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For the past two years, artificial intelligence strategy has largely meant the same thing everywhere: pick a large language model, plug it into your workflows, and start experimenting with prompts. That phase is coming to an end. Not because language models arent useful, with their obvious limitations they are, but because they are rapidly becoming commodities. When everyone has access to roughly the same models, trained on roughly the same data, the real question stops being who has the best AI and becomes who understands their world best. Thats where world models come in. From rented intelligence to owned understanding Large language models look powerful, but they are fundamentally rented intelligence. You pay a monthly fee to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or some other big tech, you access them through APIs, you tune them lightly, and you apply them to generic tasks: summarizing, drafting, searching, assisting. They make organizations more efficient, but they dont make them meaningfully different. A world model is something else entirely. A corporate world model is an internal system that represents how a companys environment actually behavesits customers, operations, constraints, risks, and feedback loopsand uses that representation to predict outcomes, test decisions, and learn from experience. This distinction matters. You can rent fluency. You cannot rent understanding. What a world model really means for a company Despite the academic origins of the term, world models are not abstract research toys. Executives already rely on crude versions of them every day: Supply chain simulations Demand forecasting systems Risk and pricing models Digital twins of factories, networks, or cities Digital twins, in particular, are early and incomplete world models: static, expensive, and often brittle, but directionally important. What AI changes is not the existence of these models, but their nature. Instead of being static and manually updated, AI-driven world models can be: Adaptive, learning continuously from new data Probabilistic, rather than deterministic Causal, not just descriptive Action-oriented, able to simulate what happens if scenarios This is where reinforcement learning, simulation, and multimodal learning start to matter far more than prompt engineering. A concrete example: logistics and supply chains Consider global logistics: an industry that already runs on thin margins, tight timing, and constant disruption. A language model can: Summarize shipping reports Answer questions about delays Draft communications to customers A world model can do something far more valuable. It can simulate how a port closure in Asia affects inventory levels in Europe, how fuel price fluctuations cascade through transportation costs, how weather events alter delivery timelines, and how alternative routing decisions change outcomes weeks in advance. In other words, it can reason about the system, not just describe it. This is why companies like Amazon have invested heavily in internal simulation environments and decision models rather than relying on generic AI tools. In logistics, the competitive advantage doesnt come from just talking about the supply chain better. It comes from anticipating it better. Why building a world model is hard (and why thats the point) If this sounds complex, its because it is. Building a useful world model is not a matter of buying software or hiring a few prompt engineers. It requires capabilities many organizations have postponed developing. At a minimum, companies need: High-quality, well-instrumented data, not just large volumes of it Clear definitions of outcomes, not vanity metrics Feedback loops that connect decisions to real-world consequences Cross-functional alignment, because no single department owns reality Time and patience, since world models improve through iteration, not demos This is exactly why most companies wont do itand why those that do will pull away. The hardest part of AI is not the models, but the systems and incentives around them. Why LLMs alone are not enough Language models remain invaluable, but in a specific role. They are excellent interfaces between humans and machines. They explain, translate, summarize, and communicate. What they dont do well is reason about how the world works. LLMs learn from text, which is an indirect, biased, and incomplete representation of reality. They reflect how people talk about systems, not how those systems behave. This is why hallucinations are not an accident, but a structural limitation. As Yann LeCun has argued repeatedly, language alone is not a sufficient substrate for intelligence. In architectures that matter going forward, LLMs will play along with world models, not replace them. The strategic shift executives should make now The most important AI decision leaders can make today is not which model to choose, but what parts of their reality they want machines to understand. That means asking different questions: Where do our decisions consistently fail? What outcomes matter but arent well measured? Which systems behave in ways we dont fully understand? Where would simulation outperform intuition? Those questions are less glamorous than launching a chatbot. But they are far more consequential. The companies that win will model their own reality Large language models flatten the playing field. Everyone gets access to impressive capabilities at roughly the same time. World models tilt it again. In the next decade, competitive advantage will belong to organizations that can encode their understanding of the world (their world) into systems that learn, adapt, and improve. Not because those systems talk better, but because they understand better. AI will not replace strategy. But strategy will increasingly belong to those who can model reality well enough to explore it before acting. Every company will need its own world model. The only open question is who starts building theirs first.
