By Garth Andrus, Andersen
While organizations rush to implement AI best practices, leading companies are already moving beyond them. Why? Because in today’s AI landscape, where breakthrough capabilities emerge in hours, days and weeks, not months and years, focusing solely on best practices means you’re already behind.
What are Next Practices?
- They’re transformative strategies that shape future markets while others are still trying to compete in today’s market
- They focus on not only optimizing existing operations and business models but simultaneously exploring how AI could make them obsolete
- They demand teams excel at both delivering today while inventing tomorrow
Real-World Impact: Next Practices in Action
- Eli Lilly continues to revolutionize pharmaceutical innovation by reimagining AI as a strategic partner in drug discovery—using AI-powered digital twins and analyzing vast arrays of patient genomics, treatment responses, and real-world outcomes. This Next Practices approach has driven unprecedented growth, propelling them to become the industry’s market leader
- JP Morgan Chase continues to transform banking by creating an AI-augmented financial ecosystem—blending machine learning with human expertise and forging strategic partnerships with fintech innovators to co-create new solutions. This has
significantly improved operational efficiency while driving higher customer satisfaction across digital channels
- LEGO continues to redefine innovation through ecosystem orchestration, leveraging their global network of customers, designers, educators, and enthusiasts to drive innovation. Their Ideas platform and community engagement approach has accelerated product development and expanded their market reach into new categories
The Path Forward: Embedding Next Practices into Your Organization
- Transform Leadership Mindset
- Shift from “What can AI do?” to “How can AI redefine what’s possible?” • Turn risk intelligence into opportunity creation
- Drive perpetual transformation, not periodic change
- Reinvent How Work Happens
- Build fluid teams that dynamically form around opportunities
- Implement real-time learning and adaptive workflows
- Think beyond the enterprise—activate ecosystems and networks
- Redefine Talent Development
- Equip teams with the ability to continuously innovate
- Make ‘learning velocity’ a core competency
- Design a workforce strategy that includes both AI agents and human talent
The Path Forward:
To embed Next Practices into your organization’s DNA, consider these bold moves:
- Reverse Your Value Chain: Partner with AI to spot future patterns—create solutions for customer needs and opportunities not yet realized
- Collapse Time Horizons: Intentionally plan times for your ‘current operations’ and ‘future innovation’ teams to work together—each group should be on the path to build the muscle to operate in both timeframes simultaneously
- Transform Uncertainty: Turn unpredictability into advantage by building sensing networks that spot opportunities and emerging shifts before competitors
- Engineer Innovation Multipliers: Design environments where AI systems, human teams, and external partners exponentially enhance each other’s capabilities
The message is clear: Organizations that merely implement today’s AI best practices risk becoming tomorrow’s case studies of unfulfilled potential. The winners won’t be those who master today’s game—but those who are creating tomorrow’s game entirely.
Are you ready to move beyond best practices? Let’s discuss how your company can embed Next Practices into its DNA—contact me to start the conversation.
garth.andrus@andersenconsulting.com
Garth Andrus leads Digital/AI, Organizational, and Talent Transformation at Andersen Consulting. A former Deloitte Board Member, Founding Member of Deloitte Digital, and Consulting Practice Leader. He specializes in reshaping companies’ DNA to maximize the impact of AI and digital technologies.