There Is No Finish Line

I talk again and again about the Frontier Transformation and that companies strive to become a Frontier Firm. The good news is: there are actually Frontier Firms out there. The bad news: there’s no finish line.

So why should you enter a race that’s never finished? Or why even strive for something that may never end? Think back to my gym metaphor: you can strive to be fit and build muscle. That’s hard work — you need a plan, discipline, and it’s not always fun. You can be the strongest woman or man on this planet, but as soon as you quit training you will lose your muscles and your fitness will decline. The same applies to your AI transformation.

Do we still work out? Do we still care about our health? Of course we do!

The question that sounds right, but isn’t

You’re on track with your transformation, made good progress on the agenda — and then this question comes to your mind:

“So — are we a Frontier Firm now?”

It’s a paradox. It sounds like something you strive for like the next go-live or a project milestone that you sign off, and it’s done. Unfortunately it won’t work that way. But I understand the question, because “being a Frontier Firm” assumes it’s something you achieve, like an award. It’s more like a way of thinking and acting — let’s say a philosophy that you try to build and keep in your organization.

You don’t become a Frontier Firm. You train as one.

So the question sounds right, but it’s the wrong thinking model. Let’s explore the right questions and the right thinking model instead.

If you want a first indicator of where you stand on your journey, take the Frontier Fitness Check.

The frontier moves

But why isn’t Frontier Firm a status you achieve once and put on your trophy board? Look back one month, three months, or a year: do you see the pattern? Exactly — what we would have claimed as frontier three months ago is maybe commodity today. Being frontier is super fluid and dynamic, just like all the announcements we read every other day. So instead we build an operating model that lives beyond “the next best AI model” — a solid foundation that can scale over time while being flexible enough to be rebuilt when needed.

There is no finish line. The frontier moves.

With that said, a Frontier Firm has a natural understanding that change needs to be in its DNA. The most important aspect is a dynamic mindset in the organization — a mindset that allows people to grow and to constantly reshape their daily work.

Patterns, not phases

The second reason why there’s no finish line: organizations don’t move through this journey in clean phases. That would be nice, right? Phase 1 done, Phase 2 done, next one please. But that’s not what I see in real projects.

What I see instead: one department is already running agent workflows in its daily business, while the department next door is still discussing whether AI is allowed in meeting notes and how to restructure their meeting experience. It’s the same company — but two completely different realities.

And it’s not even stable. A team jumps ahead in one area and falls back in another. This whole AI transformation is a multi-layer approach. The sales team builds great habits with Copilot, then two key people leave and suddenly the habits are gone too.

So there is no single moment where the whole organization crosses a line together. And if nobody crosses a line together, there is no line. There are only patterns: behaviors that spread, behaviors that hold, and behaviors that fade.

That’s why I stopped thinking in phases and started thinking in patterns.

How fluid this journey is, we experience and “feel” quite often. On LinkedIn it’s a popular sport to laugh about Microsoft’s next rebranding or renaming. And I get it — it’s annoying, frustrating, and confusing. Why does it need to change? I just got familiar with the latest update.

In my opinion, it’s exactly the moving frontier that Microsoft is dealing with again and again. Let’s be honest: they don’t have that much more experience with all this generative AI we’re exploring every day — well, of course they do, but a few months ahead, not decades — and they learn every day, from feedback and from their customers. And they are brave enough to constantly change themselves and map all the little pieces into one large AI transformation puzzle.

An example to prove it: at the beginning of the agentic AI era, Microsoft described the journey to the Frontier Firm as phases. So we assumed every organization starts with Phase 1, human + assistant; once that’s completed, we head to Phase 2, and so on. But after a while the market showed that this isn’t true. Some organizations had barely started with Phase 1 and were already in Phase 3. So the thinking model had to change: from phases to patterns. Today it’s Pattern 1, 2, and 3 — which makes a lot more sense. We’re all on a learning journey.

Keep going or you lose it all

If you’ve read through my previous episodes, you know there is one particular pattern I see again and again. I call it the Copilot Plateau: organizations did a fantastic job at the beginning, everyone was hyped about the Copilot rollout — and after a while they realized: “Oh well, we haven’t realized any value.”

Compare it with the gym. You worked hard to get fit, improved your cardio, built muscle. And then suddenly you decide: “That’s enough. I have enough muscles.” Now you have two choices:

1. Keep going to the gym and maintain your muscle.
2. Stop going and lose it all.

Access isn’t fitness. And fitness isn’t a status.

And it doesn’t happen overnight — just as the muscle didn’t grow overnight — but slowly and steadily. After a few months you realize your biceps isn’t that big anymore, or your output with Copilot isn’t that great anymore.

So you — as an organization — need to keep going, or you lose it all.

There’s no finish line, but you can still win

Nobody is done training just because she or he is fit — or the best in the world. Quite the opposite: the best ones on this planet are those who train constantly and try to become better and better. Of course they don’t train the same way a junior does. But the basics are always part of the program.

The same applies to your AI transformation and becoming a Frontier Firm. You’re setting the bar high — and it’s still a huge benefit for organizations to be in the “top right” of AI transformation. It’s maybe even an unfair advantage compared to the ones that stopped training.