From AI hype to leadership and redesigning your organization

2025 was the year in which AI finally entered the boardroom. No longer as an experiment or pilot, but as a strategic issue that touches on leadership, culture and the way in which organizations have to reinvent themselves.

During our first AI Innovation Circle of 2026, we took the space to reflect and look ahead together with customers, partners and community members . Back to what 2025 has really taught us. And forward to what 2026 will require of organizations.

From exploration to setting course

The first phase of Copilot and AI adoption revolved around skills.

• Where can you find which functionality?
• How do we guarantee compliance?
• What can and cannot our data do?

Necessary. Absolutely. But what we saw more and more with our customers in 2025 is that these questions are no longer enough. The real conversations are shifting to something bigger and more fundamental:

• Why do these meetings still exist?
• How do we guarantee the quality of work in an organization in which AI participates?
• Which decisions do we want to continue to make as humans and which do we have prepared by agents?

The Rise of the Frontier Firm

A term that comes up more and more often in our conversations with the board and management: the Frontier Firm.

Not an organization that simply uses more technology, but an organization that dares to redesign its operating model. Where people and police officers work together instead of coexisting. Where work is no longer about ticking off tasks, but about achieving business objectives. 

In the AI Innovation Circle, we saw this pattern in organizations in a variety of industries:

• In the legal profession, the focus is shifting from time registration to results and impact. No longer a business model that revolves around written hours, but about outcomes: for example, fixed price agreements for files where AI speeds up the preparatory work and the value lies in legal judgment, strategy and risk assessment.
• In the healthcare and public sector, there is a growing demand for how professionals who are in direct contact with citizens and patients can be supported with AI. In decision-making, administration and information provision. Not just in the office.
• Within commercial environments, there is a need for agents who help deal with ever-increasing customer expectations.

The common thread? Leadership. Not as a title, but as a design principle.

From tools to skills

One of the most significant shifts we saw in 2025 is the movement from tools to skills. This requires different roles and sometimes letting go of existing ones. Not because technology is simply "replacing" jobs, but because the nature of work is changing. The central question is therefore no longer: 

"What can this tool do?" But: "What skills do our people and teams need to continue to create value in this new reality?"

We are seeing more and more emphasis on:

• Being able to critically deal with AI outcomes
• Creativity in formulating questions, prompts and scenarios
• Decision-making in collaboration with agents
• Ethical awareness and data responsibility

AI literacy is no longer a nice-to-have, but a core competency.

Human in the Loop. But not as a brake.

In Europe, organizations are increasingly opting for human in the loop: a conscious combination of humans and AI. Not everything autonomously, not everything manually.

The challenge for 2026 is not whether organizations deploy agents, but how they make transparent why an agent arrives at a certain outcome. We see a growing need for explainability:

• Why did this customer receive this advice?
• Why was this workflow set up this way?
• Why did the officer choose this outcome?

This touches on governance, ethics and ultimately trust.

From pilots to primary process

In 2025, we saw a recurring pattern: many pilots and proof-of-concepts.
But in more and more organizations, AI and agents are now becoming the primary process and that is changing everything.

What started as an experiment must now meet mission-critical requirements:

• Security standards
• Privacy legislation
• ISO and compliance frameworks
• Cost control and demonstrable ROI

AI is thus shifting from an innovation budget to business-critical infrastructure. And it is precisely there that it becomes a governance theme.

Leadership does not belong in the middle

One of the sharpest observations from our conversations: organizations that "put AI in the hands of middle management" get stuck. Not because of a lack of willingness or commitment, but because the impact is too great. AI touches fundamental choices around:

• Organizational structure
• Responsibilities and ownership
• Customer promises
• Cost models
• Data Policy

That requires direction from the top. Not only in the form of policy, but in the form of a dot on the horizon. A shared vision of the future that answers the question:

"This is how we want to work in 2030. And this is the role that AI plays in that."

What now?

2025 brought AI to the boardroom. 2026 requires design choices. In the next blog, we'll dive deeper into the year in which AI and organizational design come together.