Post By: Panu Kause

I’ve often argued that the first step towards foresight work is simply to start talking about your future. Also I think such conversations can no longer be left to a handful of specialists hidden away in strategy units or innovation labs.

The arrival of AI in strategic foresight has ushered in a wave of excitement, and for good reason. Tasks that once took weeks can now be done in hours. Horizon scans are automated, trends are clustered, and foresight radars practically build themselves. For teams struggling with time, bandwidth, and data overload, the appeal is obvious.

Working side-by-side with AI is not a novel concept in foresight.  Tech-savvy scouting teams have sought these technologies for a while now, and welcomed the improvements they bring to their existing processes, like scouting and sense-making.

I've lately been in so many discussions related to futures intelligence and foresight processes that I've lost count. Many of them have focused on the fundamentals: the very purpose of foresight work to begin with.

Strategy and related concepts are hard to define, even if the topic has been discussed for decades. Whatever the terminology, every organization should be serious about its understanding of the future.

I've often argued that the first step towards foresight work is starting to talk about your future, what to expect, and how to be prepared. Now we are looking into foresight buy-in and how to get started with that. I'm pretty sure you'll get the management team's attention.

This blog is based on a survey we ran on foresight best practices. To no surprise, people on average are somewhat satisfied with the practices on foresight and futures work in their own organization. As in any many statistics, averages are not great indicators of... well, anything.

One of the most common questions we hear from foresight managers looking to develop foresight in their company is the following: How do I involve more people in our foresight work?

Where is strategic management headed? I have shared my views about the past, present, and future of strategic management in dozens of presentations, hundreds of discussions, numerous investment negotiations, and more.