The Three Horizons of AI Transformation: A Roadmap for Strategic Accelerators (Part 2 of 3)
June 17, 2025•15 min read•AI & Leadership

The Three Horizons of AI Transformation: A Roadmap for Strategic Accelerators (Part 2 of 3)

By René Bohnsack

TL;DR

  • This is Part 2 of a three-part series on mastering the AI Leadership Paradox through strategic acceleration.
  • AI transformations progress through three horizons: Tactical Implementation, Strategic Workforce Evolution, and Systemic Business Model Innovation.
  • Horizon 1 focuses on quick, low-risk AI experiments to build momentum and maintain human skills.
  • Horizon 2 emphasizes intentional workforce redesign and careful change management to avoid deskilling.
  • Horizon 3 involves fundamental innovation in business models and addressing broader societal impacts.
  • Successful organizations balance speed and intentionality differently at each stage, continuously prioritizing human competencies.

In Part 1, we explored why the AI Leadership Paradox is causing smart leaders to make automation mistakes that echo problems identified in industrial systems four decades ago. We saw how Strategic Accelerators succeed by balancing speed with intentionality, rather than choosing between them. Now, let's dive into the practical roadmap they use.

Strategic Accelerators don't just avoid the traps of Reckless Racing, Analysis Paralysis, or Passive Observation. They succeed because they recognize that AI transformation unfolds across three distinct time horizons, each with its own characteristics, success metrics, and approach to balancing speed with intentionality. This progression directly addresses what automation researcher Lisanne Bainbridge identified as the core challenge: maintaining human competencies as automation advances.

Think of it like learning to drive with cruise control, then adaptive cruise control, then eventually full autopilot. Each stage requires different skills, different levels of attention, and different ways of staying engaged with the underlying process of driving.

Horizon 1: Tactical Implementation (0-18 months)

Moving Fast with Bounded Risk

The first horizon focuses on immediate productivity gains through tactical AI deployment. Here, speed often takes precedence, but within carefully defined guardrails that maintain human competency: exactly what Bainbridge advocated for effective human-machine collaboration. As John Thompson, Head of AI at EY, explains: "I tell people, get in the game. Take your resume, ingest it into one of these models, and start playing with it. You can't make mistakes. You can't break it."

Key Activities in Horizon 1:

  • Pilot programs and proof-of-concepts
  • Individual and team-level productivity tools
  • Quick wins that build momentum and learning
  • Limited risk exposure with high learning potential

The Critical Success Factor: Grooming Your Gurus

Successful Horizon 1 implementation requires identifying and supporting early adopters while ensuring they don't lose touch with underlying processes. As Edmundo Ortega, Partner at Machine & Partners, notes: "Groom your gurus. When those 10% start to show up, support them. Give them visibility. Ask them to teach." This directly addresses Bainbridge's concern about knowledge transfer and skill maintenance in automated systems.

The organizations that thrive in Horizon 1 don't just deploy AI tools; they create learning systems around them. They identify the employees who naturally gravitate toward AI experimentation and turn them into internal champions who can teach others not just how to use the tools, but how to think about them strategically.

KPIs in Horizon 1:

  • Clear policies about what data can and cannot be used with AI tools
  • Training programs that emphasize critical thinking about AI outputs
  • Regular showcases where early adopters share learnings
  • Measurement systems that track both productivity gains and skill development

Common Horizon 1 Mistakes:

  • Deploying AI tools without any governance framework
  • Focusing solely on productivity metrics without tracking learning
  • Allowing AI champions to become isolated rather than connected to broader strategy
  • Rushing to scale before understanding what actually works

Horizon 2: Strategic Workforce Evolution (12-36 months)

Balancing Speed with Deep Intentionality

The second horizon shifts focus to systematic workforce transformation and business process redesign. Here, intentionality becomes paramount as organizations navigate the complex human dynamics of AI adoption: the very challenge Bainbridge identified as central to successful automation. Dan Shipper, CEO of Every, captures this transformation: "I think we're heading into a world where English is the new programming language. You can ask AI to build a website, write some Python code, or simulate a strategic framework, and it will just do it."

Key Characteristics of Horizon 2:

  • Role redesign and skill development programs
  • Business process reengineering
  • Cultural change management
  • Scaling successful pilots across the organization

Avoiding the Deskilling Trap

The challenge in Horizon 2 is managing the transition thoughtfully while avoiding what Bainbridge called the "deskilling" trap. Daniel Hulme, Chief AI Officer at WPP, warns: "I think there's a real risk of social unrest if companies don't manage the transition well. The friction in the workforce is real. If we free up jobs too quickly without giving people time to adapt, it could lead to serious economic disruptions."

Success requires reframing work itself while maintaining human competencies. Sania Khan emphasizes: "The key to ensure that your team isn't just reacting to AI but thriving in this AI-powered future is to focus on three steps: 1) Analyzing how tasks are being disrupted by AI, 2) Forecasting the future skills needed, and 3) Redesigning roles to align with those future skills."

