alt Hacker News>must be so focused on the future
They're focused no the short-term future, not the long-term future. So if everyone else adopts AI but you don't and the stock price suffers because of that (merely because of the "perception" that your company has fallen behind affecting market value), then that is an issue. There's no true long-term planning at play, otherwise you wouldn't have obvious copypcat behavior amongst CEOs such as pandemic overhiring.
Every company should have hired over the pandemic due to there being a higher EV than not hiring. It's like if someone offered an opportunity to pay $1000 for a 50% chance to make $8000, where the outcome is the same between everyone taking the offer. If you are maximizing for the long term everyone should take the offer even if it does result in a reality where everyone loses $1000.