We are all in need of moving towards faster and bigger buying of valuable solutions that reduce complexity and provide improved outcomes over the existing ones.
How do we qualify opportunities in the future (AI, Human and in what order) to get to value points of different opportunities. How do we see the future of value consumed? What does value look like and in what new forms will this value be delivered?
Much will come from our adopting Ecosystems in design and thinking, providing the orchestrators environment where those within that orbit will see and build in co-creation ways and then position themseves with that business ecosystem as the center of the new mass to build it and constantly improve its interconnected, integrated parts.
Ecosystem opportunity sensing and capture where speed of qualification and the shape of the value ar going to change dramatically comes from determining a different way of working.
We will need to build new detection radars providing greater sources of signal
Sources of Signal
We’re moving from passive discovery (market research, RFPs, slow human networking) to active, continuous sensing. The sources will increasingly combine AI-driven intelligence with human insight.
A. We will need AI as the First Filter & Pattern Finder
- Weak signal detection at scale – AI can constantly scan markets, patents, social platforms, funding rounds, regulatory filings, partner moves, etc., to surface unusual activity patterns.
- Opportunity clustering – Grouping fragmented indicators into emerging opportunity domains (e.g., an intersection of battery innovation, new recycling rules, and supply chain shortages).
- Velocity scoring – How fast is the conversation, investment, or regulation moving? Signals with increasing velocity are early indicators of urgency → faster buying windows.
B. Then the Human will be the Context Giver & Qualifier
- Sense-making – Humans can validate if an AI-surfaced pattern is signal or noise.
- Relational trust-building – Many large-scale buys still depend on credibility, relationships, and risk comfort — things humans accelerate.
- Narrative framing – Turning the signal into a story stakeholders can act on is human-led.
This will built out a clear order of operation:
- AI for broad sensing & prioritization →
- Human insight for contextual framing & relational opening →
- Hybrid (AI + Human) for decision acceleration & co-designed solution framing.
Qualifying Future Opportunities
Future opportunity qualification won’t just be about “market fit” — it will be about ecosystem fit and velocity to value.
Key criteria:
- Network readiness – Does the ecosystem have players who can co-deliver quickly?
- Mass formation potential – Is this opportunity attracting enough gravitational pull (funding, policy, partnerships) to create a center of mass?
- Interdependency leverage – Will solving this problem unlock multiple value streams (e.g., solving a logistics bottleneck also unlocks sustainability credits)?
- Adoption friction – How much cultural, technical, or regulatory resistance stands in the way?
- AI compatibility – Can AI enhance, scale, or personalize the offering rapidly?
The Future of Value – What Will Be Consumed
Value will become more fluid, less owned, more experienced.
Shifts in Value Types
- From product ownership → to outcome subscription
People/companies pay for the result (uptime, carbon reduction, market reach), not the tool itself. - From single-exchange → to continuous exchange
Value comes from ongoing data and feedback loops that improve the offering over time. - From tangible → to hybrid tangible-intangible
Trust, influence, access, data rights, and ecosystem position will be bought, sold, or traded like assets.
This becomes the Orchestrator’s Landscape
We’ll see two gravitational models:
- Centers of new mass – These are orchestrators who define the rules, own the core infrastructure, and become default go-tos for coordination (Amazon in retail ecosystems, NVIDIA in AI chips).
- Orbiting specialists – Those who derive and signal their value by aligning with these centers — not trying to own the mass, but to capture value by being indispensable at key touchpoints.
The power dynamic:
- Centers of mass pull value in through platform lock-in and network effects.
- Orbit players push value out by being hyper-adaptive, niche-defining, or bridge-building between clusters.
Where This Will Require
- Signal-to-value playbook – A repeatable way to move from signal detection → rapid qualification → orchestrated action.
- New value dashboards – Visualizing ecosystem health, velocity of adoption, value exchange flows.
- AI-augmented opportunity maps – Where “value gravity” is forming and where the low-friction lanes to enter exist.
The Signal- to-Value Radar Map
We can map this into a visual ecosystem “radar and gravitational mass” model. Showing AI as the outer sensing ring, human qualification as the mid-zone and how orchestrators attract and pull in orbiting specialists into the ecosystem to convert signnaks into faster, bigger value co-creation.
You gain this value flow from AI sensing to human framing into orchestration and value exchange, made increasingly explicit.
This focus on sensing to value builds the bi-directional value flows between the orchestrator and the orbit (contributing) players.
One begins to open up to new value co-creation opportunities fitting within the framework and approach undertaken in the integrated interconnected business ecosystem extending well beyond the existing definitions of value creation (previous post discusses)
1. Outcome-as-a-Service (OaaS)
Definition:
A model where buyers pay for the end result rather than the product, service, or technology itself. It shifts the risk from the buyer to the provider, who must ensure delivery of the agreed outcomes. There are ways to recognize and apply your stratregic thinking to build these out
2. Continuous Value Loops
Definition:
A system where value is not delivered in one-off transactions but in iterative, compounding cycles, driven by ongoing data collection, feedback, and product/service evolution. Again how to recognize and strategically think through these can be applied
3. Hybrid Tangible–Intangible Assets
Definition:
Value no longer resides solely in physical goods or direct services — it includes trust, influence, access rights, reputation, and data control, all tradable and monetizable in their own right. To recognize and structure your strategic thinking needs to open up to a very different approach to intangible assests.
- A future post will be discussing and proposing a new approach based on Ecosystems for valuing intangible assets
4. Ecosystem Positioning Value
Definition:
Value derived from where you are in the ecosystem’s value flow — being close to critical decisions, resource allocations, or opportunity hotspots. Again how to recognize and strategically think through this value opportunity can be discussed.
Bringing It All Together – Value Flow Implications
In the orchestrator’s environment, AI scanning identifies the opportunity, human insight qualifies and frames it, and ecosystem positioning converts it into value exchanges.
Each of these value types can be measured, traded, and amplified within this flow — the orchestrator’s skill is ensuring they compound rather than operate in isolation.
The key is not just to capture these signals but to unify and analyze then in real time making them proactive, predictive ones that you feed into the integrated interconnected business model to orchestrator, calibrate and leverage its power.
We look towards a future where value changes.
Value Co-creation moves from product to outcomes, from solutions to ecosystems, from transactional to relational where those in the orbit (network) offer their “best-in-class” component into the larger Ecosystem and those positioned as the Orchestrator to provide much of the connective tissue, the data hub and central point of control.
Orchestrators “add” value in their own parts of the solutions but in their growing role in their ability to simplify complexity, create a unified user experience and manage the entire ecosystem on the customers behalf by providing a seemless one-stop solution. They become the trusted advisor navigating past those fragmented markets.
Building the “Signal Sensor” approach to your Ecosystem business, lets make contact and talk.