AI does not naturally produce good strategy on its own; it only becomes useful for strategy when a human aggressively steers it with real constraints like technology state, team dynamics, competitive and regulatory landscape, and brand identity.
Despite having access to market data, AI produces only predictable, generic strategy unless a human deliberately steers it with the full set of real constraints — team, competition, regulation, and brand identity. ✦ AI generated
Adam Mosseri · Lenny's Podcast · 2026-07-09 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 26:08
“Something I have always thought is AI should be incredibly good at strategy. Because you would think here's the market, here's all the information on the market, our competitors, our metrics, our numbers, our growth, all these things. Help me figure out how to win. You think AI knowing all that would be really good at this.”
I think it could be. I I have found it's not unless you steer it pretty aggressively. And I don't mean towards an answer. I mean based on the constraints. It turns out when you're trying to come up with a strategy, there's a lot of things to consider, right? You need to consider the state of the technology, the personnel on the team and what's motivating them and what you can get.
verbatim transcript · starts at 26:08
26:08our growth, all these things. Help me figure out how to win. You think AI knowing all that would be really good at this. I think it could be. I I have found it's not unless you steer it pretty aggressively. And I don't mean towards an answer. I mean based on the constraints. It turns out when you're trying to come up with a strategy, there's a lot of things to consider,
26:26right? You need to consider the state of the technology, the personnel on the team and what's motivating them and what you can get. You know, sometimes coming up with a idea that is on the bubble, you know, it's going to actually attract some of the best talent and so that kind of like that kind of the push then goes to the idea. uh obviously the competitive landscape, the regulatory
26:47landscape for companies as large as ours and the compliance landscape, the identity and reason to exist for the brand. Um, you know, you have to consider all of these things. I think if you ask an AI just for a strategy lazily, you're not going to get something great. You're going to get something pretty predictable that probably the competition would expect you to do. I think if you want a really
27:10more effective one, you need to think long and hard about what are all the different inputs that need to be considered. Make sure you steer the AI in a way that it's considering those as well. And it needs to be a conversation and the back and forth. But I think if you're willing to put in the work and the time, it can definitely be helpful and definitely be
27:30clarifying. Um, particularly if you tell it to be critical. Different models have very different vibes though on Yeah. >> How willing they are to be pushed back. So [laughter] I I recommend picking one that likes pushing back. >> Yeah. Mythos has gotten really good at being like, I can't do this. Let's let's move on. Like uh there's all these >> fun has always been a little bit of a
27:52jerk in a way that I actually appreciate. >> I truly >> I appreciate it. I really do because I don't want one that's just like, "Oh, you're so right. I'm so sorry I said that." It's like, "No, hold on. I want I want, you know, I want the real real sort of intelligence. I don't want the pleaser. This point you made about people being excited about the strategy is such an