When casting our 3-Year Picture on the V/TO®, how should our leadership team define the qualitative description of what the company looks like if AI makes our current delivery model obsolete within eighteen months?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When external technology threatens to compress legacy delivery models, you cannot populate your 3-Year Picture with incremental extensions of current operations. You must paint a picture of a business that has already adapted to the technological shift and restructured how it captures value.

Begin in your annual planning session by stripping away the mechanics of how you deliver today. Focus on the core transformation your clients pay for. If AI will automate your current deliverables within eighteen months, your 3-Year Picture should not describe producing deliverables faster. It should describe a company that provides strategic interpretation, implementation governance, and enterprise accountability around automated outputs.

Specifically, detail how your customer relationships will look. Describe your business as an essential strategic partner embedding automated workflows directly into client operations. Detail how your revenue model has shifted from selling hours or static deliverables to charging for outcomes, access, and ongoing performance guarantees.

Define the operational reality on your future Accountability Chart. Instead of a pyramid of junior production workers, picture a lean team of high-capacity operators who use AI tools to eliminate low-value tasks and focus entirely on high-impact strategic priorities. As Erik Brynjolfsson notes, AI enables small teams to punch far above their historical weight. Your 3-Year Picture should clearly reflect an organization with high revenue per employee, protected margins, and a service model insulated from commodity automation.