As companies around the world race to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), strategy expert Shotunde Taiwo urges business leaders to look beyond the hype and focus on aligning technology with clear strategic goals.

Taiwo, a finance and strategy professional, cautions that while AI offers transformative potential, it is not a guaranteed path to success. Without a coherent strategy, organisations risk misdirecting resources, entrenching inefficiencies, and failing to deliver meaningful value from their AI investments.

“AI cannot substitute for strategic clarity,” she explains, stressing the importance of purposeful direction before deploying advanced digital tools. Business leaders, she says, must first define their objectives, only then can AI act as an effective enabler rather than an expensive distraction.

Taiwo stated that many organisations are investing heavily in AI labs, data infrastructure, and talent acquisition without clearly defined business outcomes. This approach, she notes, risks undermining the very efficiencies these technologies are meant to create.

For example, a retail business lacking a distinctive value proposition cannot expect a recommendation engine to deliver meaningful differentiation. Similarly, manufacturers without well-structured pricing strategies will find limited benefit in predictive analytics. “AI amplifies what’s already there,” she adds. “It rewards businesses with strong foundations and exposes those without.”

According to Taiwo, the true value of AI emerges when it is guided by intelligent, strategic intent. High-performing organisations use AI to solve well-defined problems aligned with commercial goals, often framed by business analysts or strategic leaders who understand both operational realities and broader business priorities.

She cites Amazon’s recommendation engine and UPS’s route optimisation algorithms as models of effective AI deployment. In both cases, technology served a clear purpose: boosting customer retention and streamlining logistics, respectively. When guided by strategy, AI becomes a force multiplier, enhancing forecasting, enabling automation, and improving personalisation where workflows are already well-defined.

On the other hand, even the most advanced AI systems falter in the absence of sound strategy. Common pitfalls include deploying machine learning models without a business case, focusing on tools rather than problems, collecting data without a clear use, and optimising narrow metrics at the expense of enterprise-wide goals. These missteps often result in underwhelming pilots and disillusioned stakeholders, issues strategic professionals are well-equipped to navigate and avoid.

In this sense, AI adoption can serve as a strategic diagnostic. Taiwo suggests that when business leaders struggle to define impactful AI use cases, it often reflects deeper ambiguity in their organisational direction. Key questions, such as where value is created, who the primary customer is, or which decisions would benefit most from improved speed or accuracy, are not technical, but fundamentally strategic.

AI, she says, acts as a mirror, revealing strengths and weaknesses in how a business is positioned, differentiated, and aligned across functions. Strategic leaders and business analysts are uniquely positioned to interpret these insights, inform course corrections, and guide effective technology investments.

Looking ahead, Taiwo argues that strategy in the AI era must be data-literate, agile, ethically grounded, and above all, human-centred. Leaders must understand what data they have, and how it can be harnessed, without needing to become technologists themselves.

Organisations must be nimble enough to act on AI-driven insights, whether through supply chain reconfiguration or dynamic pricing. Ethics, too, are critical, especially as AI increasingly impacts areas such as hiring, lending, and content moderation. “AI is not a replacement for strategy – it is a reflection of it,” she said.

In organisations with clarity and discipline, AI can unlock significant value. In those without, it risks adding cost and complexity. The responsibility for today’s leaders is to ensure that technology serves the business, not the other way around.

VMPL

New Delhi [India], July 11: MLAI Digital, the rapidly growing deep tech startup in the Agentic AI space, has leveraged its strategic footprint and product innovation by announcing this appointment of Devender Bansal as CEO (APAC and EMEA).

Devender is a technology leader with more than 2.5 decades in enterprise transformation. Prior to this, he was in charge of driving technology sales for Microsoft’s Cloud and AI business in corporate accounts across India and Southeast Asia, forging partnerships with CXOs, expanding technical teams and capturing market share across major verticals.

“MLAI Digital’s bold vision for Agentic AI, paired with the hustle and agility of a startup, really struck a chord with me,” said Devender. “We’re building something that doesn’t just automate work — it reimagines how intelligence is orchestrated across the enterprise.”

As CEO & Co-founder for APAC and EMEA, Devender will lead MLAI’s global expansion across these regions, focusing on product scaling, strategic alliances, and vertical-specific AI deployment. His goal? To build a global Agentic AI brand – a new category of intelligent systems designed to reason, act, and evolve autonomously.

The firm’s leadership in the BFSI, & strong presence in manufacturing and logistics sectors have started seeing early success for the global venture, with solutions like real-time fraud detection & predictive asset maintenance.

“We’re thrilled to have Devender onboard,” said Arpit Gupta, CTO & Founder, MLAI Digital. “His strategic mindset, deep tech acumen, and experience scaling businesses will be invaluable as we take MLAI Digital to new markets.”

Devender is equally excited about the team he’s joining. “MLAI team is one of the smartest & agile set of people to interact with,” he shared. “They’re not just building AI, they’re building it right, with purpose, ethics, and a forward-looking mindset.”

With this leadership addition, MLAI Digital is accelerating growth plans. The entity will focus on innovation concern, partnerships, and making real-world impact.

“Together, we’ll harness Agentic AI to redefine industries and position MLAI Digital as an innovation leader,” Devender added.

Media Contact:

MLAI Digital Private Limited

Email: headit@mlaitech.io

Website: www.mlaidigital.com

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There will be no immediate changes to cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas), the BBC understands.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was widely expected to announce plans to reduce the £20,000 tax-free allowance.

The move was aimed at encouraging more investment in stocks and shares, which the goverment says it will still focus on.

“Our ambition is to ensure people’s hard-earned savings are delivering the best returns and driving more investment into the UK economy,” a Treasury spokesperson said.

The Treasury is expected to continue to talk to banks, building societies and investment firms about options for reform.

An Isa is a savings or investment product that is treated differently for tax purposes.

Any returns you make from an Isa are tax-free, but there is a limit to how much money you can put in each year.

The current £20,000 annual allowance can be used in one account or spread across multiple Isa products as you wish.