Michael Amori is the CEO and co-founder of Virtualistics. Data scientist and entrepreneur with a background in finance and physics.
As the CEO of a major defense technology company, I have seen firsthand how AI is redefining both national security strategy and corporate competitiveness. In an industry where innovation cycles are measured in months and success depends on the accuracy of decisions, AI will be essential, enabling leaders to move faster, scale smarter, and remain globally responsive.
The same leadership idea of using intelligence as both a strategic asset and a security measure now extends far beyond defense. Across all sectors, AI is becoming the foundation for CEOs to navigate disruption and drive growth in an increasingly complex world.
AI is now the new language of leadership decision-making. This enables executives to innovate with speed, scale with confidence, and operate globally with resilience.
This principle is also the basis of the U.S. AI Action Plan, released by the White House in July 2025. On the surface, it is a federal framework for responsible innovation and technological leadership. But a closer look reveals much more than that. It’s a blueprint for how today’s business leaders can build their organizations for the future.
Just as the United States aims to lead through the three pillars of innovation, infrastructure, and diplomacy, CEOs can apply similar tools to build agility, resilience, and credibility in their companies’ operations. Here’s how:
1. Embrace rapid innovation
The first pillar, “Accelerating AI Innovation,” calls for deregulation and private sector leadership. For business leaders, this means embracing AI as both a multiplier and a moat.
Companies that embrace AI by deeply integrating it into their value chains, training data models specific to their operations, building decision intelligence into their plans, and empowering their employees with AI co-pilots and agents will beat those waiting to embrace this technology.
Part of this evolution also means putting in place the right controls so that AI becomes a resource rather than a risk. Guardrails don’t limit innovation. they make it possible. Establish a safety and accountability framework that more people in your organization can leverage in their daily workflows.
2. Own your digital infrastructure
The second pillar, “Building America’s AI Infrastructure,” centers on the nation’s physical backbone of digital leadership, including semiconductors, data centers, and secure data pipelines.
For CEOs, this translates into clear goals. It’s about owning the infrastructure story. This doesn’t necessarily mean building your own data center, but it does mean understanding where your models will live, how the data will flow, and who will control the computing power.
Companies that treat digital infrastructure as strategic capital will be able to scale more efficiently and securely. Whether you’re modernizing traditional operations or expanding into new markets, your ability to process, secure, and deploy AI solutions faster than your competitors will determine your growth trajectory.
3. Lead with diplomacy
The third pillar, “Leading in International AI Diplomacy and Security,” reframes AI as a tool for global influence and trade.
For multinational companies, this means that their supply chains, cloud geographies, and data sharing agreements are now part of larger geopolitical decisions. Executives should see this as an opportunity to lead with transparency and trust.
Building explainability, bias monitoring, and ethical governance into AI systems is no longer just about compliance, but also about maintaining positive brand equity.
Build an executive AI action plan
What is striking about the national AI strategy is how it mirrors the private sector’s own evolution: data literacy as a strategic advantage, explainability as a trust mechanism, and decision intelligence as a bridge between leadership intent and operational reality.
To bring these new best practices to your strategic agenda, try these three things:
1. Treat your AI strategy like a national issue.
Setting AI priorities is a company-wide responsibility. Virtualistics operationalized this by creating a cross-functional AI task force that integrates operations, IT, and finance. These teams ensure that all strategic partnerships and internal initiatives align with long-term corporate goals, not just immediate product needs.
For example, when onboarding a large strategic partner, our task requires us to map goals, assign responsibilities, and run scenarios together across departments to anticipate business challenges. By treating AI adoption as a coordinated, long-term effort, you can embed intelligence into every decision, create alignment across teams, and scale impact more efficiently.
2. Invest in infrastructure resiliency.
The ability to generate insights will increasingly depend on the evolution of digital supply chains. That’s why we invested in flexible, high-performance infrastructure that can scale with demand and evolve with new AI models.
This approach eliminates being locked into a single provider or environment, giving teams the agility to pivot quickly, safely experiment, and extract actionable insights in real-time. By building infrastructure resiliency in-house, you can turn your compute and data ecosystem into a competitive advantage rather than a potential bottleneck.
3. Build on a foundation of trust.
Align your brand with a trusted ecosystem through supply chain, data partnerships, and AI ethical alliances. Our partnership in Palantir’s FedStart program has enabled us to build a secure and compliant system while demonstrating our trustworthiness and trustworthiness to clients and regulators alike.
Trust also shapes data partnerships and AI ethical standards, ensuring all deployments adhere to high governance and explainability benchmarks. By prioritizing collaboration, not just speed, you can improve your reputation, reduce business risk, and turn trust from compliance checkboxes into a foundation for strategic growth.
The future is intelligent leadership
The U.S. government’s AI strategy shows what forward-thinking CEOs already know. Leadership in the age of AI requires vision, speed, and a commitment to change.
The same principles that guide America’s national plan – innovate quickly, build strong, and lead responsibly – are principles every company must embrace to stay ahead. The future belongs to those who can turn intelligence into an advantage at every level of an organization.
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