Strategic Focus in the Age of AI: Why Doing Less Will Matter More

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
— Michael Porter

The Age of Frictionless Doing

It’s 2030. Your team can generate email campaigns in seconds. Your website updates itself. Your social media calendar fills with optimized content while you sleep. AI tools handle research, write grants, segment donor lists, and repurpose webinars into personalized outreach.

There is almost no friction left in execution.

But something feels off. You’re doing more than ever. You’re reacting quickly, shipping constantly, and producing content across every channel. And yet, results are flat. Your team is busy, but not aligned. You’re moving fast, but not necessarily forward.

This is the paradox we’re walking into.

When execution becomes easy, the real challenge becomes one of discernment. The question shifts from, “Can we do this?” to, “Should we?”

That idea came into focus for me during a recent podcast conversation with Graeme Watt, who framed strategy in its simplest and most powerful form: strategy is prioritization. That insight stuck with me. Because if artificial intelligence is going to make doing easier and faster, then the ability to prioritize effectively will become more important than ever.

Strategic prioritization, the act of choosing fewer, higher-impact initiatives and resourcing them well, is becoming the leadership skill of the decade.

More Tech, More Doing

History has shown us that technology rarely leads to less work. It usually leads to more.

Email didn’t simplify communication. It overwhelmed it. Social media didn’t streamline outreach. It multiplied demands. Project management tools gave us more visibility, but also more notifications, meetings, and status updates.

In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological progress would reduce the workweek to just 15 hours. Instead, we’ve filled our time with more tools, more complexity, and more pressure to keep up.

When execution becomes easy, we default to activity. We launch more campaigns, create more content, and chase more opportunities. Not because they’re strategic, but because they’re possible.

Technology removes friction. But without prioritization, it also removes focus.

The risk isn’t that we’ll fail to execute. It’s that we’ll execute on things that were never worth doing in the first place.

The Temptation to Do It All

In the past, friction forced focus. Time, staff capacity, and budgets created natural limits. You couldn’t launch a new program without a planning process, a budget approval, and a hiring timeline. You couldn’t run a communications campaign without dedicated creative hours and manual production. These constraints acted as strategic filters. They forced teams to ask, “Is this truly worth the lift?”

Now, that lift is disappearing. AI and automation are collapsing the cost of execution. With fewer logistical barriers, it’s easier than ever to say yes to everything — not because it’s strategic, but because it’s fast and feels productive.

Every idea seems worth testing. Every platform seems worth trying. Every audience seems worth reaching. Our teams become scattered. Resources get spread thin.

And this is where strategy begins to erode. When decisions are no longer filtered by effort, they must be filtered by intention. That means leaders must create new disciplines to replace the ones friction used to provide.

A Nonprofit Reality Check

For nonprofits, this shift is even more urgent. Teams are already stretched thin. Mission urgency is constant. And now, AI promises to amplify what a small team can produce.

But more capacity doesn’t mean more clarity. In fact, the faster we move, the easier it becomes to drift.

AI can help you do more. But without prioritization, that “more” might not move the mission.

In a sector shaped by funder expectations, program restrictions, and limited resources, it’s easy to mistake volume for value. AI can unintentionally accelerate that misalignment if we’re not intentional.

“The nonprofit institution neither supplies goods or services nor controls. Its product is a changed human being.” — Peter Drucker

That reminder brings us back to what matters. These tools are powerful, but power without purpose creates noise, not change.

What Strategy Really Requires Now

In this new environment, strategy isn’t a polished document. It’s a daily discipline. A filter. A muscle.

It’s the ability to say, “This is what we’re doing. This is what we’re not. And this is why.”

It means resisting the urge to chase every good idea. It means being okay with doing less, not because you’re underperforming, but because you’re focusing.

“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” — Greg McKeown, Essentialism

Good strategy has always been about tradeoffs. But now, those tradeoffs must be self-imposed. No tool will make those decisions for us.

This shift requires courage, especially in nonprofit environments where passion and urgency are constant. But it is also the shift that will separate impact from activity.

Choose Before You Do

Before you automate another workflow, spin up another campaign, or launch that next initiative, pause and ask:

• Is this aligned with our mission and strategy?
• Will this move the needle, or just add noise?
• What would we stop doing if we said yes to this?

AI will make it easier to do everything. That means the real advantage belongs to those who choose wisely.

The future doesn’t need more activity. It needs more intention.