There is something rather peculiar about the modern enterprise.
We hire exceptionally talented people because they possess skills we need. Architects to design better solutions. Security professionals to manage risk. Analysts to discover opportunities. Managers to lead people.
Then we give them jobs that leave remarkably little time to do any of those things.
The architect spends the week maintaining diagrams. The security professional collects compliance evidence. The analyst assembles spreadsheets. The manager prepares reports.
All necessary work, perhaps. But not exactly what we hired them for.
Somewhere along the way, we confused the work required to support a role with the value that role was supposed to deliver.
And we’ve become remarkably good at doing it.
The Viking Longship Problem
Imagine a Viking longship crossing the North Atlantic.
Twenty rowers. One captain. A destination someplace beyond the horizon.
One morning, the crew discovers a leak. Nothing catastrophic, but enough that the captain assigns five rowers to bail water.
A sensible decision. The ship must stay afloat.
Soon the leak worsens, and the captain reassigns another five rowers.
Now half the crew is bailing water instead of rowing.
The captain, being an excellent administrator, introduces performance targets, appoints a supervisor, and begins measuring the efficiency of the bailing operation.
Before long, the crew is producing impressive reports about water removal.
Everyone is busy. The operation is running beautifully.
Except the ship is barely moving.
Here’s the curious thing.
Nobody has stopped working. The rowers are still putting in tremendous effort. They’re simply no longer doing what they were brought aboard to do.
The problem isn’t the crew. It’s the work keeping them away from the oars.
Along Comes AI With a Bilge Pump
Now suppose someone installs a bilge pump.
The water still needs to be removed. That hasn’t changed.
But ten rowers no longer need to spend their days doing it.
They return to the oars. The ship moves faster.
Not because the crew has grown. Not because the rowers have become stronger. And certainly not because the captain has discovered some revolutionary new method of rowing.
The ship moves faster because its people are finally doing the work they were brought aboard to perform.
The pump didn’t make the rowers better. It allowed them to fulfill their roles.
This is the opportunity artificial intelligence presents.
AI can reduce the manual, tedious work surrounding a role without eliminating the need for the supporting activities themselves.
Reports still matter. Evidence must still be collected. Information needs to be maintained. But increasingly, AI can support these activities instead of consuming so much of a professional’s workday.
The architect can focus on architecture decisions. The security professional can concentrate on reducing risk. The analyst can spend more time discovering opportunities. The manager can actually lead.
A subtle distinction, perhaps.
But one with enormous implications.
We’ve Been Measuring the Buckets
For decades, organizations have measured productivity by activity.
Reports completed. Documents produced. Tasks closed. Meetings attended.
We have become exceptionally good at measuring the buckets.
But how often do we measure whether the ship is getting closer to its destination?
This is where AI requires us to think differently.
The question shouldn’t simply be how many hours we’ve saved or how many tasks we’ve automated.
It should be what our people can now accomplish with the time and attention we’ve returned to them.
Does the architect make better decisions? Does the security professional reduce more risk? Does the analyst identify opportunities that would otherwise have gone unnoticed?
AI won’t automatically produce those outcomes. People still need to apply judgment, validate information, and remain accountable for their decisions. Leaders must also be willing to change how work is organized.
Otherwise, we risk introducing an extraordinary technology only to make the buckets more efficient.
And the ship will continue moving slowly.
Let People Fulfill the Promise of Their Roles
Perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong question about artificial intelligence.
We keep asking what AI can do. Perhaps we should be asking what AI could free our people to accomplish.
That’s a different conversation.
One that doesn’t begin with technology, but with the promise of people fulfilling the roles they were hired for.
Because the greatest opportunity isn’t simply making existing jobs faster. It’s freeing talented people from the manual processes that prevent them from contributing fully to the company’s business strategy.
AI doesn’t need to make talented people more talented. It needs to give them the opportunity to deliver on the promise of their roles.
And that is where AI is bringing sexy back.
Install the pump. Let people row.