Cognitive transformation, intelligent automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are changing the workplace worldwide. As this revolution unfolds, no business will stay the same. The transformative power unleashed by tech giants is making traditional firms irrelevant. Having e-commerce capabilities or tech departments is not enough. In fact, recent history shows that despite making significant investments in technology, traditional companies have failed to effectively compete with the fast encroaching tech giants. The real reasons for failure are not in their inability to invest in technology, it is in their lack of understanding the Pure-Play leadership. A calm, courageous and authentic leadership style that is not averse to taking bold risks, Pure-Play values scientists and researchers and gives them a seat at the boardroom strategy table.

How can the leaders of the traditional firms transform their companies to effectively compete in the cognitive era? Learn the lessons from a beaver who is trying to save his beaver colony after a devastating flood. Nature teaches us powerful lessons and even the most complex and mysterious things can be simplified in its lab. ‘The Beaver Bot of Yellowstone’ is for leaders who don’t have the time or the patience to read thousands of pages of research and thesis but want to get to the bottom of the leadership principles for the cognitive era.

True leaders will take the helm and do what the beaver leader did. They will save their companies from annihilation by leading the artificial intelligence revolution. All that can be learned in a reading that lasts no more than a one-way Chicago–DC flight.

Al Naqvi is a pioneer researcher in applied artificial intelligence in business and strategy and professor at the American Institute of Artificial Intelligence. The executive director of the Society of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Healthcare, Naqvi is editor of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Business, Policy, and Economy.

J. Mark Munoz is a tenured full professor of international business at Millikin University, USA. A former visiting fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA, and advisor to its AI Initiative, Munoz is the author of several books and recipient of numerous awards including a literary award, the AGBA International Book Award and the ACBSP Teaching Excellence Award among others.

1. Introduction; 2. The Story: The Great Flood and Its Aftermath; 3. A Seeker’s Search; 4. The Rebellion; 5. Robots and Automation—the Concept; 6. Cognitive Capabilities; 7. The Final Struggle; 8. CEO Reflection; Questions for Review; Questions for Deeper Insights; About the Authors; Part Two of the Beaver Story.