The adoption of artificial intelligence marks a shift as deep as the arrival of the internet or the personal computer. LG NOVA, the innovation unit of LG Electronics, has distilled its approach into five principles for executives who want to turn AI into lasting business growth. The central tenet: AI is a critical catalyst, not a standalone problem-solver.
Define your future
Many businesses jump into AI projects without a clear destination. The first step is to ask where you want your business to be in five or ten years and how AI can help you get there. AI's effectiveness depends on knowing how you use it. At LG NOVA, the goal is to help LG move beyond its hardware roots. Adopting AI tools is not the objective; it is the means to speed up that multi-year transition and raise the odds of success.
Choose your playing field
The AI market has three layers. Infrastructure-such as large language models and chips-demands billions in investment and decades to monetize, as seen with NVIDIA and OpenAI. The middleware and tools layer involves building specialized components like voice recognition. The applications layer focuses on solving specific problems in verticals like healthcare, energy, or logistics. LG NOVA avoids competing in hardware or core LLM infrastructure. Instead, it concentrates on the application layer and middleware, targeting niche challenges first. Success in a narrow domain can later expand into a broader platform.
Seek disproportionate impact
A common mistake is using AI to make marginal improvements to existing processes. The real opportunity lies in problems where AI can deliver a 10x or 100x better result, not just a 5% gain. One example is ReliefAI Health, a venture spun out of LG NOVA. It addresses a gap in mental healthcare: the lack of continuous patient data between therapy sessions. The platform lets patients record feelings and practice cognitive exercises via voice or text. AI then summarizes and analyzes the data for therapists, revealing mood shifts or crisis signals that were previously impossible to capture accurately. This approach-identifying a stubborn, high-impact problem and applying AI for a step-change in outcomes-is central to the strategy.
Level the playing field and play the long game
AI shifts the innovation dynamic. Small teams and individuals can now build solutions that once required hundreds of engineers. This resource multiplier lets smaller businesses compete with established players. To benefit, companies must adopt AI-native thinking-not just solving problems with AI, but also using AI to build the solutions themselves.
There is speculation in the current AI market, and LG NOVA believes we are at least partially in a bubble. That doesn't have to be a deterrent. Focus on genuine ROI and avoid spending driven by hype. The bubble will eventually deflate, leaving behind a powerful infrastructure. The strategy is to build sustainable businesses on top of that foundation. Let the industry titans invest billions in the base layer. Your role is to build quickly and efficiently on what they create.
Why this matters for executives and strategy
These five principles offer a practical framework for leaders who must allocate resources amid the AI hype. The emphasis on picking the right layer, targeting 10x improvements, and focusing on long-term ROI helps avoid costly missteps. For executives building their AI roadmap, grounding decisions in these takeaways can mean the difference between chasing trends and creating durable value. Executives can find additional guidance through resources focused on AI for Executives & Strategy.
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