Why You Should Use AI to Prepare Your 2027 Business Strategy

Why You Should Use AI to Prepare Your 2027 Business Strategy Q4 is when many executive teams start asking how this year went and what next year should look like. In this episode of The Inspire Podcast, Jason Diamond Arnold sits down with Chris Wollerman, CEO and co-founder of Inspire Software, to discuss why AI belongs in your 2027 strategy work and how to put it to use starting now rather than in January. QUICK ANSWER: HOW DO YOU USE AI TO PREPARE NEXT YEAR'S STRATEGY? Start in the fourth quarter and gather insight before the planning offsite. Chris's sequence: 1. Feed AI what you already have: business review transcripts, slides, and goal data, then ask it to interview and challenge you rather than just produce an output. 2. Draft SWOT questions with AI in October, survey your staff, and have results by mid-November. 3. Look at performance and culture: check-ins, one-on-ones, engagement, and pulse data. 4. Audit your work processes and playbooks for bottlenecks that AI can help remove. 5. Add competitive analysis and customer conversations, then set specific objectives for getting real return on AI. QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS • Where should an executive team start with 2027 strategic planning? • How do you use AI as a thinking partner for strategy? • How does people performance connect to strategy execution? • What should the Q4 timeline for strategic planning look like? • Why do so many companies struggle to get value from AI? • When does outside coaching help, and when can you do it internally? WHO THIS VIDEO IS FOR CEOs, owners, and executive teams at small and mid-sized businesses getting ready for next year's plan, plus the strategy, operations, and people leaders who carry it out. CHAPTERS 0:00 Highlights: AI and your 2027 strategy 0:48 Welcome and why now 2:29 Use Q4 to start your 2027 planning 4:29 Where AI fits: feed it your business reviews 6:28 Connect people performance to strategy 10:08 Audit your work processes with AI 13:13 Your Q4 timeline, starting with a SWOT 16:26 Engagement, competitors and customers 18:04 Getting real ROI from AI 18:47 Spread insight gathering across the year 21:02 Why outside coaching helps 22:45 Wrap-up and how to get help ABOUT INSPIRE SOFTWARE Inspire connects strategy to the OKRs, performance, recognition, leadership development, planning, and task management that carry it out, in one platform, with coaching from the Inspire team. Book a demo: https://inspiresoftware.com/about-us/... Talk to our AI coaching team: https://inspiresoftware.com/about-ai-... What leaders say on G2: https://www.g2.com/products/inspire-s... Subscribe to The Inspire Podcast and tell us in the comments what you want Chris to cover next. #StrategicPlanning #AIforBusiness #BusinessStrategy #2027Strategy #StrategyExecution #OKRs #SWOTAnalysis #ExecutiveLeadership #CEO #BusinessOwners #PerformanceManagement #EmployeeEngagement #AIStrategy #InspireSoftware #InspirePodcast