AI Fundamentals

Why companies are stuck in yesterday β€” and how to use AI to build an organization that's ready for tomorrow

Job van den Berg
Job van den Berg
February 1, 2026
4
min read
Why companies are stuck in yesterday β€” and how to use AI to build an organization that's ready for tomorrow
There are endless meetings about overdue tasks, ad-hoc issues become priority, and teams run from deadline to deadline. But there is one problem: this behavior inhibits your future.

In an average organization, most of the day is about one thing: solving problems that were already occurring yesterday. There are endless meetings about overdue tasks, ad-hoc issues become priority, and teams run from deadline to deadline. But there is one problem: this behavior inhibits your future.

Because while you're busy with yesterday, AI is busy with tomorrow. The organizations that are thinking ahead today are now laying the foundation for their advantage the day after tomorrow. The companies that get stuck in short-term thinking are irrevocably falling behind. If you have a agentic, AI-driven organization If you want to become, you need to switch immediately. That doesn't mean optimizing a bit or implementing an AI tool here and there, but fundamentally different way of looking at how your organization works.

There are two domains that you need to build on at the same time:
(1) your operating model of the future

(2) your strategic innovation strength.

1. The new operating model: this is what your organization looks like when AI is used structurally

The biggest misconception about AI is that it's an β€œextra tool.”
In reality, AI is a new foundation under your organization.

AI isn't changing what we do β€” but how we do everything

Process-based work will increasingly be carried out by AI. Think about:

  • Customer contact
  • Internal documentation
  • Data analysis
  • Reports
  • Marketing production
  • Planning and putting on the agenda
  • Operational workflows
  • Internal communication
  • Quality controls
  • Sales support

This is not about small gains in efficiency. This is about a completely new operating model.

The question that every company needs to answer now

What does our organization look like when:

  • 60β€” 80% of repetitive tasks are done by AI?
  • we always have accurate information 24/7?
  • decisions are made faster, data-driven and error-free?
  • teams no longer wasting time on administrative burdens?
  • customers are helped the same day β€” automatically?

This requires redesigning your processes. Do not polish. Do not patch. But redesigning.

AI Agents as the core of your daily operations

An agentic organization works with AI Agents that:

  • perform tasks independently
  • retrieving, processing and analysing information
  • maintain context over multiple steps
  • collaborating with people and other agents
  • continuously improve as they get more data

This means that each team - from HR to marketing and from finance to operations - gets different activities. People are becoming less executive and more directing, creative, strategic, and controlling.

2. Strategy & Innovation: Reinventing Your Business Before the Market Does It for You

In addition to redesigning your operations, you need to work on a more fundamental question:

If AI takes over most of our processes... what will be our new added value?

Organizations that think about this now are creating their future. The rest will be overtaken by AI-native competitors that move faster, have lower costs and can scale up exponentially.

The big questions leaders need to ask today

  • What can we create when we are no longer limited by capacity?
  • What new products and services are now becoming feasible?
  • How can we enter markets that were previously unreachable?
  • What ambitions can we finally achieve thanks to AI?
  • What will be our new competitive advantage?
  • What customer issues can we solve that we can't solve yet?

Innovation is becoming much more important than optimization

Where companies now spend perhaps 80% of their time in operations and 20% on innovation, that should shift to:

  • 60% innovation & strategy
  • 40% operational rebuild with AI

The biggest risks for companies no longer lie in inefficient processes, but in the absence of a forward-looking model. AI accelerates innovation cycles, makes new business models possible and turns existing markets upside down.

The 60/40 rule: Here's how to move forward instead of being left behind

To really transform, you need to use time differently. The companies that are growing fastest in an AI-driven world use this ratio:

πŸ”Ή 60% of your time:

  • Strategy
  • Innovation
  • New business models
  • New value propositions
  • Experimenting with AI
  • Future-proof thinking

πŸ”Ή 40% of your time:

  • Redesigning processes
  • Deploying AI Agents
  • Automate
  • Training and scaling
  • Rearrange teams
  • Modernize internal workflows

This mix ensures that you not only become more efficient, but also more relevant, faster, smarter and future-proof.

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Remy Gieling
Job van den Berg

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