Our leadership team is updating our V/TO® and we want to include AI capabilities in our 3-Year Picture, but we are struggling to define what our actual operational capacity will look like. How do we paint a realistic, measurable future state for our business when the split between human effort and machine output is constantly shifting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To paint a realistic 3-Year Picture on your V/TO®, you must stop trying to predict specific technological developments and instead focus on your target capacity, efficiency, and human leverage. Trying to guess which software tools will exist in thirty-six months is a losing game. Instead, define the relationship between your projected revenue and your target headcount.

Prioritize using AI to increase employee productivity as a starting point, as employees are a major P&L item. Your 3-Year Picture should specify how much low-value, repetitive work will be offloaded to machines, allowing your core team to focus on high-impact strategic relationships. This is where you outline your future target metrics, such as revenue per employee, which should scale significantly without a corresponding increase in human headcount.

As experts like Erik Brynjolfsson point out, AI will not replace managers, but managers who use AI will replace those who do not. Use your 3-Year Picture to define a business where every seat on your Accountability Chart is augmented by technology. This gives your team a clear, stable destination while keeping the specific software choices flexible as the technology evolves. Focus the vision on the strategic value your team will deliver when they are entirely freed from cumbersome manual processes.