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E-Commerce
Rewind to 2025. The National Football League is fresh off an unbelievable, yet controversial, Super Bowl halftime performance by the superstar hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar. The country has just been introduced to a diversity-hostile administration, which has practically squashed any zeal toward diversity, equity, or inclusion that corporate America once seemingly held. As the NFLs leadership team explores talent considerations for next years performance in the midst of this cultural backdrop, someone recommends Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican-born megastar whose songs are performed almost entirely in Spanish, and, surprisingly, the league acquiesces. The public blowback is immediate, yet the NFL stands strong on its decision. On the outside, this may have seemed like a difficult decision for the league to make. But according to Javier Farfan, the global brand and consumer marketing consultant for the NFL, the decision was much easier than one would think. Farfan, a career marketer executive and media professor at Syracuse Universitys New School of Communications, has worked with the NFL for the past six years to help the organization broaden its audience and achieve its ambition for global expansion. He has sat in the small rooms where big decisions were made with regard to the league’s cultural engagement with talent and growth audiences. With the Super Bowl happening this week, we thought that hed be the perfect guest to join us for this weeks episode of the From The Culture podcast to explore how organizations make difficult decisions. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_16-9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_square_thumbnail.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"FROM THE CULTURE","dek":"FROM THE CULTURE is a podcast that explores the inner workings of organizational culture that enable companies to thrive, teams to win, and brands to succeed. If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then this is the most important conversation in business that you arent having.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Listen","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLvojPSJ6Iy0T4VojdtGsZ8Q4eAJ6mzr2h","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91470870,"imageMobileId":91470866,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Clarity of Conviction The NFL has an ambition to become the biggest sports platform in the world, a vision set by league commissioner Roger Goodell. With a conviction to make American football a worldwide game under Goodells leadership, the NFL began playing regular season matches in international markets to broaden its reach. It even petitioned the Olympics to successfully institute flag football as an official event to help further its global adoption. But the universality of music as cultural production is unparallelled, making the Super Bowl halftime show a unique front door into the football universe, one that transforms a sporting competition into a pop-culture event. And its the clarity of the organizations commitment to expansion that makes Bad Bunny an obvious decision for the NFL. His tours sell millions of tickets around the world and his music is streamed billions of times on Spotifycrowning him the most globally-streamed artist for four of the last five years. Even with the local resistance from conservatives and the Trump administration, Bad Bunnys global reach is undeniable. As Farfan asserts, it was easy for the organization and all its many stakeholders to get on board because they all subscribed to a shared ambition. The league, its teams, its partners, and Bad Bunny himself are all aligned, each bringing their talents and resources to help the collective realize its potential. The same can be said within our own organizations. Our companies convictions not only help orient their direction but also guide their decision-making such that hard decisions arent so difficult. When the conviction is clear, decisions are made easy. Take the outdoor brand Patagonia. The company has long been committed to mitigating human evasiveness on the planet. This is the ambition that unites all its stakeholders. Along with its retail business, Patagonia outfitted high-end corporate clients with company apparel. Company vests and fleece jackets with the Patagonia logo etched on the chest became a sort of unofficial uniform for Wall Street bankers and Silicon Valley techies. This was a significant revenue driver for the company. However, when Patagonia realized that some of its corporate clients dealt in ventures that did not prioritize the planet, it decided to end its business dealings with them. Despite the loss of revenue, this was an easy decision for Patagonia because its convictions were clear. Hard decisions are only truly hard when conviction is ill-defined. In the case of the NFL, if the ambition is to be a global sport, then you choose the options that get you closer to that ambitioneven if it means facing some headwinds. Easy. If youre Patagonia and your conviction is to protect the planet, then you take the path that preserves the Earth, although you may lose some revenue in the short run. Again, easy. Difficulty lies where your conviction is questioned and your commitment to it is uncertain. For organizations that know what theyre after and know who they are, the only real loss is loss of self when they deviate from it. Check out our full interview with Javier Farfan that breaks down the dynamics of the NFLs decision to partner with Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show and what takeaways leaders can glean about their own organizations. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_16-9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_square_thumbnail.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"FROM THE CULTURE","dek":"FROM THE CULTURE is a podcast that explores the inner workings of organizational culture that enable companies to thrive, teams to win, and brands to succeed. If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then this is the most important conversation in business that you arent having.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Listen","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLvojPSJ6Iy0T4VojdtGsZ8Q4eAJ6mzr2h","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":9147087,"imageMobileId":91470866,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
