We are updating our V/TO® and want to establish our 3-Year Picture, but we do not know how to realistically project our margin targets and revenue per employee when AI tools are scaling our capacity so unpredictably. How do we build a stable three-year plan when the unit economics of our labor are completely in flux?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To stabilize your V/TO® 3-Year Picture, stop trying to guess the future cost of specific AI tools. Instead, focus your projections on capital efficiency and output targets. Economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee remind us that technology does not just replace labor; it radically restructures the cost of production. Your job is to define your desired future margin profile and let that drive your capacity planning.

Start by setting a target for revenue per employee that is at least double your current baseline. This forces your leadership team to acknowledge that you will not scale headcount linearly as you grow. In your 3-Year Picture, define your organizational size not by the number of bodies in seats, but by the strategic output those seats must produce.

Next, identify the core processes that currently limit your capacity. Use your leadership meetings to identify where manual labor is a bottleneck. Project your three-year goals based on those bottlenecks being fully automated. By shifting your focus from tool-specific predictions to high-level margin targets, you create a stable vision. Your team will have a clear, numbers-driven destination, and they can use whatever AI tools are current at that time to build the actual workflows to reach it.