By Fikunayomi Aluko
I said that from a stage in Amsterdam on the 1st of June, 2026. Founders, investors, engineers, researchers, and enterprise leaders at the 6th International AI in Business Summit went quiet in the way rooms go quiet when something lands not as a provocation but as a recognition.
How many of you have seen AI deployed primarily as a productivity tool, summarising documents, generating emails, without any real process redesign? Most hands went up.
That moment crystallised the problem I have worked inside for over a decade, across Big Four consulting, enterprise product leadership at pcl., startup programs at BeyondLimits, government programs at NITDA Nigeria, and innovation ecosystems spanning 4,000 startups across 30 countries and 5 continents. According to McKinsey, 88% of organisations are using AI.¹ Only 6% qualify as genuine high performers.¹ That gap is not a technology gap. It is a leadership gap. And it begins with a mental model.
The conversation that happens before any of it matters
