Smart Leadership Is Hardwiring AI into How We Work, Create, and Grow

We’re well past the “wait and see” phase with AI. More and more, CEOs aren’t just greenlighting projects, they’re setting a new expectation: if AI can be used to solve a problem, it should be. Artificial intelligence is moving from innovation theatre to foundational infrastructure, and reshaping how companies operate, market, and scale.

This isn’t hype. It’s happening now. And the boldest leaders are treating AI not as an experiment, but as a strategic and cultural reset.

How Forward-Looking CEOs Are Setting the Bar

Let’s start with Shopify. CEO Tobias Lütke didn’t suggest teams explore AI. He made it mandatory. In a sharp internal memo that’s since made waves, he laid down a clear directive: employees must use AI wherever possible, and if they ask for additional resources on projects, they need to explain why AI couldn’t do the job first³.

More than a policy, it’s a signal. Lütke is baking AI into performance reviews and peer feedback. He’s institutionalizing AI literacy across the org, from engineers to marketers. The message? AI isn’t extra credit. It’s table stakes.

Meanwhile, Ajaz Ahmed, former AKQA CEO, didn’t just start a new agency, he built an AI-native one. Studio.One was born to challenge bloated structures and legacy thinking. With embedded AI across strategy, creative, and even brand incubation, it’s a model for what agile, modern agencies might look like when they stop bolting AI onto old ways of working and start building services around it¹ ⁴.

Then there’s Stefan Pletorius, CTO at WPP, who’s leading the charge on WPP Open, a full-stack marketing AI OS that uses what he calls “brand brains” - custom models trained on everything from tone to asset libraries². The goal? Enable marketers to generate campaigns, content, and insights at speed, without losing the thread of brand integrity.

In all these cases, AI isn’t tucked away in a lab. It’s front and centre in how these CEOs plan to lead, scale, and create.

Culture Is the Real Transformation

Here’s what’s really interesting: the most successful AI shifts aren’t just tech upgrades, they’re cultural ones.

At Shopify, mandating AI use is creating a performance culture where experimentation is the norm and efficiency is expected. This isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about raising the bar and automating the repetitive so teams can focus on work that actually moves the business³.

We’re seeing the same shift across industries: AI is becoming less of a “nice-to-have” tool and more of a baseline mindset. The talent expectation is also changing. Leaders want thinkers who can use AI to accelerate strategy, not just automate tasks.

This is especially powerful for brand and marketing teams, where the creative process is often slowed down by logistics, layers, and legacy workflows.

Creative Intelligence: How AI Is Rewiring Marketing

Let’s be honest, marketing has had an operational problem for years. Bottlenecks, bloated review meetings, long timelines, and endless asset variations have slowed teams down and dulled impact. AI is fixing that.

With tools like WPP Open, marketers can generate thousands of content variations in minutes, each aligned with brand standards and personalized for specific segments². This isn’t just speed; it’s scale with precision. Campaigns move faster, risks go down, and creative outcomes get better.

But AI isn’t just streamlining execution, it’s upgrading strategy. These systems can simulate how campaigns will land with real audiences before they go live. That makes strategy more predictive and more effective. Instead of evaluating after launch, teams can optimize up front and improve continuously with feedback from performance data.

Getting Started: How to Build AI Into the Core of Your Business

1. Set a Clear AI Mandate from the Top

Leadership should make AI adoption a performance standard, not a nice-to-have. If you're not in a leadership role, secure executive sponsorship to mandate within your team or department, and report back on outcomes and insights.

2. Bake AI Into Roles, Reviews, and Routines

Make AI proficiency part of job descriptions, onboarding, and performance evaluations. Embed it into everyday workflows, from content creation to decision-making, so it becomes second nature, not a side experiment.

3. Invest in AI Literacy Across the Org

Host regular workshops, internal demos, and team trainings to raise baseline fluency. Help employees understand how to evaluate tools, spot opportunities, and avoid common pitfalls (e.g., bias, overreliance, hallucinations). Empower teams to experiment with small, low-risk pilots.

4. Identify High-ROI, Low-Resistance Use Cases First

Start where AI can deliver clear wins with low friction repetitive tasks, content generation, reporting, customer segmentation. Prove value early to earn trust and unlock bolder applications later.

5. Build AI Into Your Core OS — Don’t Bolt It On

Aim to integrate AI into existing systems in a structured, strategic way. This means centralizing tools, training models on proprietary data (e.g., brand voice, customer history), and enabling cross-functional use versus letting siloed teams use shadow AI tools independently.

6. Rewire Creative and Strategic Workflows

Use AI to eliminate bottlenecks in areas like campaign development, creative testing, or insight generation. Let AI handle the repetitive so humans can double down on high-leverage thinking.

7. Create Feedback Loops to Keep Learning

AI systems improve over time, but only if you feed them the right data. Track how AI-generated outputs perform, and use that to refine models, prompt strategies, and team training. Make optimization part of the loop.

8. Align AI Adoption with Brand Values

As tools like “brand brains” show, AI can help teams scale with consistency if trained on brand voice, principles, and standards. Treat AI as an extension of your brand, not just a utility.

Final Thought: AI as the New Leadership Muscle

Here’s the throughline across all of this: the companies that are making real progress with AI aren’t just experimenting, they’re integrating.

AI isn’t a department, it’s a cross-functional capability. And not just a technical one, a creative, cultural, and competitive one.

This moment isn’t about checking the AI box. It’s about reshaping how we work, how we lead, and how we grow brands that matter.

Footnotes / Sources:

1. Campaign Asia: “Former AKQA boss Ajaz Ahmed launches shop to ‘rival slow, bureaucratic agencies’” (2025)

2. Bloomberg Originals: How AI Could Change the Advertising Business | Quantum Marketing (2025)

3. Forbes: “Viral Shopify CEO Manifesto Says AI Now Mandatory For All Employees” (2025)

4. The Drum: “Why Ajaz Ahmed walked away from WPP to start over with Studio.One” (2025)