Strategy meets AI
What AI can and cannot do today, what it costs, and what earlier digital waves teach about where advantage ends up. You set your company's AI ambition.
Your plan · Chapter 1 ← Back to all services Education
AI Strategies for Leaders
- 3 days
- For Executives
- On site · On campus
A three-day program in which your CEO and executive team build your company's AI strategy together, with your own data, on your own decisions, guided by faculty sessions and coached throughout. It follows the full path from ambition to execution: where AI changes your industry, which bets are worth making, what they cost and return, what to build or buy, and how to organize and govern it. On the third day you present the strategy and its expected return to the people who decide on the investment.
Is this for you?
Who it is for
The CEO and executive team of one company: midsize companies and multinationals that use AI in places but do not yet have a company-wide plan, or have a plan that has not yet delivered measurable results.
Group size
- In-company: your CEO and executive team, typically 6 to 12 leaders; owners, investors or directors can join on the third day
- On campus: your leadership team at Columbia Business School in New York
Prior knowledge
No technical background is needed. The program is about decisions on strategy, money and organization.
Core objectives
- 01Set the ambition. Decide what AI must achieve for your company, and where to defend, extend or reinvent your business.
- 02Find where value moves. Map where AI creates and shifts value across your value chain and industry, including who could use it to enter your market.
- 03Choose and fund the bets. Select a balanced portfolio of AI initiatives, each with an investment case that shows its expected return.
- 04Make the technology choices. Decide what to build, buy or partner on, with a quick prototype of your most important bet in hand.
- 05Organize to scale. Set the decision rights, incentives and team structure that move AI from pilots into daily work.
- 06Commit to measurable results. Tie every initiative to KPIs and its contribution to the P&L, with an 18-month roadmap and a 100-day plan.
Why it matters
Most companies have AI pilots.
Few can show what they add to the P&L. AI Strategies for Leaders helps one leadership team at a time close that gap, inside your own company.
- 9 in 10organizations use AI regularly in at least one business function
- 37%of organizations report at least some impact of AI on their EBIT
- 7.5%of companies are future-built for AI, with 2.4 times the revenue growth of laggards
Source: McKinsey & Company, The state of AI in 2026: On the road to ROI, August 2026 · Boston Consulting Group, AI Is Starting to Pay Off, September 2026
Questions you will answer for your company
- 01Where should AI change our business first?
- 02How much should we invest, and in what stages?
- 03What do we build, buy or partner on?
- 04Who owns AI, and who decides what?
- 05Which rules apply to us, and how do we stay in control?
- 06What return do we expect, and how will we measure it?
Who is in the room
CEO and executive team
The leaders who set strategy and allocate capital, typically 6 to 12 people.
CFO
Owns the investment case and the funding stages.
The executive who will run AI
Often the CIO, CDO or COO, or the head of a business unit.
Owners and decision-makers
The founder, owner, investors or directors can join on the third day to hear the strategy and challenge its return.
How the three days work
From ambition to an investment-ready plan
40%Faculty sessions
60%Work sessions and peer challenge
About 40% of the time is faculty sessions. The other 60% is work on your own plan, with coaching and challenge from peers.
- Before Preparation
A company fact pack, short questionnaires for your HR, legal and technology leaders, and a framing call with the faculty.
- Day 1 Ambition and value
You draft your ambition and map where AI changes your value chain, then sub-teams test each other's thinking.
Chapters 1 and 2 - Day 2 Bets and money
You choose your bets, write the investment case and prototype your top bet. One sub-team acts as the investment committee for another.
Chapters 3 to 5 - Day 3 Organization and results
You design the organization, set governance and KPIs and complete the roadmap, then present the strategy and its expected return to your decision-makers.
Chapters 6 to 9 - After Follow-up
A faculty review of your final plan within 30 days, and a check-in after 90 days on the first measurable results.
The rhythm of every session
Faculty session
Frameworks, evidence and examples, ending in one question for your plan.
Work session
Your team writes the chapter with your own data, with a coach at the table.
