Digital Thinking in Business: How to Build Processes So That AI Becomes a Strategic Advantage

A business novel about how to identify hidden bottlenecks in processes and turn AI from a trendy buzzword into a sustainable strategic advantage.

Technologies evolve rapidly, while the way we think about them changes much more slowly—and, in Dmitry Gureyev’s view, that’s what most often holds back change. He notes that Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, created for production systems in the 1980s, also applies to information flows in the AI era. The author offers the concept of “hidden artifacts of thinking”—intermediate results of experts’ work that aren’t captured in documents or systems and instead remain in their minds. This helps explain why so many IT projects end in failure: they automate what’s visible on the surface and fail to notice the invisible intellectual work that happens between the steps of the process.

A book about how to maintain balance and convert technological hype into measurable value. It shows how to change the way of working: not just to roll out tools, but to understand how people actually create, transfer, and use knowledge. This is a story of one person’s mindset transformation—someone who learned to look at familiar processes in a new way.

All examples and dialogues in the book are a fictional reworking of dozens of real AI implementation projects the author personally observed.

Who this book is for
For entrepreneurs and executives making decisions about digital transformation and implementing AI in business processes.
For middle and senior managers who want to increase productivity, eliminate bottlenecks, and move out of day-to-day operational mode.
For IT directors and digital leaders working at the intersection of business and technology, responsible for the practical impact of automation.
For specialists, consultants, and participants in business programs who value an applied approach to using AI and want to understand where it delivers measurable results—and where it does not.