How to Use AI in Strategic Planning
I admit that I am often a late adopter of technology. AI is no different. I first started "playing around" with AI after the hosts of Acquired (a podcast I highly recommend) said that Perplexity was their trusted AI tool. It was only a few months ago that I started to use Perplexity in my strategic planning work.
I continue to refine my opinion of the role of AI in work and remain very skeptical of whether AI will stunt the development of critical skills for entry level workers. That is a topic in and of itself. For today's purposes, I want to share my insights on the role of AI in strategic planning. Big picture: AI helps polish content quickly; humans do the real thinking behind it.
What AI CAN do:
Analyze data from focus groups and individual conversations
Compile Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) input into themes
Turn a written Theory of Change into a graphic representation
Refine writing to be clearer and grammatically correct
What AI CAN'T do
Create the research agenda for your stakeholder input process that is specific to your organization
Conduct focus groups, implement stakeholder surveys, hold conversations with critical stakeholders to inform your strategic plan (to use in a SWOT or to answer specific questions in your research agenda)
Craft a Theory of Change/Action that is precise and nuanced at the same time
Facilitate a retreat to align on strategic priorities that is inclusive and collaborative
Gain buy-in from stakeholders or members of your organization around strategic priorities
Determine what key initiatives your organization is best suited to do to execute your strategic priorities
Position your organization to be ready for a new strategic plan (e.g. change management, organizational structure changes, action plans aligned with bandwidth and skills of staff members)
At Leadwell we believe the process used to create the strategic plan is the first and maybe most critical component of whether the plan will be truly integrated into your work and not just an exercise you do to say you did it.
As I continue to better understand AI- and as AI gets better- there will be more ways I will use AI as a tool during the strategic planning process. However, I will never deviate from the important work of creating a process that is inclusive, collaborative, and centers the organization's people. AI can not do that and I hope it never does.
In partnership,
Jodi (and Christina)
P.S. I did not use AI to write this :).
