The AI Multiplier: How Leadership Choices Shape Long-Term Impact

It's difficult to overestimate AI's impact on businesses. As promising pilots evolve into opportunities to scale, organizations are making major investments in the technology. According to Gartner, worldwide spending on AI will reach $2.52 trillion this year – a 44% increase year on year. (*1).
Yet this rapid accleration is also leaving many organizations reeling. Fujitsu's own research shows that 82% of business leaders say that AI's rapid advances has been a reality check for them. (*2).
As AI becomes part of the plumbing of business, it starts to shape how decisions are made, how supply chains function, how services are delivered, and how risk is managed. At the same time, leaders and practitioners are recognising the added complexity this brings.
This presents a dual challenge. AI offers significant opportunity for productivity, innovation and cost discipline. But it also operates as what might be described as a system-level technology: its effects extend beyond a single function or balance sheet line. Decisions about AI deployment can influence energy consumption, data governance, workforce design, supply chain resilience and public trust.
For business leaders, the question is no longer simply whether to adopt AI. It is how to adopt it in ways that create enduring value.

This is where Paul Polman, co-author of Net Positive, offers a useful perspective. Throughout his tenure as CEO of Unilever, Polman argued that long-term performance and societal contribution are not competing priorities.
In the context of AI, that philosophy becomes newly relevant. Technology amplifies intent, and as technology becomes more powerful, so the quality of leadership intent matters more.
“Companies that serve the world best will ultimately be the most successful.”
— Paul Polman

For many organisations, AI offers attractive short-term gains in the form of increased efficiency and productivity. It is natural to pursue these. However, the rush to deploy can be counter productive if the organisation takes a short-term view.
Organisations drive success from their relevance to their stakeholders – which can include employees and wider society, as well as shareholders and customers. The Net Positive mindset asks: is the world better off with your organisation in it?
This is a useful lens to look through when considering AI, to achieve the greatest returns from the technology. For example,

For leaders seeking to apply Net Positive principles to AI strategy, here are five practical steps: