Many leaders still treat AI as a threat to contain. Daniele Laratta treats it as a tool to put to work. As Founder and CEO of JIM & Co., he helps companies turn digital change from a looming problem into an advantage.
His position is that waiting is no longer an option. The way forward needs both technology and human judgment, and neither holds up for long without the other.
Shaping change instead of resisting it
Daniele sees the same mistake often: leaders spend their energy resisting AI rather than using it. Good companies lose time to worry while the change is already underway.
In his view, AI is there to extend human intelligence, not replace it. The leader's job is to shape the change, and a business that refuses to adapt risks more than falling behind. It risks becoming obsolete.
Asking better questions about AI
The questions Daniele hears from leaders tend to start with what AI might break. He turns the conversation toward what it could fix.
That means asking which processes AI can optimize and how it can free a team for higher-value work. The point is not to replace people but to let them do more of what machines cannot, and to work smarter rather than throw technology at problems.
Putting people at the center
Daniele argues that most companies have the AI conversation backwards. AI is about people as much as technology, and transformation fails when the human side is left out.
New tools do little if the team is not on board. His approach is to engage people early: train them, bring them into decisions, and make sure AI builds on their strengths rather than taking their place.
“AI is the tool—people are the strategy.”
Making adaptability the standard
Some companies handle each technology shift as if it will be the last. Daniele sees it differently. The companies that come through disruption are the ones that plan for it.
He asks leaders to see change as a standing condition, not a one-off event. That calls for a culture where adaptability is expected, with leaders at every level empowered to drive AI adoption, experiment and keep refining how the work gets done.
Acting now, not later
For Daniele, AI is already here, not on the horizon. How a company handles it will shape its success.
Some businesses are still debating whether AI matters while their competitors use it to pull ahead. The choice he puts to companies is simple: take it on now, or spend years catching up.