{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"ADAPT Insider","title":"Why AI strategies fail when leaders delegate them, according to Pathfindr CEO","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1082,"description":"AI strategies often stall because the people expected to lead them are too far from the technology itself.\nWhen AI gets handed off to a project team or parked inside the technology function, business leaders stay disconnected from where it actually creates value.\nIn this ADAPT Insider conversation, Dawid Naude, CEO at Pathfindr, talks about how AI behaves less like a fixed enterprise system and more like a capability leaders have to use, test, and learn from directly.\n\nKey takeaways:\nLeaders need direct experience with AI if they expect it to create value across the business.\nThe most useful AI applications often emerge through hands-on experimentation rather than narrow upfront use cases.\nCost, data, and oversight still matter, but they need to be managed in ways that support adoption rather than delay it. \n\nLeaders have to make AI their own\n\nDawid’s point is that AI cannot be treated like another transformation program that gets delegated and reviewed at a distance.\nEven a well-written strategy can fail if the leaders expected to act on it do not feel that it belongs to them.\nThat is what changed in Pathfindr’s own work.\nEarlier strategy engagements often produced strong recommendations but weak follow-through.\nThe shift came when AI stopped being the strategy itself and became an input into each leader’s own strategy.\nOnce leaders started using the tools directly, they could see where AI helped them think, test ideas, and solve problems in ways that felt practical rather than abstract.\n\nAI value shows up through use\n\nDawid also pushes back on the way many organisations still frame AI through narrow use cases.\nHis view is that AI behaves more like a general capability, where the highest value often only becomes clear once people start using it seriously.\nThat is why he compares it to tools like Excel or the internet.\nThe value did not come from defining every use in advance but from putting the capability in people’s hands and seeing where it unlocked better...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/t0Jtrt9eZN4kwrPnSzLt-aLKB9f-tVVg1JGt9pql9t4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS84ODM3/NGVhYmU2ZjljNWIx/NTliY2NlMTAzZDRl/NGNmOS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}