When Speed Isn’t Strategy: Why Discernment Matters in an AI-Driven World

We are living in an era where speed is celebrated as intelligence. Decisions are expected faster. Outputs are demanded quicker. Strategy is increasingly shaped by tools designed to optimise, predict and automate at scale. On the surface, this appears efficient, progressive, even.

However, beneath that momentum, something quieter and far more important is being lost.

Discernment.

When speed replaces discernment, strategy quietly breaks.

In an AI-driven world, the most powerful decisions are still human-led.

This reflection was sparked by a powerful post by Ann-Mary Rajanayagam, who wrote:

“AI quietly broke how strategic planning works.”

That single line captures what many leaders are feeling but struggling to articulate.

The Illusion of Speed as Strategy

As Ann-Mary observed, most traditional strategy frameworks assume that:

• the environment changes slowly

• information is scarce

• decisions are human-paced

• plans can be stabilised over time

AI demolishes every one of those assumptions.

Today, leaders are not short on data, they are drowning in confident recommendations generated faster than they can be meaningfully interrogated. Insight is abundant, but clarity is not.

What I am increasingly seeing is not reckless adoption, but incremental complacency.

A pilot here. An automation there. Nothing feels high risk... until suddenly, it is.

“We Never Actually Decided This”

Ann-Mary went on to highlight a dangerous pattern many organisations are now facing:

“And the realisation hits: ‘We never actually decided this. The system did.’”

This is the quiet breaking point.

It appears when:

• a model drifts and impacts revenue or reputation

• a regulator asks for a clear explanation

• a leader is forced to answer the question, “Who signed off on this?”

In these moments, optimisation has quietly replaced judgment.

The Real Risk: False Confidence

As Ann-Mary aptly described, the greatest risk is not AI itself but false confidence:

“Confidence in forecasts that decay at warp speed.Confidence in systems no one fully controls.Confidence that pure optimisation equals sound judgment.”

Speed does not equal wisdom.Efficiency does not equal accountability.

When human discernment is removed from decision-making, organisations do not just lose control they lose trust!

Strategy Has Shifted — Quietly

In an AI-mediated world, strategy is no longer about prediction.

As Ann-Mary noted, it is now about discernment:

• knowing what not to automate

• designing guardrails instead of rigid roadmaps

• making decisions you can still defend when things go wrong

This requires a fundamentally different leadership skillset than many of us were trained for.

The Role of the Intuitive Strategist

This is where intuitive strategy becomes essential not as guesswork, but as a synthesis of experience, data, pattern recognition, ethics and human insight.

An intuitive strategist understands when to pause. When to slow down. When human presence matters more than optimisation.

Just because the world wants us to operate at a faster pace does not mean we have to comply.

Sometimes, the most strategic move is a cool, calm and calculated decision. One that integrates AI as a tool, not a replacement for responsibility.

Building for Longevity, Not Velocity

As Ann-Mary concluded, this is where many organisations will struggle:

“Quietly at first, then very publicly.”

Those that endure will not be the fastest adopters, but the most discerning leaders. The ones who understand that sustainable success is built by elevating human judgment alongside technology. Not removing it from the equation.

A Closing Reflection

At Inspired Consulting, this is the work I do, supporting founders and leaders to slow the noise, sharpen their discernment and build strategies that are intelligent, defensible and human-led.

If you are feeling pressured to move faster than feels aligned, this may be your invitation to pause and choose clarity over speed.

Because strategy isn’t about keeping up. It is about knowing what matters when it counts.

❥❥ Missy Kay