AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm

What if your business could have the intelligence and agility of an octopus?

In AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm (Second Edition), leading futurist Jonathan Brill and innovation expert Stephen Wunker unveil a groundbreaking vision for how organizations must evolve to survive and thrive in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing inspiration from the octopus, an ancient creature noted for both rapid adaptation and distributed intelligence, the authors show that only businesses that rewire their structure, leadership, and decision-making can unlock AI's full potential.

This is not another book about chatbots or automation. It’s a deeply researched, vividly told blueprint for transforming businesses so that they can make the most of AI. The secrets explored include what skills to cultivate, how to excel with human + AI combinations, how to organize teams for maximum impact, and how to deal with the emotional side of AI-driven change. This book is a practical guide to shaping an AI business strategy for executives who need to lead at scale without losing agility. The book describes how AI is already reshaping growth, coordination, and culture, providing an actionable roadmap to what the authors call the Octopus Organization™, one that can navigate the change ahead.

Backed by over two million data points from workforce surveys, insights from 50+ global leaders, and fresh 2026 real-world case studies from companies like HelloFresh, BBVA, Mass General Brigham, Siemens, and Procter & Gamble, AI and the Octopus Organization reveals how your company can:

• Empower the frontline with AI-enhanced autonomy
• Create networks for decision-making across silos
• Rapidly adapt to disruptions without losing control
• Build a culture that embraces experimentation
• Replace old approaches with superintelligent coordination

If you found the breakthrough thinking of The Innovator’s Dilemma or Team of Teams transformative, AI and the Octopus Organization belongs on your shelf. It bridges cutting-edge technology with timeless management principles. It shows how to lead, not lag, in the coming AI revolution.

The octopus has 9 brains, 3 hearts, and an astonishing ability to adapt to new conditions. It possesses a type of consciousness alien to humans – with intelligence distributed throughout its entire body – that aptly describes the way AI revolutionizes management and work. Discover how it’s a model of a high-performing, AI-enabled organization that can make the most of AI’s historic opportunity.

The future is coming faster than you think. Dive into AI and the Octopus Organization and build your blueprint for resilience, intelligence, and supercharged growth.

The book contains:
Introduction Why Transform?
Chapter 1 Reimagining Growth: The key macro issues that make AI-enabled organizational change necessary
Chapter 2 Eight Arms: How to delegate decision-making with AI while maintaining alignment and consistency
Chapter 3 Neural Necklace: How to work with AI to make context-rich information discoverable in real time
Chapter 4 Three Hearts: Modes of leadership that avoid both command-and-control relapse and free-for-all anarchy
Chapter 5 RNA-Powered Resilience: How to turn resilience into a standing capability rather than a post-crisis recovery
Chapter 6 An Emotional Being: How to overcome the trust issues that silently kill AI transformations
Chapter 7 Strategic Serendipity: Ways to convert uncertainty from threat to managed asset
Chapter 8 Your Transformation Plan: The step-by-step approach to managing AI transformation
Appendix Scaling Enterprise AI

Stephen Wunker is the Managing Director of New Markets Advisors, a global consulting firm that develops growth strategies for ambitious innovators, including 29 of the Fortune 500. A pioneer in mobile marketing and payments, he led the development of one of the world's first smartphones. As a longtime collaborator with the late Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School's legendary scholar of business disruption, Stephen played a key role in refining and applying his theories of Disruptive Innovation and Jobs to be Done. He has worked across sectors to help large organizations identify major opportunities and move quickly, despite legacy systems or cultural resistance.

Jonathan Brill is the Futurist-in-Residence at Amazon, Executive Chairman of the Center for Radical Change, and former Global Futurist and Research Director at HP. Forbes calls him "the world's leading futurist." As an AI Lab Chief, technology executive, and creative director at Frog Design, his teams have developed over 350 products, generating tens of billions of dollars in new revenue for clients. As a consultant and board advisor, he has guided multinational corporations and national governments, as well as frontier tech firms working in AI, defense, food, and advanced manufacturing.