INTRODUCTION
The context
We live in a moment in which performative certainties are worth very little.
Artificial intelligence is advancing faster than our capacity to anticipate its consequences.
There is enthusiasm, hype, narratives of total disruption — and possible bubbles.
What there is not, honestly, is clarity about what comes next.
Anyone who claims to know exactly what the impacts of AI will be on societies, governments, corporations, or careers is, at best, being naïve. At worst, bluffing.
But doubt is not an invitation to paralysis.
It is an invitation to cognitive elevation.
Why AC.0?
This is not Soft Skills 2.0 — just another updated list of behavioral competencies.
AC.0 is a return to fundamentals: human capacities that precede any managerial framework or technological wave.
- AC — Before Christ (Antes de Cristo, in Portuguese): millenary competencies, not trends. Judgment, communication, discernment — skills that ensured the survival of the species long before HR departments or strategic consulting existed.
- AC — Something (Alguma Coisa, in Portuguese): humility in the face of the unknown. In an environment of profound change, admitting that “there is something we still do not know” is, paradoxically, a strategic posture.
- .0 — The zero point: the foundation before any upgrade. An ironic reminder: before 4.0, 5.0 and future versions, there is the base everyone forgets.
PORTER’S THESIS
1996
In What Is Strategy?, Michael Porter was precise:
Companies were confusing operational effectiveness with strategy.
Improving processes, reducing costs, accelerating deliveries, copying best practices — all of this was necessary, but none of it was strategy.
For Porter, strategy meant deliberately choosing to be different:
- Unique positioning
- Conscious trade-offs (choosing what not to do)
- Fit among activities (an integrated system that is difficult to copy)
The essence:
“Strategy is choosing what not to do.”
When everyone does the same things better and better, no one gains advantage.
The operational race destroys margins collectively.
2026
Almost thirty years later, Porter’s thesis has not aged.
It has become urgent.
AI is accelerating — at unprecedented scale and speed — exactly the dynamic Porter described: the commoditization of operational effectiveness.
What has changed
- The operational race has been automated
What was once “continuous improvement without differentiation” now scales infinitely:
- Algorithmic process optimization
- Massive data analysis
- Standardized execution, 24/7
- Instant benchmarking
The operational race has accelerated — and ceased to be a human advantage.
- Technical advantages evaporate rapidly
What once took years to replicate now takes weeks:
- Replicable business models
- Accessible AI tools
- Democratized technical knowledge
What was once a technical core competence has become a market commodity.
- Complexity has exploded
AI has not simplified the world. It has made it radically more complex:
- More options, data, and speeds
- Compressed decision cycles
- New ethical, regulatory, and reputational risks
Management has ceased to be a technical problem.
It has become a cognitive challenge.
THE NEW STRATEGIC FRONTIER
The differentiator
If AI commoditizes operational effectiveness, what remains as differentiation?
Porter offers a starting point — but we must reread him in light of this new context.
Strategy has always been human.
Now, it is exclusively human.
Unique positioning requires
- Contextual judgment: reading markets, power, incentives, culture
- Strategic imagination: seeing possibilities data does not suggest
- Courage of choice: saying no to what seems obvious
Conscious trade-offs require
- Ethical discernment
- Long-term vision
- The ability to communicate renunciation
Fit among activities requires
- Systems thinking: seeing invisible connections between parts
- Integrative leadership: aligning teams around coherence
- Disciplined experimentation: testing without diluting strategic identity
None of this can be automated.
THE COMPETENCIES PORTER TOOK FOR GRANTED
Porter explained what to do strategically.
He did not detail how — because, at that time, strategic thinking was unequivocally human.
Today, these competencies must be made explicit.
1. Cognition and Judgment
Deciding under uncertainty, ambiguity, and pressure.
AI does not:
- Distinguish relevant signal from noise
- Evaluate second-order effects
- Integrate experience, intuition, and context
- Know when to stop analyzing and decide
2. Communication and Influence
Transforming strategy into shared meaning.
AI does not:
- Create narratives that sustain trade-offs
- Persuade people to accept renunciations
- Build cultural coherence around positioning
- Read power, emotion, and political context
3. Adaptability and Execution
Experimenting without diluting identity.
AI does not:
- Decide when to flex or sustain a position
- Learn strategically from mistakes
- Build organizational resilience
THE TRAP AI AMPLIFIES
Growth without strategy
Porter warned: growth without strategy destroys positioning.
AI makes this trap even more dangerous because:
- Scaling has become too easy
- Opportunities seem infinite
- Pressure for growth intensifies
But strategy does not scale without discipline.
AI is an amplifier, not a substitute for strategy:
- Clear strategy → scales coherence
- Absent strategy → scales confusion
SOFT SKILLS AS THE STRATEGIC CORE
Porter never used the term soft skills.
But his thesis makes them inevitable.
If strategy requires:
- Judgment
- Discernment
- Systems vision
- Narrative
- Resilience
Then these competencies are not accessory.
They are the operational core of strategy.
Calling them “soft” was a semantic mistake.
In times of AI, that mistake becomes fatal.
They are now the hard skills of strategic leadership.
THE NEW GAME
Porter taught:
Strategy is not about doing better. It is about doing differently.
In times of AI:
Doing differently is not about superior technology.
It is about superior judgment.
Technology is copied
Processes are replicated
Data is shared
But:
- Contextual judgment cannot be automated
- Ethical discernment cannot be programmed
- Moral imagination cannot be bought
Systemic coherence cannot be copied.
The difference will not be technological.
It will be cognitive and hierarchical:
Between those who exercise human discernment
and those who merely operate algorithms or statistics.
It is not about who uses AI — everyone will.
It is about who thinks strategically with it versus who merely reacts to it.
THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION — A NEW READING
Porter asked:
“What do we do differently that creates superior value?”
Reread for times of AI:
“What do we do differently — that AI cannot replicate — that creates superior value?”
If the answer is processes, data, or speed, AI commoditizes it.
If the answer involves:
- Deep human understanding
- Singular trade-offs
- Contextual judgment
- An inimitable decision culture
Then there is strategy.
And AI will amplify it — not replace it.
AC.0 AS A STRATEGIC CHOICE
AC.0 does not promise control.
It begins by recognizing uncertainty.
In doubt, we invest in the human:
- In the best minds
- In the ability to think well without ready-made answers
- In the skill of dealing with what we still cannot name
Because strategy was never about having all the answers.
It has always been about making good choices with incomplete information —
a quintessentially human competence.
SYNTHESIS
Porter (1996):
Strategy is not about doing better. It is about doing differently.
AC.0 (2025):
Strategy is not about having AI. It is about knowing what to do with it.
AI does not solve strategy.
It exposes the absence of it.
Operational efficiency is automated.
Strategy is humanized.
Technical competence has become a minimum requirement.
Human competence has become the maximum differentiator.
Porter ended his reflection leaving an implicit but decisive point:
Strategies do not sustain themselves.
Trade-offs must be defended.
Choices must be reiterated.
Coherence must be protected over time.
Ultimately, this has always fallen on people.
In times of AI, it falls even more.
When efficiency is automated, leadership ceases to be ornamental
and becomes the ultimate repository of decisions that cannot be outsourced.
Being human is strategic
And it always has been.
We just forgot.
Until now.