A few weeks in the past, Fortune reported that just about half of tech executives are already deploying agentic AI within the office. Once I learn that, my first response was: What’s the opposite half ready for? In an period the place generative AI and autonomous brokers are quickly redefining how work will get achieved, hesitation is the brand new danger.
Salesforce’s Andy Valenzuela lately mentioned, “Each job needs to be rethought.” I agree, and I’d begin with my very own.
For greater than 20 years, I’ve led groups by means of waves of transformation. At Google, scaling operations throughout Canada; at Evernote, steering a turnaround; at Glean, serving to launch an AI-native office assistant; and now, at GrowthLoop, navigating the following wave of AI-driven advertising. Every position has been formed by intense velocity, evolving know-how, and relentless expectations. However none have reshaped how I lead greater than what’s occurring now with AI.
I as soon as believed that efficient management meant mastering the whirlwind: shifting quick, switching contexts, and staying forward of the whole lot. Urgency, decisiveness, omniscience: These had been the traits I clung to. However over the previous 12 months, one thing sudden occurred. As AI brokers started integrating into my day by day rhythm, not simply as instruments, however as collaborators, I discovered myself letting go of issues I as soon as noticed as important. In doing so, I uncovered house to steer.
This isn’t an essay about AI changing folks. It’s about how AI has helped me develop into extra current, considerate, and sure—human—in how I lead.
The hustle period of management
5 or 10 years in the past, I might’ve described nice management when it comes to output. Was I decisive? Responsive? Might I outwork everybody else?
On a typical day, I juggled 10 conferences, 30 Slack threads, and a to-do listing that spilled into the weekend. Each second was triage. I wore my busyness like a badge of honor. On reflection, it wasn’t management. It was survival. I used to be reacting greater than reflecting, which was environment friendly, however felt extra robotic than human, if I’m being sincere.
After which one thing shifted.
My inflection level with AI
Like many leaders, I began utilizing AI for pace: summarizing dense reviews, drafting emails, and synthesizing buyer analysis. Initially, these had been simply sensible shortcuts. However I shortly realized it was doing one thing else fully: clearing the psychological muddle.
When an AI agent condensed a 260-page development report into digestible bullet factors, I saved time and psychological power. Once I used AI to personalize outreach to Fortune 500 contacts, it wasn’t simply sooner, it was extra real as a result of I had the time and capability to be intentional with my tailor-made strategy and consider one thing particular that is perhaps of worth to the individual I used to be reaching out to.
That additional capability is the whole lot. I discovered myself doing issues I’d postpone for months: mentoring a crew member, pondering deeply about product imaginative and prescient, and writing firm updates that didn’t sound like an HR bot wrote them.
Scaling output and influence
At the moment, 60% to 70% of my day entails AI brokers. I’ve offloaded standing updates, doc evaluation, and first-pass messaging to machines. In return, I’ve reclaimed one thing I didn’t know I’d misplaced: house.
Area to assume. To teach. To steer.
As an alternative of obsessing over each outreach element or brute-forcing personalization, I depend on brokers to floor relevance—pulling current buyer exercise, key venture updates, even inner sentiment—all earlier than I ask. That shift has made me extra considerate, extra centered, and, unexpectedly, extra out there.
A teammate at GrowthLoop lately mentioned, “You’re asking greater questions, not simply faster ones.” That remark caught with me. It captured what I’d been feeling however hadn’t articulated: I used to be displaying up in another way. I wasn’t in a reactive mode, however in a reflective mode.
That’s the true energy of AI. Not what it removes, however what it restores. Sure, it lightens the load. But it surely additionally shifts the management posture from strained to strategic, and from scattered to current.
The human return on automation
The actual ROI of AI isn’t simply measured in saved hours. It’s measured in sharper pondering, richer conversations, and higher selections.
Lately, I despatched a personalised outreach be aware to a high-profile contact—a former editor who as soon as performed hockey with a well-known politician. An AI agent helped me craft a message that recalled that particular anecdote concerning the hockey match in a method that felt actual and related. I by no means would’ve pulled that off in the midst of my normal whirlwind. However that’s the place relationships, and alternatives, start.
Rethinking management
We spend lots of time debating which jobs AI will change or remove. However what concerning the job of main? That position must be reimagined, too.
Outdated-school management was about management, predictability, and long-term plans. However management is an phantasm, and long-term plans are probabilistic at finest. AI strikes sooner than long-term planning. So should we.
Meaning leaders have to shift from directing to designing; from command-and-control to context-and-coach. In apply, which means you cease making an attempt to dictate each resolution and as a substitute deal with creating the correct setting on your crew to thrive. You don’t have to have all of the solutions, however you do have to construct programs, processes, and cultural norms that assist your groups make good selections with out fixed oversight.
Quickly, each worker will handle a fleet of AI brokers. In a way, that turns each worker into a frontrunner liable for setting clear targets, offering good suggestions, and delegating nicely to drive outcomes by means of these instruments. Our position as executives is to equip them for that actuality. That begins now: put money into coaching, set clear decision-making rules, and redesign workflows to combine AI successfully. The earlier we create these situations, the sooner our groups (and their AI counterparts) will ship at scale.
A name to reimagine, not retreat
Should you’re a founder or exec nonetheless making an attempt to manage the whole lot, my recommendation is easy: cease. You possibly can’t scale your self. However you may scale your influence in the event you embrace AI, the ability of your crew, and your individual humanity.
Begin small. Decide one activity you dread, like standing updates, analysis, or inbox triage, and hand it off to an agent. Then take the time you’ve reclaimed to do one thing no machine can: Give a teammate sincere suggestions, hearken to a pissed off buyer, or write a thank-you be aware.
These are the moments the place management lives. AI can’t substitute them, however it may possibly assist make room for them.
So sure, I imagine each job needs to be rethought. However let’s start with ours.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary items are solely the views of their authors and don’t essentially replicate the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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