The Purpose Gap: Why Purpose Matters More Than Tools

The pace of AI innovation is outpacing our ability to adapt. Not just in deployment, but in fully realizing what's actually possible.

I've watched this unfold over the past 18 months in conversations with leaders at established companies. The technology moves weekly. Their organizations move quarterly. By the time a carefully considered AI initiative launches, the conversation has shifted. The tools have evolved. Customer expectations have reset.

But here's what I keep noticing. The companies moving fastest aren't the ones with the biggest AI budgets or the most aggressive adoption roadmaps. They're the ones that know exactly what they stand for and why.

When the ground shifts, purpose gives you traction.

Purpose isn't a marketing exercise, it's foundational to an organization. It's the shared understanding of why your organization exists beyond making money. It's what allows teams to move decisively when everything else feels uncertain. When your engineers, designers, marketers, and customer success teams all understand the same "why," they don't need to wait for permission to make decisions that align with it.

This is what clarity looks like in practice. Organizations like Patagonia and Airbnb can make decisions with conviction because everyone understands what the company stands for. The work of defining purpose happened long before the moment of decision. That clarity compounds into velocity.

But here's where it gets interesting. The organizations best positioned to realize AI's potential aren't just clear on their purpose internally. They're actively sharing their perspective externally through ongoing stories about why they do what they do and how they see the world.

Not case studies dressed up as thought leadership. Not product announcements disguised as narratives. Actual conversations that reveal something true about their purpose and invite people into their story.

Airtable's Howie Liu openly describes their AI transformation as a "refounding moment," explicitly connecting it back to the company's founding mission of democratizing software creation. Shopify's Tobi Lütke has been equally transparent, publicly sharing internal memos about how AI helps the company fulfill its mission of enabling entrepreneurship, even setting expectations that employees must demonstrate why AI can't accomplish a task before requesting additional resources.

These aren't carefully orchestrated campaigns. They're ongoing dialogues that build understanding and connection that transcends media hype and short-term thinking.

This matters more now than ever. As market volatility increases, as demand shifts, as geopolitical uncertainty compounds, as disruptive technologies emerge faster than we can fully comprehend them, the organizations that thrive are the ones prioritizing genuine connection over tactical maneuvering.

When customers and potential audiences can easily understand why you exist, what you stand for, and how you're thinking about change, they can decide whether that resonates with them. Some will agree. Some won't. That's not a failure of communication. That's clarity of purpose working as intended.

The alternative is trying to be everything to everyone, which in an era of constant disruption means being nothing to anyone. Generic messaging about "leveraging AI to drive innovation" doesn't build relationships. It signals you haven't done the hard work of figuring out what specifically matters to you and why.

Here's the tension worth a close look. As we learn to deploy AI to greater effect, as we automate more processes and accelerate more workflows, the case for increasing human involvement grows stronger, not weaker. Someone needs to focus on purpose. Someone needs to craft the story of why. Someone needs to create messages that actually mean something.

That work can't be automated away because it's fundamentally about human connection and shared understanding. It's about articulating what you believe and why you believe it, then executing on that promise in a way that invites others into the conversation.

Large organizations have structural advantages that startups don't. Established customer relationships. Resources. Distribution. Trust accumulated over years or decades. But those advantages only compound if you can maintain the relationship during periods of transformation. And relationships require ongoing communication grounded in shared understanding.

The velocity of AI innovation isn't slowing down. The question isn't whether your organization can match that pace through technology deployment alone.

The question is this: Do you and your organization have a clear sense of purpose behind the work you do day in and day out? What is that story, and are you sharing it far and wide so that your audiences understand you and keep coming back to the conversation you've started?

Because the gap between AI's pace and organizational readiness isn't ultimately about technology. It's about knowing why you do the work and why it matters to the people in your story. That's how we connect, build trust, and form relationships that endure change and inspire meaningful growth.