter, AI Keynote Spreker & Techondernemer

Tech-ondernemer (1989) met een achtergrond als socioloog (Research Master (MSc) in statistiek en sociologie) en een van de meest gevraagde keynote sprekers over AI en data in Nederland. Als mede-oprichter van Ai.nl, The Automation Group en Proxies leidt hij engineers die agentic AI van prototype naar productie brengen binnen enterprises. Op het podium vertaalt Job die hands-on praktijk naar concrete strategieën. Eerder was Job Chief Data bij o.a. DPG Media en Kantar. Hij is co-auteur van 5 boeken over AI waaronder 'AI Agents' en 'Handboek AI Strategie' en een veelgevraagd expert in de landelijke media.

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