AI Strategy & Leadership
Speed Wins
A field guide for leading in a world where everyone can afford intelligence, so the advantage goes to whoever puts it to work fastest.
Michael Wahl · Written from inside an enterprise AI transformation. No PhD, no Silicon Valley pedigree.
The idea
It has happened before. Just never this fast.
Steel, then cloud, then AI: each time something expensive became cheap, the winners were the people who put it to work first. Same drop, shorter fuse.
“What took decades with steel and years with cloud is happening in months with AI.”
“…the biggest advantage in the age of AI isn't technical expertise. It's the willingness to move.”
What to do on Monday
The 90-day engineering AI rollout
From Appendix A. Twelve weeks, three phases, one rule: start small and prove it before you scale.
Weeks 1–4
Prove This Works in Your Environment
One workflow, a 2–3 person AI pod, light measurement, weekly review.
Weeks 5–8
Turn Wins Into a System
Shared prompts and templates, AI in Jira, GitHub and CI/CD, guardrails, business impact.
Weeks 9–12
Scale Across the Org
More teams, a light shared AI layer, a feedback loop, results to leadership.
“Start with one workflow. Prove it works. Then scale.”
Inside the book
- Introduction: I Didn't Start as an AI Guy
- 1. When Compute Became Steel
- 2. The Moment Everything Changed
- 3. Speed to Insights
- 4. Speed of Execution
- 5. When Everyone Can Afford Intelligence
- 6. The Playbook
- 7. The Traps and What Comes Next
- Epilogue + Appendix A: The 90-Day Engineering AI Rollout Plan
“Speed is where the advantage lives, and hesitation is the quiet killer of AI programs.”
About the author
Michael Wahl is VP of Software Engineering & AI Enablement. He went from near-zero AI experience to leading applied AI strategy at an established company, and wrote this book from inside that work. Full background →
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