AI Strategy: Why Your Board Needs to See Beyond Copilots & Chatbots

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Many executives struggle to articulate a compelling AI strategy to their boards, often defaulting to discussing AI initiatives like chatbots and productivity metrics. However, framing AI merely as a technology initiative overlooks the greater existential implications of this decision. The Genesis Mission, a $100 billion federal initiative to harness AI for scientific discovery, underscores the government's belief that AI could be the most impactful productivity technology since electrification. Organizations must recognize AI's profound implications and be prepared to invest in its potential, as their decisions in the coming months will have significant ripple effects.

Why it matters

AI represents more than just another technology wave. It embodies a significant bet on the potential to unlock productivity gains that could fundamentally reshape organizational trajectories and the broader economic landscape. The Genesis Mission is a clear indication that the U.S. government views AI as a pivotal technology for future economic growth, as the current credit-based system requires continual expansion and productivity gains to remain sustainable.

The details

The Genesis Mission aims to harness AI for scientific discovery, integrating 17 national labs, vast federal data, and the world's most powerful supercomputers into a platform designed to double research productivity within a decade. This initiative is more than a technological endeavor; it is an economic strategy addressing the fundamental issue that the current economic system increasingly relies on productivity breakthroughs that have yet to materialize. Economist Richard Duncan suggests that the U.S. economy no longer operates within a traditional capitalist framework, as economic growth has been driven by a continuous expansion of credit since the abandonment of the gold standard in the early 1970s.

• The Genesis Mission was launched by the U.S. government in November 2025.
• The Genesis Mission aims to double research productivity within a decade.

What’s next

The Genesis Mission's strategy is a lesson in ambition that organizations should emulate, including viewing AI as a platform investment comparable to cloud migration, considering AI's potential for simulating supply chains, modeling customer behavior, and testing market strategies in a virtual environment, and building infrastructures that promote ongoing learning and adaptability.