AI is changing business at a scale and speed few technologies ever have. It’s democratizing skills once locked behind years of training—coding, writing, analysis—and putting them in the hands of anyone with a keyboard. Entire industries are shifting:

• Healthcare is using AI to analyze images, accelerate drug discovery, and assist in diagnosis.

• Finance is deploying AI for fraud detection, risk modeling, and algorithmic trading.

• Manufacturing is optimizing supply chains, improving quality control, and automating production.

• Retail is personalizing recommendations, forecasting demand, and powering customer service.

The wave is accelerating. For some companies, it will mean new competitive advantage. For others, it will mean decline.

The critical question is simple: is your company AI resilient?

What AI Resilience Means

AI resilience is a company’s ability to adapt to and leverage AI in ways that create value, protect its future, and enable sustainable growth. It’s not just about adopting tools. It’s about building the conditions where AI can make a difference. That requires:

• Strategic foresight: understanding where AI will reshape your industry, business model, and customer expectations.

• Skills and infrastructure: developing talent and systems that can deploy, monitor, and scale AI effectively.

• Organizational agility: creating a culture of learning and iteration so you can pivot quickly as opportunities and threats emerge.

The Double-Edged Sword

I think of AI is the Great Leveler. It allows small organizations to punch far above their weight class, but it also threatens the existence of those who fail to adapt. Some companies will disappear overnight. Others will wither more slowly. No organization is immune to AI’s tectonic shifts.

Which is exactly why building resilience matters. Resilient companies don’t wait for disruption to hit—they anticipate it, experiment early, and learn faster than their competitors.

Even in professional services, where knowledge work once felt insulated, AI is raising existential questions. Creative and strategy firms face pressure as tools like GPT models can generate campaigns, test messages, and optimize in real time. OpenAI’s founder Sam Altman once predicted that “95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will…be handled by AI.”

That prediction should spark reflection for every leader. If 95% of what you do can be automated, what remains that only you—and your people—can deliver? The answer to that question is the heart of AI resilience.

Building Your AI Resilience

So how do you begin? A few starting points:

1. Audit your exposure. Which parts of your business model are most at risk of automation? Which create unique value that AI can’t easily replace?

2. Pilot intentionally. Start small—test AI in one workflow, measure outcomes, and learn before scaling.

3. Invest in people. Technical skills matter, but so do curiosity, adaptability, and problem-solving. These human capabilities amplify AI’s value.

4. Embed governance. Create policies and councils to set boundaries and ensure AI use aligns with your values and goals.

5. Stay experimental. Resilience isn’t about building once—it’s about learning continuously.

The Way Forward

For leaders, the question isn’t whether AI will reshape your business. It’s whether you’ll be prepared. AI resilience isn’t optional. It’s the difference between those who thrive through disruption and those who vanish because of it.

The wave is already here. The only way forward is through.