I’ve written before about AI as leverage, and I still believe that framing is broadly correct. I use AI constantly in my own work, and my teams use it every day. At this point, opting out of AI doesn’t feel thoughtful or principled. It feels like pretending a major shift isn’t happening.
So this isn’t an anti-AI post.
What I’ve been wrestling with instead is something harder to quantify than time saved or tickets closed. It’s a subtle shift in how people experience their work when AI is introduced without much intention. Not dramatic enough to trigger alarms, but consistent enough that once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere.
In a few cases, the way we’re using AI is quietly pulling people away from the parts of their work they actually enjoy. And that has consequences we’re not really talking about yet.
This one's for paying subscribers.
Posts stay free for their first 4 weeks. After that, they move into the archive for paying subscribers — Leadership Lab, All Access, or Inner Circle.
See membership optionsA subscription gets you::
- Full access to the archive — every post older than 4 weeks
- New monthly deep dives and frameworks
- Two leadership courses (All Access and Inner Circle)
- Direct access options, from group AMAs to 1:1 coaching (All Access and Inner Circle)