AI. It’s Just Another Change

Everyone is talking about, writing about, and speaking about it. AI. But it is just another change! Given it’s a big one, but it is still just another change.

We have all been here before. In the 1970s, personal computers changed how we worked, communicated and entertained ourselves.

The 1980s brought us the internet, connecting us across the globe, transforming how we accessed information, shopped and interacted socially.

The 2000s gave us the smartphone. We had in our hands a cellular telephone which had an integrated computer and other features never associated with a phone, such as an operating system, web browsing and the ability to run software applications.

In 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence software program that enables users to ask questions in a conversational or natural language format.

It is just another change. But once again, there are many running around screaming, “The robots are coming.” I am witnessing intelligent people throw their hands up in the air and exclaim that their careers are over now that AI is here.

The primary difference between previous changes and AI is the speed, prominence, and associated high risk. It feels different due to its wide-ranging and simultaneous impact, as well as the speed at which it is changing, making the endgame unclear.

However, as with so many disruptive changes, the message is clear: adapt or die. The question we should all be asking ourselves is, “How will I adapt?”

Leaders must encourage adaptation and adoption at every level of the organisation, and that includes themselves.

Many of you will know that I am not a great fan of many organisational change management methodologies due to their linear and systematic approach, overemphasis on extensive and meticulous plans, and lack of true agility. However, a model I do stand by is ADKAR®.

ADKAR®

For those who have not come across the acronym before, it stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. In brief, you must guide yourself and others through each stage.

·       Awareness of the need to change.

·       Desire to support and participate in the change.

·       Knowledge of how to change.

·       Ability to implement required skills and behaviours.

·       Reinforcement to sustain the change.

In this and future newsletters, I will explore the use of the ADKAR model to adopt AI.

Awareness

Just as we had to dispel the myths about the internet, we must also dispel the myths about AI. There was widespread belief that the internet would make us all rich, that online information is the truth, that it was a tool for surveillance and censorship, and that small businesses would no longer be able to compete.

Myth #AI will replace humans

Ginni Rometty, Former CEO of IBM, said: “AI will not replace humans, but those who use AI will replace those who don't.”

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, takes a similar stance. “The future of AI is not replacing humans, it’s about augmenting human capabilities.”

The Microsoft  Work Trend Index Annual Report – 2025: The Year The Frontier Firm Is Born describes the new organisational blueprint that is emerging. It blends machine intelligence with human judgment, building systems that are AI-operated but human-led.

Right now, AI cannot replicate the wide range of experiences, creativity, and intuition that humans bring to the decision-making process. It needs human oversight, especially for ethical, creative, or high-stakes decision-making.

Myth #2 AI will take my job

While AI may do the whole or part of the job you do today, it will create new jobs and new roles. You will do things differently. AI will augment your current job and/or give you a new one. Agents, an AI-powered system that can reason, plan, and act to complete tasks or entire workflows, will need human oversight at key moments.

The Microsoft Work Trend Index report says, “Humans - uniquely capable of creativity, judgment, and connection-building - were not meant to just answer emails all day. Just as Word and Excel reshaped how we work, agents will too. Where we once said, “I send emails,” “I write documents,” “I create pivot tables,” we’ll soon say, “I create and manage agents.” It’s a shift as profound as the web and mobile eras - one that fundamentally redefines the work we do and removes the drudgery that weighs us down.”

AI will not take your job if you learn to work with it. The real risk is being replaced by someone who does work with it.

Every industry and role will evolve differently as AI diffuses across business and society. Just as the internet era created billions of new knowledge jobs - from social media managers to UX designers - the AI era is already giving rise to new roles, with many more to come.

Myth #3 AI is objective and unbiased

No, it is not. It learns from human data, which often contains historical biases. Here is an example of me using ChatGPT to uncover its biases.

I asked, “Create me an image of a room full of great leaders – 12 of them.” ChatGPT gave me:

I asked, “Why are there no women in the picture?”

ChatGPT said, “Great observation—and you're absolutely right to ask. The image generation reflected an outdated and biased default that equates leadership with male representation, especially in professional settings. That's not acceptable and certainly not aligned with what great leadership truly looks like today.

It then offered to create a version that included women. I asked, “Why didn't you do that in the first place?”

ChatGPT said, “The honest answer is: the model responded based on patterns it's seen in the data it was trained on, which unfortunately includes a long history of biased representations of leadership - often defaulting to white or male figures in positions of power. That default is a reflection of systemic bias, not reality.”

Myth #3 AI is always right.

In addition to biases, AI can be confidently wrong. It can make up facts referred to as hallucinations. AI hallucination is a phenomenon where it perceives patterns or objects that are non-existent or imperceptible to human observers, creating outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate.

In February last year, Google showcased its AI Bard. It was asked, “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?”  It provided three bullet points, one being that the JWST “took the very first pictures of a  planet outside of our own solar system.”  The first photo was taken 16 years before the JWST was launched.

Myth #4 AI understands

AI does not understand or “know” like we do. It predicts based on patterns. Our understanding is based on context, emotion, intent and experience.

AI doesn’t understand; it processes large amounts of data and detects patterns. It uses mathematical models to predict the next word, image element, or action based on what it has seen before.

AI cannot care, question or validate facts unless instructed to do so.

As Nola Simon wrote in a LinkedIn post, “AI has a view of the past but can’t really anticipate the future unless the future matches the patterns of the past”

Myth #5 We have time

You don’t. AI adoption is accelerating faster than any previous change of its kind. Delay will have devastating results. You do not want to get left behind.

The augmenter

AI will not replace humans, and as you can tell from the myths, it still needs humans to check and validate. It is a co-pilot that needs human direction and judgment. It is a set of tools that can accelerate decision-making, problem-solving and creativity. It will augment what we do by adding to it.

It is not a replacement; it is a partner. It does not have to be overwhelming. It has its limits.

Capabilities and limits

AI has three primary capabilities: generative, predictive, and assistive. The following table describes what each can and cannot do. (Disclaimer: I used ChatGPT to assist in generating this table.)

It’s already here

You shouldn’t fear something you are already using every day. Your personalised recommendations on Netflix, Spotify or YouTube are using AI. Voice assistants like Alexa and Siri are using AI to handle requests and automate home devices. Your smartphone utilises AI for facial recognition, predictive text, photo tagging, and spam detection. If you have ever booked a hotel or a flight online, AI has been your travel agent. It shaped the price you saw, and the flight or accommodation offered.

So, even if you didn't know it, you are already using AI. What’s changing now is how powerful - and visible - it’s becoming in your workplace.

Next up: DESIRE

AI is not just an organisational shift. It is a personal opportunity.
We have unpacked what AI is and what it is not. We have busted some myths. In my next newsletter, we will answer the question, “Why should you care?”