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Most business leaders using AI today are achieving results that feel ok to be comfortable – but not strong enough to stay competitive. The gap between these two states is invisible until a competitor makes it clear, and until then it is usually difficult to shut.
This is one in all three related articles designed to bridge the gap between where you’re and where you wish to be. The first provides you with a diagnostic framework to obviously understand your current position and explain why it will be important. In the second step, you will learn easy methods to convert this into an easy system prompt that creates an AI assistant that validates your considering and plans your next steps. The third step goes a step further, with a persistent co-pilot who understands your online business, your stage and your constraints and helps you progress forward without ranging from scratch each time. In the tip, you’re not guessing – you may have a system in place to guide your decisions.
The framework that highlighted this gap to 25 business leaders at a business organization retreat in Burgundy got here from an unexpected place: a 2002 speech by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on intelligence and uncertainty.
Rumsfeld described 4 categories of data: known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns. It’s a straightforward approach to understand what you understand, what you understand, what you do not know, what you already know but have not yet articulated, and what you do not yet realize you are missing.
More than twenty years later, the identical 4 categories fit almost perfectly with how entrepreneurs use AI today. I gave a chat called “The 10 phases of AI implementation for business leaders” on the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Paris Chapter Retreat in Burgundy – 25 founders running corporations with a turnover of greater than 1 million euros, all already using AI in some form. What stood out was not how advanced people were, but how different their understanding actually is.
The most significant quadrant shouldn’t be the one most individuals expect.
Rumsfeld’s model clearly maps onto the adoption of AI and serves as a diagnostic tool – not a metaphor – since the structure of uncertainty is identical whether it’s intelligence or machine learning.
This is the way it breaks down:
Unknown unknowns (unconscious lack of understanding). You use AI on daily basis, get results that feel good, and do not notice what you are missing. This is the comfortable quadrant – and the most costly. Many executives on the retreat were here: they were comfortable with performance that might quickly fall behind in a more competitive environment.
Known unknowns (conscious gaps). You see, there continues to be more to do. You’ve seen higher use cases or a colleague has shown you what is possible. The gap is clear, however the path forward shouldn’t be yet clear.
Known Knowns (structured capability). You have systems in place – repeatable prompts, reliable results, and processes that you possibly can teach to another person. These are the individuals who ask precise questions like, “What’s the next step given where I’m at?”
Unknown knowns (unarticulated expertise). This is essentially the most missed category: the instinctive knowledge you have already got about your online business and decision-making but have not yet formalized. It manifests itself as judgment, pattern recognition and quality instinct built on years of experience.
The last quadrant is a very powerful – and most tools never access it.
Here’s what the Bourgogne session made clear: The real opportunity is not just in learning easy methods to make AI higher. It is extracted in order that the AI may even use it properly.
And there’s a second level that almost all managers miss. They also develop unspoken instincts in regards to the AI itself – what stimulates the work, where models fail, when the outcomes feel bad. This knowledge exists, but isn’t written down or systematized.
The ten stages of AI implementation provide this structure.
Most corporations are somewhere near Level 3. Most consider they’re at Level 5. This gap is not because of ignorance – it is the unknown unknowns in motion: limitations you may’t yet see.
Levels range from easy immediate use to totally adaptive systems that improve over time. Most corporations still view AI as a tool and never a system.
The next step is to alter that.
The practical step is straightforward: create an AI assistant that first properly understands your online business and doesn’t just reply to prompts. An answer to enable you to determine where you’re in these stages, discover gaps, and help sequence your next steps.
In the following part, you will learn exactly easy methods to construct it – using a system prompt, a structured recording, and your personal operational knowledge to make it context-aware from day one.
Because once you may clearly see the structure, the following step is not any longer guesswork.
Most business leaders using AI today are achieving results that feel ok to be comfortable – but not strong enough to stay competitive. The gap between these two states is invisible until a competitor makes it clear, and until then it is usually difficult to shut.
This is one in all three related articles designed to bridge the gap between where you’re and where you wish to be. The first provides you with a diagnostic framework to obviously understand your current position and explain why it will be important. In the second step, you will learn easy methods to convert this into an easy system prompt that creates an AI assistant that validates your considering and plans your next steps. The third step goes a step further, with a persistent co-pilot who understands your online business, your stage and your constraints and helps you progress forward without ranging from scratch each time. In the tip, you’re not guessing – you may have a system to guide your decisions.
The framework that highlighted this gap to 25 business leaders at a business organization retreat in Burgundy got here from an unexpected place: a 2002 speech by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on intelligence and uncertainty.
