Half of the Fortune 500 are gone since 2000. History moves faster than we remember and AI is on the march
Those who were the regular in Blockbuster remember the rituals of the night and elegance of film rental-and the moment it made it outdated. Less number recalls that Blockbuster has already sold his own disappearance: I bought the first Blu-ray operator there, which has become my first flow device. Blockbuster was investing in late drawings and stores as the future of entertainment passed through its doors.
Today, the executive presidents are betting on their career on artificial intelligence with the same confidence that the giant video rental giant had one day the late drawings. The lesson is not only related to interruption. It comes to failure to read signals in sight.
With reports that artificial intelligence will either make old industries such as consulting or resistance in the future, it is worth looking back to move forward.
The problem is not tools – they are signs
For decades, corporate leaders offered in every industry to understand or ignore market signals like this, even when they were clear. I lived through multiple technical transformations, and writing was not more clear than it is with artificial intelligence. If you ignore these signals, you penetrate your duty towards shareholders. If you are ignoring the signals now, you are penetrating your duty towards the shareholders – and unlike the previous waves, there will be no time to recover.
Now, the chief executives are both thunderbolt and anxious. Some of them employ Amnesty International. Others cut the number of employees in anticipation of efficiency gains. Some do both.
This is understandable, but it lacks the largest image. AI is not just another tool to improve the workflow today. It is a multiplier to rewrite the problems that deserve the solution.
Solve the wrong problem
Think about communication centers in the nineties. Companies rushed to implement call recording to improve compliance and quality. But they did not ask the most important question: Why do customers never call? The real value of monitoring calls was not better, but using this data to get rid of the need for these calls completely.
When companies finally discovered this, they helped them develop self -service gates, predictive support, automatic solution and solutions for broken operations on their customer service trip.
This error is repeated through every major transformation. The use of artificial intelligence to improve the current processes is similar to the wood company that connects the woods to the leaflets to the end of the manual axes. Do that, and the productivity will decrease. Teach your warts to adapt to new technology instead, and you will update it.
However, leaders can have a tendency to try to improve ineffective processes through brilliant new technology rather than questioning their existence. And AI reveals this defect on a large scale. Artificial intelligence will do a great job in speeding up bad operations and amplifying employees if they are not carefully published.
The truth is blatant: Artificial intelligence can actually outperform humans in a large number of cognitive tasks, from data analysis to disclosure of patterns to diagnosis of problems that no one sees. The winners of the next contract will not be companies that use artificial intelligence to polish current operations – they will be the ones who allow AI to reveal the signals that human intuition lacks and re -perceive the operating model around them.
Half Fortune 500 went … and why does it concern
More than half of the Fortune 500 of 2000 is no longer present. Most of them did not fail because they lacking vision. They failed because the leaders were unable to explain the signals quickly enough.
We are drowning in data, while artificial intelligence was born to swim. Blockbuster in 2007 was not blind on Netflix- It was very focused on improving the store’s experience to admit that the broadcast was the only problem of interest. This is the way the occupants of its occupants die: it is not a lack of effort, but from solving the wrong problems on a large scale.
Artificial intelligence flourishes where humans decrease, and they are set through complexity, a sign of noise, and a sign of problems that we did not know that we should solve.
A billion billion dollar spot
Consultations explain this completely. Many projects are still aimed at the wrong problem of the first day. Companies spend billions of dollars on “artificial intelligence for artificial intelligence” – costs of costs, class information, and construction points solutions – while ignoring the most difficult and important question: How does this reconfigure our ability to grow?
The real missed opportunity here is enormous. Most current players do not want to change. AI can already analyze how to find companies, win and maintain customers, and the brand where performance is destroyed and as investments reach decreasing returns. The axes suggest before the competitors grabbed. However, most conversations with CEOs are still about reducing the workforce. This lacks the point completely.
Stop demonstrating. Start in construction
History moves faster than we remember. The first Right Prades’ trip took only 60 years. Apple advertisement “1984” for global e -commerce? Busty a decade. Netflix launched the broadcast in 2007. By 2010, Blockbuster disappeared.
The adoption curve of Amnesty International will be faster. The only executive chiefs who will flourish are those who suffer from artificial intelligence at the core of their business, and not those who treat them as a efficiency tool for bolt. This is not only about technology. Thinking is important. The difference you bring with you is a question. The urge is important.
Artificial intelligence is not a shiny tool – it is a signal detector in a world in which the sign of the signal is killed. Ignore it, as you risk building your statute of limitations. Hug it, and you give your company the only true advantage that concerns: the ability to see what others cannot act on before it is too late.
The opinions expressed in cutting comments Fortune.com are only the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect opinions and beliefs luck.
2025-09-28 12:00:00
