Why Your AI Strategy Feels Scattered and Stuck
You’ve got the tools. Maybe it's ChatGPT or a custom LLM experiment that someone on your team’s been tinkering with. Maybe you're already piloting AI in operations, marketing, or customer service. But when it comes to answering the big question — “What’s our actual AI strategy?” — things start to unravel.
Your executive team isn’t on the same page. Department heads have their own ideas, but there’s no clear direction. Conversations loop in circles, meetings end with vague action items, and your business momentum feels... flat.
Meanwhile, you see headlines every day of competitors gaining ground. You wonder if you’re already behind. Not because you lack tools, but because your organization lacks clarity on how to use those tools, why to use them, and who should be leading the charge.
And let’s face it, your team is remote, hybrid, or spread across time zones. Trying to schedule planning sessions is like herding cats. Even when you manage to get everyone together, the conversation quickly veers from big-picture thinking to tactical details. Or worse, blank stares.
It’s not that you’re failing. You’re just missing a structure that pulls people together around a common language for AI. Something that helps people think clearly, contribute meaningfully, and build a plan that sticks.
Why Traditional AI Planning Fails for Distributed Teams
Most executive teams come into AI planning with a swirl of ideas: a mix of excitement, pressure, and uncertainty. Some people want to automate workflows, others are thinking about customer personalization or internal data analysis, and everyone’s heard about some tool that “we should really be using.”
The problem is that there’s no framework; just noise.
Without structure, remote AI planning sessions tend to follow a predictable and painful pattern. The loudest voices dominate and the quietest never weigh in. The conversation ping-pongs between tech talk and broad, unfocused goals. Someone takes notes, but nothing happens.
This lack of clarity breeds confusion. One department charges ahead with automation while another is still deciding whether AI even fits their function. Soon, you’ve got disjointed experiments, conflicting approaches, and no clear sense of ROI. It feels like progress, but it’s really chaos in disguise.
Even worse, these fragmented sessions erode confidence. Teams walk away with more questions than answers, leaders feel overwhelmed, and the promise of AI feels further away.
This isn’t a people problem, it’s a planning problem.
Remote teams need more than a calendar invite and a conversation. They need a shared visual framework, and that’s where most traditional planning methods fall short.
The Secret Weapon for Virtual AI Planning That Actually Works
With MetroRetro, you log into a session where every participant immediately sees where they fit, what they’re contributing, and how their input shapes the company’s AI future; without long speeches or scattered spreadsheets..
At first glance, MetroRetro looks like a simple digital whiteboard. But pair it with the structure of the AI Strategy Canvas™, and it becomes a strategic co-pilot.
Here’s why it works: The AI Strategy Canvas™ gives you 9 clear building blocks for crafting AI strategies that align with your company’s goals, brand voice, audience, and resources. MetroRetro then allows you to turn that canvas into a living map where remote participants can drop insights, debate tradeoffs, and connect dots in real time.
No one’s stuck passively watching. Everyone is hands-on, contributing what they know best, from marketing voice, to legal constraints, to audience pain points. It’s a shared space that actually encourages clarity over complexity and participation over pontification.
Better yet, this structure filters out the noise. It forces your team to make decisions, not just brainstorm endlessly. You walk out with aligned objectives, prioritized use cases, and clearly defined roles for AI; not a vague wishlist of tech dreams.
That’s why leaders love it. It brings your team's plan into sharp focus: fast, visual, and concrete.
And once you’ve used this approach, your team will start asking: “Why don’t we do all our planning this way?”
The Step-by-Step Guide to Running a Remote AI Strategy Session with MetroRetro
Here’s how to use MetroRetro and the AI Strategy Canvas™ to create clarity, drive alignment, and get your team excited about your AI roadmap.
Step 1: Prep the Canvas in MetroRetro
Start by setting up a board in MetroRetro using a custom template based on the 9 core sections of the AI Strategy Canvas™:
Target Audience
Products/Services
Company
Context
Role
Style/Voice
Resources
Rules
Request
Use color-coded sticky notes or sections to keep things visually organized. Add quick prompts in each section so people know what to drop in — things like “Describe our ideal customer” or “List internal data sources AI could use.”
Pro tip: Don’t over-design it. Keep it clean. The simplicity keeps the focus on ideas, not format.
Step 2: Kick Off with a Briefing, Not a Lecture
You’re leading this session, not hosting a webinar. Set the tone with a 5-minute overview:
Why you’re doing this
What the AI Strategy Canvas™ is
What success looks like today
Then give everyone editing access and permission to think big and practically. No AI PhD required.
Step 3: Facilitate One Block at a Time
Work through each section of the Canvas as a group, but keep the energy high:
3–5 minutes of silent brainstorm
5–10 minutes discussion
Quick decision: What’s in? What’s out?
You’ll be shocked how fast your team surfaces insights; especially once they see their ideas clicking together like puzzle pieces.
Step 4: Use Dot Voting to Prioritize Use Cases
Once you’ve fleshed out the Canvas, ask: “Where should we start?” Have the team vote on 2–3 high-impact, realistic AI opportunities.
Boom. You’ve just aligned your team on practical next steps, not abstract aspirations.
Step 5: Capture Commitments and Assign Owners
Wrap the session by capturing:
Which AI opportunities made the cut
Who’s owning what
What follow-ups or resources are needed
Then, export the board and drop it into your shared drive, Slack, or project manager. This is your living document, not a one-time event.
This is when momentum builds and your company starts to feel ahead of the curve.
And it’s not because you hired more people or bought expensive platforms, it’s because you got your people thinking and planning clearly.
That’s the difference one structured session can make.
When you’re ready to lead this change with confidence as a true AI-literate executive, you need the right training.
The AI Mastery for Business Leaders course is built specifically for CEOs, COOs, and senior leaders who need to drive AI adoption across their companies. You’ll get hands-on experience with the AI Strategy Canvas™, learn how to identify real business opportunities, and gain the skills to lead your organization with AI.
Stop waiting for your team to figure it out on their own. Enroll now, and start building the future of your business.