In the movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with an AI. At the time, it felt like science fiction.

Today, many of those once-imagined futures are already here. As an OKRs coach, I’ve been focused on how to combine the power of OKRs with AI in a way that drives real execution without undermining the very behaviors OKRs are meant to create.

AI is being used now to shape how teams work with OKRs but with mixed effectiveness

Ineffective use of AI: Automating the OKR Process to “save time”

Using AI to draft and refine OKRs simply reduces the time spent defining them. However, as anyone who has found success with OKRs knows, the conversations that OKRs force as part of their creation is often the most valuable part of the OKRs process. So, you’re going to miss out on this if you simply automate this piece with AI.

Imagine a CEO sitting alone at a bar with a cocktail napkin creating top-down OKRs with the assistance of an AI tool. This approach is unlikely to go well since OKRs are best when including bottom-up input to create ownership and commitment from the people doing the work.

When teams outsource this thinking to AI, they risk losing some of OKRs most basic benefits. Saving time is helpful, but it’s not transformative!

The real opportunity lies elsewhere.

The Opportunity:

What if the AI was actually able to do some of the work? What if we could leverage AI to achieve a 10x improvement on the execution of our OKRs? Now, that would be a game changer!

In this post, I propose a new way to leverage AI to achieve a 10x improvement on OKR execution.

CEOs want to see a 10x impact on OKRs. Many CEOs no longer want to hire an OKR coaching team to help launch their OKR program, suggest how to refine their OKRs, or streamline processes like check-ins and OKR drafting workshops.

No, CEOs want to leverage the potential of AI to beat the competition. And the time is now.

One CEO put it this way: “Either we leverage AI to win and beat the competition, or we fail to leverage AI and begin the painful conversations to start talking about layoffs.”

I first experienced this shift not in a client engagement, but in my own OKRs.

Effective use of AI: Leveraging AI to Improve KR Action Plans

At OKRs.com, we had a KR to develop more leads. Historically, about 15% of our leads were attributed to a single podcast episode from several years ago. So, I made it a goal to complete 20 podcast interviews by the end of 2025. However, after a dozen podcast appearances produced no measurable impact on leads, I asked ChatGPT for alternatives and started a conversation:

Me: Given that I’ve completed 12 podcasts so far, and none of them seem to be generating leads, what approaches do you recommend I pursue to create high-quality leads on a fast track?”

AI: Have you tried AMAs? That stands for ‘Ask Me Anything’ and most podcasters offer these at some point. Unlike Podcasts which are asynchronous, AMAs are synchronous. AMAs produce live conversations with potential prospects or partners.”

Within an hour, I scheduled my first AMA, posted it on the OKRs.com site, and promoted it on social media. Our first AMA led to a new client in just two months! The AI gave me the idea, and I then quickly took an action that led directly to rapid, measurable progress on my KR!

This wasn’t an isolated win. We are now seeing similar breakthroughs when teams apply AI directly to KR action planning. Here are a couple examples:

Case 1: Automating a task to drive engagement metric

One of our clients was able to automate the process of transforming widescreen videos into thumbnail previews using AI, a process that would have taken months. The task of creating thumbnails then enabled them to achieve a KR that nearly doubled their user engagement metric in just one OKR cycle!

Case 2: Automating data analysis processes to reduce a credit card decline metric

One company knew they were losing money on declined credit card transactions but had no visibility into how to make changes to stop the bleeding. In just a week, they were able to get an AI application to go through all the billing data, build an interactive dashboard, and start making recommendations for actions to take in order to improve revenue collections. The KR transformed from “develop a dashboard to visualize billing data and identify 3 actions to take that will improve billing in 2025” to “Reduce average monthly revenue lost to declined credit cards from X to Y by end of 2025.”

These experiences led us to rethink how OKR coaching should work in an AI-enabled world.

Invitation: Sign up for the 10x your OKRs with AI Pilot Program

If your organization already has OKRs in place but is frustrated by slow or incremental execution, our AI-Powered KR Action Planning pilot is designed for you.

Here’s how AI-Powered KR Action Planning works:

1. AI-Driven KR Action Planning Workshop

Teams work alongside their coach and AI to identify high-leverage actions that can materially move each KR.

2. Early Momentum Check-Ins

KR champions are coached early in the cycle to review execution, refine AI prompts, and accelerate progress.

3. Proof of Impact at Mid-Cycle

We validate early wins that demonstrate how AI is contributing to measurable KR progress.

4. Reflect, Reset, and Scale

Teams document outcomes and participate in a reflect-and-reset session focused on scaling what worked.

This pilot is best suited for teams that already have OKRs in place and want to materially accelerate execution and is intentionally limited to ensure hands-on coaching and real outcomes.