AI Adoption is an Act of Self-Disruption

A field note from my conversation the authors of the best-selling book, Invisible Machines, Robb W. and Josh Tyson for their podcast published by UX Magazine . Our conversation serves as a playbook for leaders who refuse to wait their turn to use AI as a catalyst for business transformation. What an honor. Full video at the end.

The most misunderstood myth in business right now is that AI is a tool you roll out to increase employee productivity and operational efficiency. While it does those things with proper vision, training, and support, AI can also do so much more. It's a matter of automation vs. augmentation. One empowers you to do what you're already doing, just faster, at scale, maybe even less expensively. The other is an "and." While you improve yesterday, you can also now explore opportunities to execute in ways not possible before. This can create new value that balances efficiency gains and cost-out initiatives. A balance of automation + augmentation unlocks unprecedented competitiveness.

On the Invisible Machines podcast, I positioned AI as a forcing function. It confronts leaders with a choice, only protect the past, or design the system that makes a better future inevitable. That choice begins with self-disruption. Not the performance of it. The practice.

For years we treated transformation like a procurement category. We bought platforms, checked boxes, ran pilots, celebrated demos. The problem isn’t that the models don’t work. It’s that organizations are optimized to scale yesterday and resist the inherent benefits these investments can unlock. We reward activity over outcomes, control over learning, and scale over reinvention. If that sounds familiar, you’re not dealing with a technology problem, it has to do with leadership and vision

“Don’t adopt AI to preserve what you were. Use it to become what only you can be next.”

The leader’s pivot: from projects to flows

The conversation kept returning to a single idea: value doesn’t live in features; it compounds in flows. A feature adds surface area. A flow changes reality. When we can redesign an end-to-end journey for AI, so agents handle the known and repetitive, and humans focus on judgment, creativity, and relationships, every run becomes a learning loop. Prompts sharpen. Policies mature. Confidence grows. Customers feel it. Employees feel it. Finance feels it. That’s transformation you can measure.

“Outcomes live in the seams. Design the seams.”

Two moments that test every executive

On the show we drew a distinction I see in every boardroom:

The ah-ha moment: that flash of clarity where you can name the outcome AI can accelerate, faster resolution, safer decisions, smarter service, new growth.

The uh-oh moment: the sober realization that your current incentives, processes, or risk posture will block that outcome unless you change them.

Great leadership embraces both. Vision without operating change is theater. Operating change without vision is bureaucracy. Transformation happens when you name the outcome and then remove the obstacles that prevent it...policies, handoffs, approvals, and the narratives that keep everyone playing small.

“The ah-ha shows you what’s possible. The uh-oh tells you what must change. Don't wait for something to happen, pursue both proactively”

Narrative is infrastructure

We talk a lot about data and design. We talk less about story—even though story is the control surface humans actually respond to. If the story is “AI equals headcount cuts,” teams retreat and customers brace. If the story is “AI expands human capability to deliver better experiences,” people lean in. On Invisible Machines we discussed a move I use in every program: a one-page “future press release.” It describes the better experience people will feel, the metric that proves it, and the role humans play when the system works. You’re not just launching a pilot; you’re setting a promise the organization can rally behind.

"People won’t follow a model. They’ll follow a mission.”

Work is changing from doing tasks to designing systems

Agentic systems don’t eliminate work; they elevate it. The job shifts from performing tasks to designing, supervising, and improving flows. And the planning horizon shifts, too. We’re entering a world rich with simulations and predictions where teams can preview consequences before touching production. Decision-making becomes continuous and evidence-based. The managers who thrive won’t be the ones reading dashboards; they’ll be the ones shaping them. That’s the quiet revolution underway in every forward-leaning enterprise.

Move the needle

If you want momentum, prove it.

Visualize your future press release.

Start by choosing one journey metric humans actually feel: onboarding time, refund time, dispute resolution, time-to-value. Redraw the flow for an AI-first path with explicit human-in-the-loop triggers and escalation logic. Ship a guarded pilot to a small surface with real stakes and full instrumentation. Share the delta, how cycle time fell, first-pass yield rose, exceptions collapsed, satisfaction improved, and the human role that made it all possible. Then roll the pattern to the adjacent flow. Momentum is a design choice.

Make the future the right choice

AI is not here to replace you. If it is, that's a leadership problem. AI is really here to reveal you...your courage, your clarity, your capacity to design a better experience and lead the ability to deliver it.

The next chapter of your business will be authored by leaders who choose self-disruption over self-preservation; who design flows, not slideware; who tell a story worth following and back it with compounding proof.

This isn't the moment to admire the future. It’s the moment to make the future possible. Start with one outcome. Rewrite one flow. Tell one better story. Then let learning compound. That’s how adoption becomes transformation, and transformation becomes growth

Please watch and share! And also share your thoughts, ideas and experiences!

Thank you Robb and Josh. Thank you UX Magazine.🙏

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