Artificial Intelligence is quickly becoming embedded in almost every enterprise platform. Whether it is ERP, CRM, finance, engineering or industry specific software, every vendor is racing to make AI central to its product.

That is creating an important strategic question....

Is your AI strategy being shaped by your business, or by the software vendors you use?

There is no right or wrong answer.

For organisations committed to a single technology ecosystem, embracing that vendor's AI may be exactly the right decision. The benefits of integration, simplicity and speed can be compelling.

The question is what happens over the next five or ten years.

Technology has never evolved at the pace it is today. New models, new capabilities and entirely new ways of working are emerging every few months. In that environment, should an organisation's ability to adopt the next innovation depend on the roadmap of a single technology provider?

For me, the discussion is less about AI and more about strategic optionality.

Over the past twenty years, organisations have worked hard to avoid being locked into infrastructure, cloud providers and proprietary data formats. As AI becomes embedded in enterprise software, we should ask whether the same thinking applies to business intelligence itself.

Where should your operational knowledge live?

Who should own your business logic?

How portable are the AI capabilities you are building today?

If you decided to change a core platform in five years' time, would your AI strategy move with you, or would you have to start again?

These are not technology questions. They are business questions.

Competitive advantage rarely comes from the software itself. It comes from the way an organisation operates, the decisions it makes and the expertise it develops over time.

Technology will continue to change. Vendors will innovate. New platforms will emerge.

The organisations that remain adaptable will be those that ensure their AI strategy serves their business strategy, not the other way around.

That, in my view, is the conversation Boards and Senior Leaders should be having today.