OpEd: AI is forcing some big decisions for business owners

AI adoption is widespread but the gains are still elusive for many.

By Jeremy Steinberg, Tower Partners

Published in the Baltimore Business Journal, April 24, 2026

AI is supposed to create clarity. Instead, it’s doing the opposite for many business owners.

Across the middle market, AI is accelerating change faster than most business owners can comfortably process. What should be a tool for efficiency and insight is instead creating a new kind of pressure – one that is strategic, existential and increasingly urgent. As a result, a consistent pattern is emerging across industries, not in how businesses are responding to AI, but in how uncertain they feel about what to do next.

Broadly, these business owners fall into three distinct groups.

• The first group is staying the course. They are confident in what has worked historically and believe their business fundamentals will carry them forward. Yet even they recognize that the markets around them are evolving, whether they choose to engage with that change or not.

• The second group is moving quickly to adopt AI tools. They are experimenting, investing and trying to keep pace. But too often, this adoption is reactive. It is driven less by a clear strategic vision and more by a fear of falling behind and “keeping up with the Joneses” rather than defining what winning actually looks like.

• The third group is the most at risk. These owners understand that change is happening but feel overwhelmed by its scope. Instead of stepping back and reassessing their businesses in a new context, they default to short-term, tactical decisions. Activity replaces strategy. Motion replaces direction.

Despite their differences, all three of these groups are converging on the same reality: a forced strategic decision may be coming. At some point, most owners will need to choose between two paths forward. The first path is to accelerate, making meaningful investments in time, energy and resources to transform their business in line with where their market is going. The second is to explore liquidity, considering a sale before disruption begins to erode value and compress outcome options.

The risk is not choosing the wrong path. The risk is waiting too long to choose at all.

This is the point where it is essential for business owners to recognize they don’t need to make this decision on their own. Instead, they should turn to the trusted advisers who know their industry, their company and its strengths and weaknesses. These may be the same advisers to whom they have turned for counsel in the past. It is important, however, for them to recognize that not all advisers are built for this moment.

Weak advisors tend to retreat into process. They hide behind data, overproduce materials and struggle to differentiate their perspective. In moments of uncertainty, they often amplify it, obscuring decision-making rather than clarifying it. Strong advisers do the opposite. They simplify complexity. They take a position. They guide decisively, grounded not just in analysis, but in real-world market intelligence. Most importantly, they help owners make decisions before decisions are made for them.

Bottom line, business owners cannot make such a critically important decision without clarity as to where their company is, where they want to be and how they are going to close that gap. To accomplish that, they must establish both near-term priorities and long-term strategic options. Doing so will empower them to decide, rather than react. In today’s environment, reaction is where value is lost.

Recognizing that it is no longer a matter of if but when AI will impact your business, owners have to face the reality that now is the time to act. The window to thoughtfully evaluate your options is finite and will never be longer than it is currently. You want to be prepared to respond appropriately, not just react when it’s too late. Wait too long and what feels like a strategic choice today can quickly become a forced outcome tomorrow.

Jeremy Steinberg is a managing director, COO and head of advisory at Tower Partners, a leading private investment bank and advisory firm providing premier service to the lower middle market.