Using AI to build strategy and business plans
- Jul 13
- 5 min read
Everyone seems to be doing it (unsurprisingly). More and more business owners are turning to AI for help building their strategies (and their business plans).
Which is great if you approach it with the mindset that AI is incredibly useful for parts of the planning process. Research, market analysis, competitive dynamics, scenario testing…these are areas where it can add real value.
But there's something about how AI works (at least for now) that’s important to keep top of mind if you're using it for planning.
Key Takeaways:
AI is trained on consensus, not differentiation - it learns from what already exists, which means it gives you what works for most businesses, not what makes yours unique
Strategy is inherently differentiated - it's grounded in your purpose and strengths, not what works broadly across industries
The danger isn't AI…it's outsourcing the “anchoring” decisions - research and analysis, yes; "what should we do, and why", no
Use AI as a tool to test and refine your strategy, but not to replace the thinking that defines it - there's a critical difference between the two
How AI "thinks" (and why it matters)
AI doesn't "think" in original ways.
It can't (yet…who knows what it might do in future).
AI is trained on thousands, maybe millions, of strategic frameworks, business plans, and approaches that have worked. It looks at all that data and learns the patterns. And “verbalises” what tends to succeed.
Then, when you ask it to create a plan, it gives you back what it’s learned. Which is basically consensus thinking.
That’s worth thinking about for a bit…it’s the “consensus” part that’s the issue here.
It's learning from what seems to work for most businesses. So that’s what it recommends. It suggests priorities that are common across industries, rather than what’s important to your business.
That might work for you.
But probably not.
What’s missing is the reality that strategy that actually differentiates you is the opposite of consensus.
Your competitive advantage doesn't come from doing what most businesses do. You know that. It comes from doing something differently and that’s aligned with what you're great at.
Something that reflects your purpose.
Consensus thinking won't do that.
An outcome you might not see coming
A business owner says: "AI, help me build a strategic plan." There might be some specifics attached to their prompt but that’s essentially the request they make.
AI analyses their industry, their market, and their financials (if the owner provides them). It then generates something well-structured and professional-looking.
At the extreme, the owner thinks, "Great. Job done. Let’s get to work."
What’s the problem?
If you do this, what you’ll have is a plan that reflects what works for businesses like yours.
Not something crafted specifically for your business.
It's generic.
It’ll look right because it's comprehensive and seems to tick all the boxes you know that plans are supposed to tick.
What you won’t see at first is a slow drift away from what actually makes your business unique.
Here are some signals:
Chasing opportunities that look ok but aren’t aligned to your purpose and vision
Building capabilities in areas where you're ok but not great
Competing on things that don't differentiate you
Moving away from your areas of real strength
None of which is obvious while it's happening but, soon enough, things start to feel a bit “off. And the growth you’re targeting? Not happening.
What’s happened is you’ve anchored your business to what works broadly for others like yours, not your specific purpose and strengths.
Best use for AI in strategy
We’re not at all saying you shouldn’t use AI for planning. We’re saying use it to support your efforts to differentiate your business rather than allow it to push you towards consensus planning.
AI is brilliant for:
Stress testing ideas:
Step one is to decide on the strategy specific to your business. Then use AI to challenge it. To do that, try using this type of language: "Here are the assumptions in this plan…are we on solid ground? What could go wrong? What am I missing?" You’ll get some great insights here.
Research and data gathering:
What trends are appearing in your market? What’s the competitive landscape look like? What customer insights are important? How do your financials stack up, given everything we want to achieve? These are key questions AI can answer really well.
Exploring scenarios:
Scenario testing is a standard part of the strategy process. Done manually, it’s pretty time consuming. But AI can significantly reduce that time and, frankly, provide better outputs than the manual option. Some key questions: "If we pursued this opportunity, what would we need in place? What capabilities? What resources? What would change?"
Where AI can’t help you
Here’s a few areas where AI won’t help…
Your purpose:
We define business purpose as the reason (beyond revenue and profit) your business exists. It’s also about the difference you make for your clients. That's not something AI can tell you. That’s on you and your team.
Your key strengths:
Not what you’re ok at…your real strengths. AI can research this, in terms of what clients like yours value, but it can’t identify what your clients value about their relationship with you. Again, that’s up to you. By the way…it’s best not to make assumptions about that. You should ask your clients directly.
Which opportunities matter most:
AI can absolutely tell you what's possible. But only you can decide what's important to you, based on your purpose and on your strengths.
Prioritisation:
What are the opportunities that will best leverage your strengths? What are you going to say no to? These aren’t decisions where you can rely on "this has worked elsewhere."
These are all decisions that help define your strategy. And they need to come from you and your team, not from patterns based on consensus.
Thinking this way, AI becomes a research and analysis tool rather than a replacement for human strategic thinking.
Here's what using AI effectively for strategy work looks like:
A conversation to have with yourself
Before you start using AI for your strategy and business planning, ask yourself these questions:
How am I using this tool? As something that can help me understand the inputs and challenge what I create?
Or am I (consciously or not) outsourcing really important decisions in my business?
If your honest answer has more to do with outsourcing, you'll drift toward consensus. And to be frank, that means mediocrity.
Ready to build strategy that's yours?
This is where our Growth Breakthrough Program comes in. We help you get really clear on your purpose and what you're exceptional at. Then we help you build strategy around that reality.
Not consensus strategy. Your strategy.
Contact us to arrange a conversation about building strategy that actually fits who you are.
Alternatively, you can book a time for an initial discussion.
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