This directly addresses Bainbridge's insight that effective automation requires thoughtful task allocation rather than simple human replacement. Azeem Azhar, Founder of Exponential View, provides the crucial mindset shift: "The real differentiator in the AI era is not who can use AI, but who can use AI creatively. It's not just about automation - it's about augmentation, and that requires a different mindset."

The Art of Intelligent Change Management

Horizon 2 is where most AI transformations either accelerate or stall. The organizations that succeed treat this phase like conducting a symphony rather than running a sprint. As Brice Challamel, Head of AI at Moderna, puts it: "If you give everyone in your company $50,000 worth of Copilot licenses and tell them to go at it, it's like buying treadmills for everyone in America and expecting heart disease to go down. There is no behavioral change there, and without it, the tools won't get used effectively."

Strategic Accelerators approach Horizon 2 by:

  • Redesigning Jobs, Not Just Automating Tasks: They look at entire workflows and ask how AI can make humans more effective, rather than simply replacing human activities.
  • Investing in New Forms of Training: Traditional classroom training doesn't work for AI skills. They create apprenticeship-style programs where people learn to work with AI through real projects with coaching.
  • Creating New Career Paths: They recognize that AI creates new types of valuable work and build career progression around AI-human collaboration skills.

Horizon 3: Systemic Business Model Innovation (24+ months)

Prioritizing Intentionality with Strategic Speed

The third horizon involves fundamental business model transformation and addresses systemic societal implications. Here, the balance tips back toward intentionality as organizations grapple with unprecedented questions about value creation, competition, and social responsibility: issues that extend Bainbridge's concerns from operational to civilizational levels.

Marc Benioff, Founder of Salesforce, describes the scope of this transformation: "We are moving into an age of abundance where companies that were labor-constrained can do things and add new products, even go into new geographies, without the kind of traditional labor expansion that's historically been needed. This is very different than any conversation ever had about technology."

Key Characteristics of Horizon 3:

  • Business model innovation and new market creation
  • Ecosystem-wide transformation
  • Regulatory and societal adaptation
  • Long-term competitive positioning

Rethinking Value Creation from First Principles

The strategic question shifts from "How do we implement AI?" to "How do we create value in an AI-abundant world?" Juliet Bailin, Partner at General Catalyst, frames the opportunity: "If you're thinking about building a business, ask yourself: 'If I could reinvent how my role is done from first principles today, how would I do it?' That's where new companies will get built - not by automating the same 10 tasks but by rethinking the workflow entirely."

In Horizon 3, Strategic Accelerators don't just use AI to do existing things better; they use AI capabilities to do entirely new things. They might discover that AI allows them to serve market segments that were previously uneconomical, or to create products that were previously impossible.

However, Horizon 3 also raises profound questions about equity and social impact that extend Bainbridge's automation concerns to societal scale. Brian Merchant, Author of "Blood in the Machine," challenges leaders: "We should be ingenious enough to invent ways for everybody to benefit from these technologies. If we're just making some people more productive and others redundant, then we're missing the point of progress."

The Long View: Building for Human Flourishing

Organizations that reach Horizon 3 successfully are those that maintained human competency and engagement throughout Horizons 1 and 2. They've built what Bainbridge would recognize as truly effective human-machine systems: not just efficient, but resilient, adaptable, and aligned with human values.

These organizations don't see AI as replacing human intelligence but as amplifying human creativity, judgment, and problem-solving capability. They've learned to navigate the fundamental tension Bainbridge identified: as systems become more capable, human oversight becomes more crucial, not less.

Integrating the Three Horizons: Lessons from the Field

The most successful AI transformations don't move through these horizons sequentially; they overlap and reinforce each other. While launching Horizon 1 pilots, Strategic Accelerators are already thinking about Horizon 2 workforce implications. While scaling Horizon 2 transformations, they're exploring Horizon 3 business model innovations.

The key insight is that each horizon requires a different balance of speed and intentionality:

  • Horizon 1: Speed with guardrails
  • Horizon 2: Balance and care
  • Horizon 3: Intentionality with strategic speed

But throughout all three horizons, these organizations maintain what Bainbridge identified as the essential requirement for effective automation: human competency, engagement, and the ability to intervene meaningfully when systems encounter the unexpected.

In Part 3 of this series, we'll explore the AI Accountability Stack: the governance framework that Strategic Accelerators use to maintain responsible oversight across all three horizons, from individual accountability through organizational governance to societal impact.

Coming Next: "The AI Accountability Stack: How to Govern What You Can't Fully Control"

This is Part 2 of a three-part series on mastering the AI Leadership Paradox. Part 1 explored the four archetypes of AI leadership. Part 3 will detail the accountability frameworks needed for responsible AI governance.