i5 Series: From AI-Centric to Orchestration-Native

Many enterprises are now chasing an AI-centric imperative¹: copilots in tools, agents in workflows, intelligence embedded everywhere.

That’s progress – but it doesn’t solve the hardest problem large organizations face:

Some parts may be getting smarter. The overall system is not.

Sales, supply, logistics, finance and operations can each have their own AI.

Without a coordination layer, you still get fragmented decisions, rising AI costs, and familiar chaos under disruption.

This series by INDUSTRY 5, is about the next step: becoming orchestration-native.

An orchestration-native enterprise adds an intelligent layer above existing systems that:

continuously listens across demand, supply, production, logistics, and finance,
simulates options and trade-offs before you commit,
and coordinates actions within clear policies and guardrails.

Instead of asking, “Where else can we add AI?”, the question becomes:

“How do we give all this intelligence a way to coordinate?”

We outline what the i5 orchestration-native architecture looks like, how it changes economics and metrics, how to adopt it safely in phases, and what it does to roles, culture, and resilience when the world moves.

If you’re responsible for a global enterprise and wondering what comes after “add AI to everything,” this series is meant to show you what’s next – and how to get there without tearing up what already works.

i5 Series: From AI-Centric to Orchestration-Native

TABLE OF CONTENTS

¹ McKinsey | The AI-centric imperative: Navigating the next software frontier