Defining—and Redefining—AI First

In a piece I published back in April titled, “Defining AI-First: Navigating the New Vocabulary of Artificial Intelligence,” I wrote, “The reason you feel a lack of clarity around the phrase AI-first is because there’s no clear definition of what it means. Or maybe a better way to say it is this: it’s up to you to define what AI-first means to you and your organization.”

That perspective served its purpose, but now, after leading organizations through successful AI transformations, I can define AI First with clarity:

AI First is an organizational mindset infused with curiosity, proactivity, and experimentation, aimed at embracing AI’s potential to drive innovation, elevate thinking, enhance efficiency, and unlock new opportunities for growth.

Before breaking down this definition into its component parts, it’s crucial to understand something fundamental: AI First is a mindset.

Just as growth and abundance mindsets help you view challenges as opportunities and see those opportunities as plentiful, adopting an AI First mindset allows you to reinterpret what’s possible.

It’s a disposition that you and your team cultivate that enables you to view the future with maximum openness about what it may hold.

This point is especially important because while AI is undoubtedly the defining technology of our time, it brings with it more questions than answers.

Its novelty fuels uncertainty, and uncertainty often leads to withdrawal—but withdrawing from engaging with how this technology will transform your business is exactly the wrong response.

AI First, Explained

Let’s return to the definition.

We’ve established that AI First is a mindset, rather than just a philosophy or organizing principle. The traits that animate this mindset are curiosity, proactivity, and experimentation.

Curiosity signals openness and a willingness to learn.

Proactivity matters because these technologies don’t come with an instruction manual or a predefined list of use cases—you need to be proactive in developing playbooks for both how you use them and for what purpose.

Experimentation is essential because testing, learning what works and what doesn’t, and understanding why is the only path to realizing the gains you’re ultimately striving for.

Furthermore, an AI First mindset is aimed at embracing AI’s potential, and we now know—with certainty—that AI can fulfill several promises.

It can drive innovation, supercharge your thinking, make you more efficient by automating tasks you’d rather not do (freeing you to focus on what you do want to do), and unlock new opportunities for growth that you simply hadn’t considered before.

Even if all you do at this point is adopt an AI First mindset, you’ll still be ahead of the many businesses—your competitors—who are still “waiting to see what happens.”

There’s a real economic advantage to be captured here, including a notable lift in EBITDA (approximately 10% over twelve to eighteen months, which I’ll explore in greater detail in a future piece) that you can realize by treating AI transformation with the seriousness it deserves.

The beauty of an AI First mindset lies in its simplicity and power.

It doesn’t require massive upfront investment or a complete organizational overhaul.

Instead, it asks for something both more fundamental and more valuable: a shift in how you and your organization think about and approach the future.

By embracing curiosity over certainty, proactivity over reactivity, and experimentation over hesitation, you position your organization to not just participate in the AI revolution, but to help shape it.

Which is quite possibly the most important competitive advantage of all.