Raj Sundaresan, CEO of Altimetrik, argues that AI-First is not a strategy; it’s the new operating model for modern business. In this piece, Raj, outlines how Altimetrik has embedded AI into the core of its operations, culturally, structurally and strategically.
Two years might not sound like much in business terms but the boardroom conversations I’m having today would be unrecognisable to the one I knew back then. Back then, we used to spend hours debating slide decks about the next breakthrough app. Now, the question is stark and immediate: Will we steer the ship in this AI wave or get swept under its wake? Some of the sharper executives I know have started to call this moment the ‘Intelligence Economy’. They’re not wrong.
The strategic inflection point
Leading Altimetrik has given me a front-row seat to watch AI adoption evolve from experimental curiosity to competitive necessity. McKinsey reports that 72% of enterprises now deploy AI, with half implementing it across multiple functions. But here’s what caught my attention – only 1% of CEOs say their firms have mastered the technology.
This gap represents the biggest strategic opportunity of our generation. While competitors are still running AI pilots and testing proof-of-concepts, the companies that will matter tomorrow are making a fundamental choice. You can either treat AI like a nice-to-have feature you sprinkle on top of existing operations, or you can tear up your playbook and rebuild everything around systems that actually learn and adapt.
We chose the latter, transforming Altimetrik into an AI-First organisation. Not because it was trendy, but because it was inevitable.
Beyond digital: The intelligence imperative
After spending a decade of guiding companies through digital transformation, I’ve realised that digital maturity without AI is like constructing a superhighway but forgetting to manufacture the cars to drive on it. The infrastructure is there but the acceleration never arrives.
This realisation pushed us to create Alti AI Adoption Lab, our internal AI innovation engine. Unlike traditional centres of excellence that focus on governance and best practices, Alti AI Adoption Lab operates more like what I call a “build tank”. It’s where we run rapid experiments, benchmark different models and develop accelerators that actually work in the real world. The results speak volumes: we’ve reduced time-to-value for AI initiatives by over 30%, which means we’re getting meaningful results faster than we ever thought possible.
The leadership challenge: Culture over technology
The most profound insight from our AI-First journey has nothing to do with algorithms or computing power. It’s about people and culture. BCG research reveals that employees using generative AI save at least 5 hours weekly, redirecting that time toward complex, high-value work. But realising this potential isn’t just about deploying new tools; it means completely reimagining how work is done.
In our own business, we’ve restructured roles, retrained our people and rebuilt entire teams around AI-enhanced capabilities. Engineers who used to focus on writing code are now designing entire architectures. Analysts are delivering forecasts almost as fast as they can think of the questions. Designers meanwhile, are creating screens that adapt in real-time based on how users interact with them.
This transformation revealed a critical leadership principle: employees are often more prepared for AI adoption than their leaders assumed they would be. A McKinsey study found that employees are often readier for AI than leaders realise. This is fundamentally a leadership moment. Effective leadership in the age of AI means understanding and integrating AI into the core of how we plan strategically and make decisions as organisations.
The competitive moat of intelligence
Gartner predicts that by 2026, over 80% of enterprises will deploy generative AI. This statistic should alarm every CEO, not because AI adoption is accelerating, but because it signals the commoditisation of basic AI capabilities. Our approach centres on what I call “lab-to-factory” execution; being able to quickly prototype ideas, validate what works and then scale those AI solutions across client environments faster than anyone else.
The next transformative wave is already building momentum. 2025 brings the emergence of agentic AI systems that can execute complex, multi-step projects with minimal human oversight. While traditional AI assistants operate reactively, waiting for explicit instructions, these advanced agents demonstrate proactive intelligence, taking initiative and delivering results before being asked.
The CEO’s call to action
To my fellow CEOs, the choice is binary: lead the Intelligence Economy or be disrupted by it. For Altimetrik, becoming AI-First isn’t our destination. It’s our foundation for what comes next. We’re ramping up our partnership with OpenAI, expanding Alti AI Adoption Lab’s accelerator programmes and building where career seekers already picture their AI-First desks.
The time for incremental AI adoption has passed. The future belongs to the AI-First.