Is AI FOMO Killing Your Strategy?

IBM’s latest CEO survey reveals nearly two-thirds of leaders have funded AI projects before understanding their value. That’s not strategy, it’s survival mode.

We’ve seen this herd instinct before. Think back to the early DEI boom, companies built DEI teams, launched campaigns, and made bold pledges… but too often without integrating DEI into measurable, strategic business goals. Now, many of those efforts are being questioned or rolled back (WSJ, McKinsey).

McKinsey warns we’re repeating history with AI: only 25% of projects are delivering ROI. The rest? Expensive souvenirs of panic-driven investments, not strategic clarity.

And the pattern is easy to spot, it’s a rush of generative AI pilots, ballooning budgets for shiny tools, and companies making big declarations, “We’re AI progressive”, without clear outcomes or accountability.

The FOMO Trap: Why Everyone’s Chasing GenAI

Generative AI has become the shiny object du jour. It’s flashy, immediate, and clickable. Investors want updates. Boards want proof of “being digital”. Competitors are posting showy demos. So, executives buy into content libraries, assistants, and AI pilot programs fast.

Accenture (2025) reports that nearly two-thirds of CEOs are investing in AI just to keep pace with competitors, not because of alignment with strategy.
McKinsey (2024) reveals only 25% of AI initiatives deliver measurable ROI.
Gartner (2025) predicts agentic AI, AI acting autonomously, will perform 20% of workplace tasks by 2026. Yet only 4% of executive teams are preparing for it.

That mismatch between the glitter of GenAI and what businesses truly need is the cost of AI FOMO.

GenAI does not equal AI Strategy

Here’s how to think clearly about AI types:

Generative AI - Creates content, text, images, code. Great for efficiency.
Predictive AI - Forecasts outcomes, attrition, churn, demand. Essential for foresight.
Decision AI - Recommends actions, resource allocation, next steps. Vital for precision.
Agentic AI - Executes workflows autonomously, task orchestration, recruitment outreach, project coordination. Scales impact swiftly.

If your AI strategy is 90% generative pilots, you don’t have strategy, you have a subscription service. You’re outsourcing innovation to algorithms instead of building capability.

Responsibility in the Age of Algorithms →

The Portfolio Approach: Fix Your AI Strategy

Smart leaders think of AI like any other strategic investment they build a balanced portfolio:

GenAI brings efficiency.
Predictive AI brings foresight.
Decision AI brings precision.
Agentic AI brings autonomy and scale.

No savvy leaders invest their entire company into a fad. So why treat AI differently?

Tools to Try This Week (Mix of Free & Enterprise)

Experiment smart. Try one tool from each category:

Category	Tool	Pricing	What it does	Why it’s useful
Generative AI	Perplexity AI	Free / Paid	Research assistant with source-backed answers	Fast, trustworthy intel when you need to move quickly
	Gamma	Free / Paid	One-click slide deck builder	Turn ideas or strategy into polished decks instantly
Predictive AI	ObviouslyAI	Free trial	No-code predictive analytics	Forecast outcomes without needing a data science team
	Pecan AI	Enterprise	Predictive models for churn, revenue, and more	Enterprise-grade insights with minimal friction
Decision Intelligence	Akkio	Free trial	AI-driven decision-making for operations & marketing	Speedy adoption and quick wins
	Tellius	Enterprise	End-to-end decision intelligence platform	Data → insight → action in one flow
Agentic AI (Multi-Agent Systems)	AutoGen	Open-source / Free	Multi-agent collaboration framework	Agents that strategize, debate, and deliver
	CrewAI	Open-source	Multi-agent orchestration platform	Build AI teams that think and act independently
	Taskade AI Agents	Free / Paid	AI agents for task & project automation	Automate workflows across your entire team

To break FOMO, shift from what AI can do... to what AI should do for us.

Ask your team:

What real business problem are we trying to solve, instead of “what tool should we buy”?
Which AI type best fits that problem, is it GenAI for speed, predictive for foresight, agentic for autonomy?
How will we scale without burning out people or diluting culture? (If AI erodes trust or efficiency, it’s ROI-negative no matter how shiny.)

This article was originally published on Lucy Basaldua's LinkedIn.