Autonomous

A compelling roadmap to building an autonomous business, best positioned to win, using digital labor powered by Agentic and physical AI An autonomous business is designed to be AI-first in its strategies and operations to maximize value and minimize time to value, and when it is done right it will unlock unprecedented speed, scale and shared success. But getting from one-off AI implementations - where most companies are at today - to autonomy will be neither easy nor obvious. Business leaders will need to challenge all the conventions, standard operating procedures and orthodoxies underpinning businesses designed by humans for humans – which is to say just about all of them! They will need to build digital labor to non-linearly scale the health, conditioning and talent of their teams, business and ecosystem, enabling 24x7x365 continuity and responsiveness, removing blockages and waste that trap or reduce value. They will need to manage the relationships between the two types of intelligent resources, digital and human. They will need to design for AI control and teach human leaders to “let go of the steering wheel”. The goal of Autonomous is to further expand the Boundless design principles that have guided the fastest growing companies in the world, and to ready business leaders, strategists and designers for success in the AI economy.

Introduction ix Chapter 1 What Is a Fit Company? 1 In an AI- powered economy, the companies that are the fittest (best positioned to win) are Autonomous using digital labor. Chapter 2 Blockages Kill Companies 19 Blockages are the number one cause of death in living organisms and businesses alike. Autonomous companies are living organisms that are immune to blockages. Chapter 3 A New Autonomous Operating Model 43 Autonomous companies have operating models for decision dominance and action at machine speed and scale (mSUDA). Chapter 4 Relational Intelligence for Digital Labor 73 Autonomous companies are hyper- talented, integrating human and digital resources and building deep relational intelligence. Copyrighted Material Chapter 5 AI-First Design and Nonlinearity 103 Adopting An Ai- First Strategy Is the Only Path From Assistive to Autonomous Capabilities, Producing Nonlinear, Exponential Outcomes. ix Chapter 6 Autonomy and Boundless Principles 127 Becoming an Autonomous business requires the seven Boundless principles shaping the mindset and business operating model. Chapter 7 AI Is the New UI 141 Taking our hands off the steering wheel: the road to Autonomous maturity for AI, the company, and its humans requires bold leadership and a new playbook. Chapter 8 Summary of Key Insights 175 This is what defines the world’s most successful companies: Autonomy. Chapter 9 Ten Tenets of Autonomous Businesses 185 These are the 10 key takeaways from this book. Notes 187 Glossary of AI Terms 191 Acknowledgments 197 About the Authors 199 Index 201