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Can AI Do Strategy?

Author

Listed:
  • Felipe A. Csaszar

    (Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109)

  • Gwendolyn Lee

    (Daniels School of Business, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907)

  • Peter Zemsky

    (INSEAD, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

  • Todd Zenger

    (Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112)

Abstract

Can artificial intelligence (AI) do strategy? This question is both urgent and foundational: urgent because AI is already reshaping strategic practice and foundational because answering it forces us to articulate what strategy actually is. In this introductory essay to the Strategy Science Special Issue on AI and Strategy, we propose a dual-ladder framework: a causal ladder that maps the cognitive hierarchy of strategic tasks and a delegation ladder that specifies when organizations will grant AI autonomy over those tasks. A core insight emerges: AI will not enter strategy where required reasoning is deepest but where its performance is most measurable. We organize the Special Issue contributions around what AI can do today, could do as capabilities develop, and should do given the imperatives of accountability and human judgment. We close with a challenge and an invitation: if strategy scholars do not define good strategizing precisely enough to be encoded, tested, and refined, other disciplines will, embedding thinner conceptions of strategy into the tools managers use. Teaching machines to strategize and support strategizing is ultimately a method for rediscovering what strategy is.

Suggested Citation

  • Felipe A. Csaszar & Gwendolyn Lee & Peter Zemsky & Todd Zenger, 2026. "Can AI Do Strategy?," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:11:y:2026:i:1:p:1-15
    DOI: 10.1287/stsc.2026.intro.v11.n1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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