Nine Operating Models, and What Each Means for AI

Every structure answers two questions: how work is grouped, and where decisions sit. Most companies are a mix. Pick the model that describes how decisions really get made, not the one on the org chart.

A useful neutral lens is APQC's Process Classification Framework. Lay it over the org chart and mark every place where a process crosses an ownership boundary. Those crossings are exactly where end-to-end AI redesign breaks.

Tap a model or use Previous and Next. Each card shows the structure, the scan signal, what it means for AI, what needs to change, and how it plays out in a mid-sized company.

What the research says

Structure matters less than you might think, and more than most AI plans assume. McKinsey's State of AI research found that redesigning workflows has the biggest effect on bottom-line impact of all the factors it tested. BCG's AI leaders put roughly 70% of their effort into people and processes, 20% into technology and only 10% into algorithms.

So the question is not which structure is best. It is whether your structure lets one person own a flow from start to finish, and redesign it. That is the first step of BAIOS™, and the one most AI plans skip.

Sources: McKinsey, The State of AI (March 2025). BCG, The Widening AI Value Gap (September 2025). APQC, Process Classification Framework.