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Weve been sold a myth about entrepreneurial success: sharpen your skills, tighten your systems, hustle harder. But after years of working with independent professionals across industries, Ive noticed that the highest performers share something that rarely makes the productivity lists: theyve intentionally built communities of colleagues, clients, and partners who expand how they think, create, and deliver impact. Community isnt a nice to have for the self-employed. Its strategic infrastructure. And this is especially important for solopreneurs, entrepreneurs who work primarily solo. The stakes are higher than most solopreneurs realize. According to research from Leapers, a UK-based organization studying self-employment and mental health, 70% of freelancers have experienced loneliness, disconnection, or isolation while working independently. Thats not just an emotional burden, its a creativity killer. When we work in isolation, our assumptions calcify, our thinking narrows, and our best ideas never get the friction they need to become great. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking_0b545c.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cem\u003EWonderRigor Newsletter\u003C\/em\u003E","dek":"Want more insights, tools, and invitations from Dr. Natalie Nixon about applying creativity for meaningful business results and the future of work? Subscribe \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=https-3A__figure-2D8-2Dthinking-2Dllc.kit.com_sign-2Dup\u0026amp;d=DwMFaQ\u0026amp;c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM\u0026amp;r=xHenyQfyc6YcuCNMBsOvfYGQILM1d1ruredVZikn4HE\u0026amp;m=F383gnrChFhYKPhcpNHI1hY3o58IHIn_LkB5QJDrs3G5Wfft-DcucUO4UEmGO7GZ\u0026amp;s=JlJm7GyKCJvPW0jyrsfTFtinteKDitN13vfPZiuJnP8\u0026amp;e=\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E for the free WonderRigor newsletter at Figure8Thinking.com","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"http:\/\/Figure8Thinking.com","theme":{"bg":"#3b3f46","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#6e8ba6","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91470060,"imageMobileId":91470061,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Community oxygenates your thinking When you work solo, you start mistaking your perspective for the perspective. But a strong community acts as a foil for your ideas, exposing your ideas to new light, context, and critique. This isnt just about generating more ideas, its about generating better ideas. The kind of synthesized, pressure-tested thinking thats stronger than anything youd develop in isolation. Community provides reality checks and emotional ballast Solopreneurship demands extraordinary mental fortitude. Youre simultaneously the product, the strategist, the salesperson, and the back office. A trusted community offers reality checks that keep you from veering off course, and gut checks that help you discern which risks are worth taking. Just as important, community provides emotional ballastpeople who understand the volatility of self-employment and can normalize the inevitable ups and downs without judgment. Community converts intention into momentum Left to our own devices, its easy to confuse motion with progress. Communities help convert intention into actual momentum. When youre regularly sharing what youre working on, asking questions, and reporting back on experiments, youre more likely to follow through. This kind of accountability shifts focus from mere outputlike checking tasks off a listto true impact: work that meaningfully moves clients, audiences, and industries forward. Community accelerates learning A well-designed community is a living archive of experiments, failures, and breakthroughs. Instead of learning only from your own trial and error, youre drawing from a collective body of experience. You can ask for help, offer your own hard-won insights, and benefit from perspectives across sectors and disciplines. That diversity of vantage points is a powerful driver of both creativity and strategic clarity. Community unlocks opportunity Finally, community is how transactional encounters evolve into long-term, mutual relationships. When you consistently show up in spaces with colleagues, clients, and partners- whether in mastermind groups, professional associations, or communities of play- youre building trust over time. That trust leads to collaborations, referrals, and invitations you simply cannot manufacture through cold outreach. And because these relationships are grounded in shared values and curiosity rather than immediate deals, they tend to be more resilient and more creatively fulfilling. For independent professionals, community is not a distraction from real work. Its the infrastructure that makes your best work possible. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking_0b545c.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cem\u003EWonderRigor Newsletter\u003C\/em\u003E","dek":"Want more insights, tools, and invitations from Dr. Natalie Nixon about applying creativity for meaningful business results and the future of work? Subscribe \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=https-3A__figure-2D8-2Dthinking-2Dllc.kit.com_sign-2Dup\u0026amp;d=DwMFaQ\u0026amp;c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM\u0026amp;r=xHenyQfyc6YcuCNMBsOvfYGQILM1d1ruredVZikn4HE\u0026amp;m=F383gnrChFhYKPhcpNHI1hY3o58IHIn_LkB5QJDrs3G5Wfft-DcucUO4UEmGO7GZ\u0026amp;s=JlJm7GyKCJvPW0jyrsfTFtinteKDitN13vfPZiuJnP8\u0026amp;e=\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E for the free WonderRigor newsletter at Figure8Thinking.com","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"http:\/\/Figure8Thinking.com","theme":{"bg":"#3b3f46","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#6e8ba6","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91470060,"imageMobileId":91470061,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
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