---
id: "contrarian-focus-on-usefulness-not-intelligence"
type: "contrarian-insight"
source_timestamps: ["¶1", "§ Applying the Framework"]
tags: ["contrarian-insight", "mindset", "strategy"]
related: ["claim-waiting-is-dangerous", "framework-gen-ai-deployment"]
challenges: "The belief that organizations should wait for AGI or highly reliable agentic AI before deploying it at scale."
speakers: ["Bharat N. Anand", "Andy Wu"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/11/the-gen-ai-playbook-for-organizations"
source_title: "The Gen AI Playbook for Organizations"
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-cl-87-genai-playbook-orgs"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/11/the-gen-ai-playbook-for-organizations"
sourceTitle: "The Gen AI Playbook for Organizations"
---
# Focus on usefulness today, not the trajectory of AI intelligence

**Contrarian insight.** Conventional executive thinking obsesses over *when* gen AI will match human intelligence, *how fast* it is improving, and its *hallucination rates*. The authors argue this focus is **misdirected**. Leaders should largely ignore the trajectory of AI intelligence and instead ask how the organization can use it effectively **today** — regardless of current limitations — by focusing on tasks where the [[concept-cost-of-errors|cost of errors]] is low.

**What it challenges.** The belief that organizations should wait for AGI or highly reliable *agentic* AI before deploying at scale. It is the mindset engine behind [[claim-waiting-is-dangerous|the claim that waiting is dangerous]] and behind starting in the [[concept-no-regrets-zone|No Regrets Zone]]; operationally it is executed via the [[framework-gen-ai-deployment|deployment framework]].