AI Strategy: Solve Business Problems First

Irvine-area business leaders told a recent panel that companies should stop chasing every new technology and start solving concrete business problems. The message, delivered to an audience of local executives, was blunt: the pace of change is the real challenge, and the cure is discipline rather than enthusiasm for the latest tool.

The discussion was moderated by David Coffaro, President & CEO of the Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce. Coffaro is a strategic adviser, keynote speaker and author who helps organizations navigate change. He previously held senior leadership roles at Wells Fargo and Bank of America, and he holds an MBA from Claremont Graduate University's Drucker School of Management. The speakers were Colin Fraser, Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, and Eric Gallagher, Partner at Withum.

The Pace Problem

Gallagher, an audit partner at Withum with more than 25 years of experience, said executives aren't struggling with change itself. Change has always existed. What's different now is how fast it arrives. "I don't see that people are struggling with change itself. Change has always existed, but I think what's different now is the pace of change and leaders and decision-makers are trying to navigate that as they try to make decisions on where to place their bets."

He warned against buying technology out of fear. Companies, he argued, should ask a plainer question. "Instead of asking yourself which AI tool should we be investing in, perhaps the better question to ask is: 'What business problems are we trying to solve here?'" Only after that answer is clear should a firm look at whether AI, or something else, fits the job.

Fraser, a litigator whose practice spans real estate, intellectual property and appellate work, offered a related warning about where to look for trouble. Financial statements tell you what already happened. "Financial results are necessarily a lagging indicator." He said the chief executives he advises watch the edges of their businesses, asking about newer customers and where their strongest employees might be heading. Those signals show up well before a quarterly report reflects them.

Structure and Contracts

Growth carries its own hazards, and Gallagher said one clear sign of a company outgrowing itself is decision-making still concentrated in a single person. "Along with growth comes complexity, and at some moment the organization is going to start to scale, and that scalability will not really match the decision-making power of a single individual."

Fraser turned to paperwork. Agreements drafted when a company was small can fail once it grows, exposing it on intellectual property, liability and data security. "That's where we see lawsuits arise." His remedy was unglamorous: review contracts on a regular schedule rather than in a scramble at the last minute.

Fraser also drew a line between what should last and what should change. Core principles, he said, survive any market shift. "Integrity at a law firm, judgment at a law firm – those are things that we prize." The hierarchy inside an organization is another matter, and he suggested it deserves a fresh look.

Deciding Without Perfect Information

Gallagher said waiting for certainty is itself a choice, and usually a costly one. "If you're waiting for complete information, then you're probably going to be too late in your decision-making." The goal, he said, isn't to erase uncertainty. Leaders should act on the best information available and then judge the result.

Fraser sorted decisions into two buckets. Fixable, low-cost choices call for speed and adjustment along the way. Irreversible, high-cost choices demand careful judgment, wide input and outside expertise to contain serious legal or organizational risk.

On artificial intelligence, Fraser was skeptical of lazy adoption. Used well, it amplifies talent the company already has. Used badly, it replaces thinking. "It's not their ideas that are being presented, it is the AI's ideas and they're not that interesting – everyone else already has them because they're all using the same AI tools." He treated AI as a core strategic question, not an IT chore, and said it needs continuing education across the whole company.

He also urged openness during upheaval. Keeping staff involved in how decisions get made, he said, matters more than most tactics. "Don't fake it till you make it. Be transparent about what you don't know and what you do know."

Why This Matters:

For Orange County employers, the panel's advice comes down to cost control and accountability. Each of the speakers pushed toward decisions tied to specific business results, not to technology purchases made because competitors bought them first. Gallagher's suggestion to start using AI this week, aimed at automating one time-consuming task, is a low-risk test that lets a firm measure return before committing larger sums. Fraser's warnings about outdated contracts and centralized decision-making point to liability and governance exposures that can grow quietly inside a successful company. Coffaro closed the session with a reminder that the work never stops. "Change is not an event. It's an ongoing process." For businesses weighing spending on uncertain bets, the lesson the panelists offered is that markets reward firms that understand their own problems first.