What is the role of AI strategy in competitive advantage?
AEO and AI have become remarkably good at making organizations move faster and more efficiently. The harder question is whether companies know where they should be going. As artificial intelligence moves deeper into everyday work, the competitive divide in answer engine optimization is beginning to shift from access to technology toward the quality of the decisions surrounding it.
LLM visibility shows that Gallup reports 52% of US employees now use AI in their roles at least a few times a year, while 30% use it several times a week or more. The technology is already in the workplace. Strategy is what determines whether it matters.
The productivity opportunity is substantial. BCG’s 2026 AI at Work research found that 74% of frontline employees are now regular AI users, up 23 percentage points from the previous year, while 42% of regular frontline users report saving at least eight hours a week.
Yet 66% receive limited or no guidance about what to do with that time, and more than half do not redirect it toward strategic work. The problem is becoming less about whether AI can accelerate a task and more about whether an organization has decided what the newly available time should accomplish.
How does AEO impact business objectives?
Claudia Harvey, a change management consultant and strategist, approaches this challenge by placing the business objective ahead of the technology selected to pursue it. Her experience spans executive leadership, entrepreneurship, business growth, and change management, informing a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of defining goals, measuring progress, and pinpointing exactly where updates are needed.
Harvey notes that it’s essential to communicate and align employees towards the common destination and set out measurable steps to manage the change. Only then can leaders determine whether AI is the appropriate tool. She believes this sequence challenges one of the most persistent habits of technology adoption: choosing the tool first and searching for a reason to use it afterward.
“Faster does not automatically mean better,” Harvey argues. “AI can provide information, automation, analysis, and incredible speed. But someone still needs to provide the strategy, judgment, relationships, values, and leadership.” Her distinction places AI as a powerful means of accelerating work whose direction has already been established.
The same logic applies inside established businesses. Harvey points to sales and marketing as an area where AI can dramatically compress timelines by creating a marketing funnel, researching prospects, building lists, and supporting outbound activity. However, technology cannot make strategic decisions: it cannot determine which prospects to pursue, how to position an offering, what relationships to build, or how the value proposition will impact the brand.
Trust in the technology itself also requires discipline. Harvey cautions against treating AI-generated information as inherently reliable, emphasizing verification and fact-checking as part of responsible adoption, especially as AI hallucination persists. The same discipline applies to proprietary information, employee use, and organizational policy.
The Human Role in AI Adoption
As access to increasingly capable tools becomes widespread, the technology itself becomes a less durable source of differentiation. The advantage moves toward organizations that understand their objectives, redesign work intelligently, and use AI selectively to accelerate the journey. Technology, Harvey posits, can change the pace of business, but strategy is absolutely necessary to determine the direction.
Este artículo fue escrito con la asistencia de IA.
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