𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜. 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗲𝘁.

In March 2026, researchers published at Harvard Business Review ran thousands of simulations across seven leading AI models. They asked each one for strategic advice — differentiate or commoditize, automate or augment, compete or collaborate. The models answered fast. They answered confidently. They answered in polished, boardroom-ready language.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳.

Every model. Every simulation. Regardless of company size, industry, competitive position, or strategic context. The researchers gave this pattern a name: “Trendslop” dressed up as bespoke strategic insight.

If you have used AI in your strategy work and felt something was off — that the answers were too smooth, too balanced, too similar to what everyone else seemed to be hearing — you were not imagining it. You were encountering Trendslop.

The question the Harvard researchers did not answer is the one that matters most for practitioners: why does this happen, and what do you do about it?

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗔𝗜. 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀.

Trendslop is not a failure of the tools. It is a failure of the conditions under which the tools are applied. AI plugged into a poorly understood strategy process does not improve that process. It accelerates it — fog and all — with maximum eloquence and false confidence.

The strategists who are pulling ahead in 2026 are not the ones with the longest list of AI subscriptions or the most sophisticated prompting techniques. They are doing something quieter and more disciplined: they are developing a rigorous, honest baseline of their own strategy creation process before allowing any algorithm into the room.

Process clarity is the prerequisite. Everything else follows from it.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗟𝗧𝗦𝗣𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼

The Long-Term Strategy Conference 2026 (LTSP26) is designed around a single conviction: that the AI-in-strategy conversation is a process conversation that happens to involve tools — not a tools conversation that occasionally touches process.

Over three days, September 15 to 17, LTSP26 brings together practitioners, facilitators, consultants, and strategy leaders who are doing real work at this intersection. Not thought leaders offering frameworks. Not vendors offering platforms. Practitioners reporting from engagements.

The format is deliberately different from the standard virtual conference. Think less webinar series, more curated discovery environment — closer to an interactive museum than a lecture hall. Sessions are designed to provoke pattern recognition and shift perspective, not to deliver skill transfers or action item lists. Attendees leave with new ways of seeing, not new things to do this quarter.

Specific sessions will address:

— Why AI applied to the wrong stage of strategy creation is more dangerous than not using AI at all

— How focused AI personas — built around specific subprocess tasks — outperform general LLM prompting in strategy work by an order of magnitude

— What a rigorous strategy creation baseline looks like in practice, drawn from real engagements across multiple industries and horizons

— How tools like StratNav are being built around process clarity rather than buzzword chasing — and what that distinction means for how you evaluate any AI strategy tool

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿

LTSP26 is for executives, strategy consultants, board advisors, facilitators, content creators, and thought leaders who are responsible for how long-term strategy gets made — and who are serious about understanding where AI genuinely improves that process and where it introduces risk.

It is not for those looking for a general AI literacy event. It is not for those who want to be told that AI will transform everything. Those events exist. This is not one of them.

If you are three weeks from a strategy retreat and your AI answers all sound identical, this conference was built for you. If your chairman has started asking questions your current process cannot answer, this conference was built for you. If you have sensed that something is wrong with the way AI is being applied to strategy work but have not yet been able to name it precisely — you have just named it.

𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱

A 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 (free or pay what you wish) gives access to selected sessions and experiences across the three days.

A 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 ($199 USD, with purchasing power parity pricing available) gives full access to all sessions, AI persona experiences, practitioner case studies, and post-conference materials.

Early registration is open now. Use code EARLYLTSP26 for 20% off the Full Ticket through July 31.

Register at https://strategyconf.fwconsulting.com