Beyond Automation: How AI Can Power New Business Models and Growth

Automation is only the beginning

For most organizations, the first phase of artificial intelligence adoption has been about efficiency. Automating manual tasks. Streamlining operations. Reducing costs.

That’s an important start, but it’s not where the real potential of AI lies.

If we only use AI to do what we already do, but slightly faster, we’re missing the point. The real opportunity is to create entirely new value, like new products, new services, new revenue streams, and new ways of meeting customer needs.

At Forte, we see this shift every day. Companies that view AI as a growth enabler, not just a productivity tool, are already pulling ahead.

AI as a platform for innovation

AI isn’t just another piece of technology. It’s a platform for business model innovation. Used strategically, it can change how organizations design, deliver, and capture value.

Think about it this way: automation helps you do things better. Innovation helps you do better things.

This shift in mindset, from optimization to creation, separates the fast followers from the true leaders.

Here are three ways organizations are already using AI to innovate, not just automate.

1. Predictive and personalized services

The age of generic customer experiences is over. Modern AI systems can analyze millions of data points to predict individual needs, enabling services that are proactive rather than reactive.

One Nordic retailer recently unified its customer, transaction, and loyalty data into a single platform. By using predictive models, they identified which customers were likely to churn and offered personalized recommendations in real time. The result: 18% higher loyalty rates within six months.

That’s not just efficiency, that’s new value creation through smarter engagement.

Imagine applying that logic across industries:

• A healthcare provider predicting patient needs before symptoms appear.

• A financial service adapting advice to each customer’s unique context.

• An energy company dynamically adjusting pricing to usage patterns.

AI turns personalization into prediction, and prediction into loyalty.

2. AI-powered product innovation

Generative AI has opened the door to a new kind of product development. Designers, engineers, and marketers can now co-create with intelligent systems, testing concepts, generating ideas, and building prototypes faster than ever.

A Nordic SaaS company used generative AI to develop twelve new product concepts in six weeks. Three were tested directly with customers. One, an automated reporting assistant, was validated, scaled, and added 5% annual recurring revenue in its first year.

The lesson: AI doesn’t replace creativity. It amplifies it.

In a world where speed to market is everything, the ability to ideate and validate rapidly is a competitive advantage. The best organizations will use AI as a creative co-pilot, not just a coding assistant.

3. New revenue models through data and prediction

The most transformative opportunities emerge when companies use AI to reimagine how they make money.

Take logistics as an example. One European logistics firm began by using AI to optimize delivery routes, saving fuel and time. Then they went a step further. By combining operational data, demand forecasts, and partner capacity, they built a predictive capacity marketplace, a digital platform where shippers could buy and sell available transport capacity in real time.

Two years later, that marketplace accounted for 12% of the company’s total revenue.

This is what happens when AI becomes a core part of your value proposition, not just your cost structure.

How to get there: Three pragmatic steps

Moving beyond automation doesn’t require a radical leap. It requires clarity, structure, and intent.

Here are three pragmatic steps we recommend for leaders ready to take the next step with AI:

1. Define your AI opportunity areas Identify where AI can create new value, not just save cost. Look for unmet customer needs, friction in the value chain, or data that’s underused.

2. Combine experimentation with validation. Don’t build massive programs. Build prototypes. Test them fast with customers. Validate results with real business metrics, not vanity numbers.

3. Invest in the ecosystem, not the tool. True innovation comes when AI connects data, design, and strategy. Break down silos and let teams work across disciplines; product, data, and business.

These steps are simple, but they require leadership that understands that the next frontier of AI isn’t operational. It’s strategic.

Efficiency pays the bills. Innovation builds the future.

We often hear executives say, “We’re already using AI. ”The question is how?

If AI only reduces costs, it’s helping you survive. If AI helps you invent new ways to grow, it’s helping you lead.

Automation may protect today’s margins, but innovation creates tomorrow’s markets. That’s the difference between organizations that use AI as a tool and those that use it as a platform for transformation.

The Nordic advantage: Pragmatism with purpose

Scandinavian businesses have a unique edge in this next wave of AI. Our culture values trust, openness, and experimentation, exactly the conditions innovation needs to thrive.

But Nordic pragmatism also keeps us grounded: we don’t chase hype. We build things that work. That’s why we believe AI should be guided by clarity, responsibility, and measurable impact, not by trend cycles.

AI is not about replacing people. It’s about augmenting human capability to design better experiences, smarter products, and more sustainable growth.

The companies that understand this, and act on it, won’t just be more efficient. They’ll be the ones shaping the markets the rest of us will follow.