Three-Year Planning Horizon Is the New Long-Term

Adopt a 2–3 year horizon: plan architectures and bets that survive rapid AI change, and avoid over‑committing beyond that window.

Sep 29, 2025 0m 16s

Steve Brown

Expert Insights

Steve Brown emphasizes that software development teams need to regularly adapt and prepare for emerging AI trends. He firmly believes that rapidly evolving AI is redefining what constitutes long-term planning. Traditional multi-year perspectives are becoming less realistic; today, looking two to three years ahead should be the norm.

Steve's remarks underline the importance of staying agile in the face of AI advancements and encourage teams to adjust their time horizons.

Hear Steve discuss:

Why adaptability and forward-thinking are crucial for teams navigating constant AI evolution.
How short-term planning—typically two to three years ahead—has become the new “long-term” in AI-driven software development.
What it takes to stay competitive by continuously tracking and integrating emerging AI trends.

My goal is to help them understand and prepare for the coming waves of AI so they can get the most out of them and take, you know, as long a term perspective as you can today, which realistically is maybe two to three years.

— Steve Brown, AI Futurist & fmr exec @ Google DeepMind & Intel

THE NEW DEFAULT angle

Here are the strategies that software development teams can adopt:

Constant education: Keep up-to-date with emerging AI advancements and their potential influence on software development practices. Be ready to incorporate new AI capabilities into team workflows.
Agile long-term planning: Adjust goal-setting and planning horizons to the accelerated pace of AI advancements. Traditional multi-year planning is less applicable; instead, focus on the next 2 to 3 years.
Expect change: Develop robust strategies to deal with the inherent uncertainties posed by rapid AI advancements. Plans and methodologies should be flexible to adapt to future AI trends.
Leverage AI benefits: Stay aware of unfolding AI developments and take advantage of them to enhance productivity and value delivery in software development projects.