Business
Why AI alone can’t guarantee business success, expert cautions
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.
Business
‘AI racism’: Company faces criticism over AI-generated job seeker videos
The videos seem realistic, but a CBC investigation revealed that they were AI-generated, created by online hiring and recruiting firm Nexa, an AI company that develops software other companies can use to recruit new hires.
“I’ll be honest, we do that for fun,” says Divy Nayyar, Nexa’s founder and CEO, according to the report. “You know, some of the videos went extremely viral.”
Nayyar described the videos as a “subconscious placement” of advertising, saying the company created the “Josh” persona as a way of connecting with young people just out of school who are looking for work.
Canadian employers appear to be showing increased interest in conducting job interviews using AI technology, according to a previous report.
‘AI racism’
However, Nexa’s campaign is highly problematic, according to experts.
Business
New government code of practice aims to stop unfair parking charges
BBC News, East Midlands
The government has launched a consultation on a new code to stop people being “unfairly penalised” by private car park operators.
It follows concerns raised by drivers including Rosey Hudson, who was asked to pay £1,906 for taking more than five minutes to pay in a car park in Derby.
The government said the new Private Parking Code of Practice “aims to create a fairer, more transparent private parking system”.
The British Parking Association, one of two trade associations that oversees the industry, has said it will work closely with the government throughout the consultation.
Local growth minister and Nottingham North and Kimberley MP Alex Norris said: “From shopping on your local high street to visiting a loved one in hospital, parking is part of everyday life. But too many people are being unfairly penalised.
“That’s why our code will tackle misleading tactics and confusing processes, bringing vital oversight and transparency to raise standards across the board.”
The previous government published a code of practice in February 2022 and it was due to come into effect by the end of 2023.
However, it was withdrawn following legal challenges launched by several parking firms.
This meant the private parking sector has been left to regulate itself, through two accredited trade associations called the British Parking Association (BPA) and International Parking Community (IPC).
Car park operators, which are members of these associations, can obtain drivers’ names and addresses from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and issue parking charge notices (PCNs) for allegedly breaching terms and conditions.
This has led to drivers being asked to pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds for infringements such as taking too long to pay, or keying in their vehicle registration plates incorrectly.
The government said its new measures would prevent charges caused by issues such as payment machine errors, accidental typos, or poor mobile signal.
However, the AA believes the government’s proposals do not go far enough.
Jack Cousens, head of roads policy, said: “This long-awaited consultation will not please drivers and suggests that government is bending the knee to the private parking industry.”
His concerns include a £100 cap on parking charges, which is higher than the £50 previously proposed.
“We urge all drivers to complete the consultation and submit their views and experiences when dealing with private parking firms,” he said.
Statistics published by the DVLA suggest private car park operators are issuing more PCNs than ever before.
They paid the DVLA for 12.8 million keeper details in the last financial year, which is a 673% increase since 2012.
“While this partly reflects more parking spaces, the current system lacks independent oversight and sufficient transparency,” the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said.
“At present, operators can avoid sanctions for poor practice, leaving motorists vulnerable to unfair or incorrect charges. The new compliance framework will ensure accountability.”
Under the proposals, operators that breach the code may stop being able to get drivers’ details from the DVLA.
The eight-week consultation is due to close on 5 September and people can give their views online.
The BPA said it would work closely with the government throughout the consultation, but said the new code must allow for “proper enforcement”.
“Without proper enforcement, parking quickly becomes a free-for-all, with some people taking advantage at the expense of others,” it said in a statement.
“When spaces are misused, it’s often at the expense of those who need them most, such as disabled people, parents with young children and local residents.
“We believe parking systems must strike a balance: they should deter selfish and anti-social behaviour, but they must also be fair, proportionate, and transparent.”
Business
National Trust to cut 550 jobs after Budget pushes up costs
The National Trust has announced plans to cut 6% of its current workforce, about 550 jobs, partly blaming an inflated pay bill and tax rises introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The heritage and conservation charity said it was under “sustained cost pressures beyond our control”.
These include the increase in National Insurance contributions by employers and the National Living Wage rise from April, which the National Trust said had driven up wage costs by more than £10m a year.
The cost-cutting measures are part of a plan to find £26m worth of savings.
“Although demand and support for our work are growing with yearly increases in visitors and donations; increasing costs are outstripping this growth,” the charity said in a statement.
“Pay is the biggest part of our costs, and the recent employer’s National Insurance increase and National Living Wage rise added more than £10m to our annual wage bill.”
A 45-day consultation period with staff began on Thursday and the Trust – which currently has about 9,500 employees – said it was working with the Prospect union “to minimise compulsory redundancies”.
Prospect said though cost pressures were partly to blame, “management decisions” also contributed to the Trust’s financial woes.
The union’s deputy general secretary, Steve Thomas, said “once again it is our member who will have to pay the price”.
“Our members are custodians of the country’s cultural, historic and natural heritage – cuts of this scale risk losing institutional knowledge and skills which are vital to that mission,” he said.
The Trust is running a voluntary redundancy scheme, and is expecting that to significantly reduce compulsory redundancies, a spokeswoman said.
The job cuts will affect all staff from management down, and everyone whose job is at risk will be offered a suitable alternative where available, the spokeswoman added.
Following consultations, which will finish in mid-to-late August, the cuts will be made in the autumn.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the rise in National Insurance contributions by employers in last October’s Budget.
But the move led to strong criticism from many firms, with retailers warning that High Street job losses would be “inevitable” when coupled with other cost increases.
The hike in employer NICs is forecast to raise £25bn in revenues by the end of the parliament.
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