From Metrics to Meaning

This chapter develops an ontocybernetic framework for business intelligence in environments where predictive, metric-driven models falter. Drawing on first-, second-, and third-order cybernetics, systems theory, and AI governance, it conceptualizes Ontocybernetics as the design of conditions under which organizational intelligence, meaning, and viability become possible. The contribution is synthetic and theory-driven, complemented by illustrative cases (e.g., Alibaba's Rural Taobao and Natura) that show how orientation architectures operate in practice. The core result is a potentiality-based model in which intelligence is treated as an architectural property of semantic, organizational, and AI-supported infrastructures rather than as a trait of individual agents or tools. The chapter concludes with managerial and research implications for orientation-centric business intelligence, evaluator governance, and AI as infrastructural intelligence that sustains coherence, integrity, and viable action under structural uncertainty.