The short answer is no. However, there are numerous aspects of strategists' work where AI and advanced analytics tools can already bring enormous value. Yuval Atsmon is a senior partner who leads the new McKinsey Center for Strategy Innovation, which studies ways new technologies can augment the timeless principles of strategy. In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, he explains how artificial intelligence is already transforming strategy and what's on the horizon. This is an edited transcript of the discussion. For more conversations on the strategy issues that matter, follow the series on your preferred podcast platform.

Dr. Altman's research focuses on strategy, innovation, platforms, ecosystems, and the future of work. Her work has been published in Harvard Business Review (HBR), MIT Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Annals, Advances in Strategic Management, Journal of Management Studies, and elsewhere. She was shortlisted for the "2021 Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award for Breakthrough Idea" for research on ecosystems in businesses and organizations. Her 2017 HBR article on product-to-platform transitions has been honored with inclusion in three books in the "HBR 10 Must Reads" series. Before academia, Altman was a vice president at Motorola.

The accessibility of sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, enabled by the high-performance capabilities of cloud-based data centres, mean insurers can more readily embrace a culture of innovation when it comes to their traditional approaches to business processes. Of course, the rising number of insurtechs, and evolving customer demands, have contributed to the creation of a disruptive environment that can capitalise on digitally driven solutions. Whether through partnering with insurtechs or looking at more effective ways of modernising their existing processes and systems, insurers are well-positioned to capitalise on global changes in the industry that have been accelerated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. AI and ML introduce a level of automation in data analysis and the decision process that was not possible before. It is especially in underwriting, claim decisioning and product development that these technologies prove to be invaluable.

Strategy Development has followed a set path since the last century where a predetermined, rectilinear, and inflexible approach defined the process. In the 21st century, however, business leaders are devising Strategy by evolving it into a probabilistic, repeated, and multifaceted process. An approach that can both endure and adapt to the growing pace of Change and Disruption that is manifesting itself in all industries. Using gaming, AI, unremitting execution, and adjustment, with numerous scenarios to deliberate on, leaders create "Flywheels" that successfully tackle the not so deterministic world where the future is highly uncertain. Flywheel is a concept originally used in the power industry to explain an origin of stabilization, energy storage, and momentum.

Digital technology adoption appeared to be optional for decades in many industries, but no more. In fact, if your job does not require a substantial amount of creativity, deriving complex conclusions or physically moving things, you have every reason to check your back. So, what is different today? A number of factors come together to accelerate the current situation from slower evolutionary speed to faster revolutionary velocity. While in the first technical transition from analogue signal transmission to digital, the digitization, distance or reproduction did not mean a degradation in quality any longer. Digital telephone lines, music CDs or slower data transfers allowed the dissemination of information over long distances or without a decrease in quality.

Maxime Fages Maxime's career spanned across the strategic aspects of value and risk, with a particular focus on trading behaviors and market microstructure over the past few years. He embraced a quantitative angle in M&A, fund management or currently corporate strategy and has always been an avid open-source software user. Derek began his career on the floor of the CBOT then moved upstairs to focus on proprietary trading and strategy development. He manages global multi strategy portfolios, focusing in the futures and options space. He is currently the Deputy Director of Systematic Trading at Foretrade Investment Co Ltd.