Peer challenge
Another sub-team reads your draft and tests it the way an investment committee would.
Six sessions, one plan
Each session starts with a faculty session and continues with work on your own plan.
Day 1Ambition and value Session 1 Session 2
Where AI creates value
How AI reshapes value chains, business models and industry boundaries, and who could use it to enter your market. You map the impact on your own business.
Your plan · Chapter 2 Day 2Bets and money Session 3 Session 4
Choosing the bets
How to score initiatives on value, feasibility, risk and time to value, and why a portfolio needs more than efficiency gains. You select five to seven bets.
Your plan · Chapter 3Funding and technology
Total cost, baselines, value tracking and funding in stages. Build, buy or partner, data foundations and vendor lock-in. You write the investment case.
Your plan · Chapters 4 and 5 Day 3Organization and results Session 5 Session 6
Organization and people
Decision rights between group, business units and countries. Central or federated AI teams. Roles, skills, incentives and trust. You design the organization.
Your plan · Chapter 6Governance and results
Oversight, AI risk appetite and the rules that apply, from the EU AI Act to US state laws. You set the KPIs, complete the roadmap and present your strategy.
Your plan · Chapters 7 to 9 What you take home
Your AI strategy in nine chapters
An investment-ready draft with the expected return of every initiative. You complete six chapters during the program. The other three leave as a structured outline and are finished within 30 days, with a review by the faculty.
- Chapter 1
Ambition
What AI must achieve, and where to defend, extend or reinvent.
- Chapter 2
Value map
Where AI creates and shifts value in your industry and value chain.
- Chapter 3
Portfolio
Five to seven bets, scored on value, feasibility, risk and time.
- Chapter 4
Investment case
Costs, expected returns and funding in stages.
- Chapter 5
Technology
What to build, buy or partner on, and the data you need.
- Chapter 6
Organization
Decision rights, teams, skills and incentives.
- Chapter 7
Governance
Risk appetite, oversight and the rules that apply.
- Chapter 8
Roadmap
Eighteen months of milestones, owners and KPIs.
- Chapter 9
ROI case and first 100 days
Expected P&L impact, how you will measure it, and the first 100 days.
- Completed during the program
- Outlined during the program, finished within 30 days
Also: a quick prototype of your most important bet, a faculty review of your final plan and a check-in after 90 days.
Our approach
Your plan, your data, your results
- 01
Your own plan
Every session ends in work on your company's strategy. The examples and the debate are about your industry, your markets and your numbers.
- 02
Decisions with numbers
Every bet has a cost, an expected return and a funding stage, so its contribution to the P&L is clear from the start.
- 03
Governance from day one
Oversight, risk appetite and the rules that apply to you are part of the plan from the start, so risks are managed before anything is built.
Lead advisor 
Marc De Kuyper
- Founder & CEO, Praexo Group
- Adjunct Professor, Columbia Business School
- Partner, StellarIQ (private equity)
Marc has spent more than two decades as a founder, operator and investor. He brings the view of someone who has had to make AI pay in his own companies, and the discipline of someone who teaches it to executives and boards.
Columbia Business School
Adjunct Professor. Teaches AI strategy in the MBA program and in executive programs.
Technology & AI
16 years as a technology founder and operator, focused on business systems in which AI agents do the work, on commercial excellence and on predictive analytics.
Consumer goods
20 years in the consumer packaged goods sector, from fast-moving consumer goods to alcoholic beverages.
Family business governance
Co-led ABN AMRO's Family Business Center. Guest lecturer at INSEAD, Harvard Business School, Kennesaw State University, the University of British Columbia and Columbia Business School.
Coaching in every work session. Praexo coaches work with your sub-teams during every work session, so the plan keeps moving between faculty sessions.
Everything you share stays confidential and is used only for your program. Program content and faculty may change.
What comes next
3 days
AI Strategies for Leaders
An investment-ready AI strategy in nine chapters, with the expected return of every initiative, an 18-month roadmap and a plan for the first 100 days.