The executive question about AI has matured. A year ago it was “are we adopting fast enough?” Now the sharper leaders are asking a different one: what should AI accelerate, and what must a leader still personally own? The distinction matters, because AI accelerates whatever it is pointed at — including a decision the leadership team never actually aligned on.

A team that is misaligned today, handed faster tools, does not become aligned. It executes on its misalignment faster, and at greater scale, and with more polish. The debt does not shrink. It ships.

Two patterns from this month’s research