Revenue, the “top line,” is the most visible number on the income statement and often the most misunderstood internally and externally. Investors evaluate it, executives forecast it, boards demand it, and teams around the organization are measured against it. Yet inside many organizations, revenue is treated as something Sales “goes out and gets,” rather than something the entire business system supports.

Ask a leadership team how to grow revenue, and the first answers typically point to Sales tactics. But companies don’t miss revenue targets because they lack closers; they miss them because value isn’t clear, pricing isn’t defended, products don’t perform, demand isn’t generated, customers don’t stay, or operations cannot fulfill. Revenue problems are rarely sales problems; they are system problems hiding in plain sight.

That simple misunderstanding drives expensive behaviors: discounting, promotions, quarter-end pushes, and reactive heroics that hit numbers but don’t build durable growth. Sustainable revenue comes from a broader set of forces: value creation, pricing power, product quality, customer experience, fulfillment, and organizational capability.

In other words, revenue is not just a sales number; it is the output of how well the business actually works. To improve revenue, employees must understand the system that creates it. These are the primary drivers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how leaders and managers access information, interpret trends, and make business decisions. But even as predictive models and automated insights become standard, these human decision makers remain the critical link between data and execution. AI can accelerate analysis, but only the skill of business acumen enables decision makers to understand what the data means, how it connects across the business, and what decisions will support short-term and long-term performance.

The Advantexe research team presents and asks essential questions that show how AI and business acumen work together in today’s workplace.

So much is being written about how AI will displace millions of jobs, reshape entire functions, and eventually automate large parts of how companies operate. But I’d rather look at the other side of the story, the positive side.

Like a final box score, the Income Statement tells the truth about how well your business decisions performed.

The Friday after Thanksgiving has quietly become one of my favorite new traditions, not just because of leftovers, but because this year, my Philadelphia Eagles are now part of the NFL’s post-holiday lineup. As usual, I’ll be glued to every snap and coaching decision… all of it pointing toward one thing: the scoreboard.

It has been a wild and volatile year in business, and as we head toward the holiday season, most companies expect the usual mid-December slowdown. This year, I think it’s going to arrive early. Economic caution, delayed budgets, and a growing “let’s revisit this in January” mindset are kicking in before Thanksgiving.

But while the pace slows, leaders have a rare window to step back from short-term pressures and think strategically about what’s next. And when it comes to AI, it is still very much in its early innings; two major shifts are coming that will reshape how organizations compete in 2026.