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Roi Ezra's avatar

Paul, thank you for articulating this so clearly and thoughtfully. I deeply resonate with your core point: implementing AI isn't simply about productivity or efficiency, it's fundamentally about how we take care of human well-being, psychological safety, and meaning as we navigate these rapid changes.

In my own experience, I've seen firsthand how easy it is for organizations to chase the productivity gains of AI while neglecting the real cognitive and emotional strain it creates. When we focus too narrowly on efficiency, we overlook the critical skills humans uniquely bring clarity, reflection, judgment, empathy, and coherence. The real question isn't just how quickly we adopt new tools, but how intentionally we create environments that genuinely support people as they integrate those tools.

Your emphasis on a combined approach, merging workflow efficiency with human-centered safeguards, is exactly what we need. Real productivity isn't just about doing more, but about creating space for people to think, reflect, and thrive alongside these powerful tools.

Thank you for sharing this invaluable perspective. It's essential that we keep this conversation alive, explicitly prioritizing human coherence as we adopt AI into our organizations.

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Neela 🌶️'s avatar

Very nice breakdown Paul.

Most companies I work with hit a wall right around Stage 3. They've got AI tools talking to each other across departments, data flowing between systems, and workflows that span marketing, sales, operations, and customer success. On paper, it looks seamless.

In practice, it's a complete mess.

Just as an eg, Marketing's AI generates leads based on certain criteria, which automatically triggers sales outreach sequences, which feeds into onboarding workflows, which impacts customer success metrics. It all sounds efficient until a major client complains about inappropriate messaging. Who's responsible? Marketing says their AI was working within parameters. Sales points to the automated handoff. Customer success blames the onboarding sequence. Everyone's technically right, but nobody owns the outcome. That's the biggest issue I am seeing.

Traditional org structures, for all their flaws, had clear escalation paths.

Hope you are having a good Wednesday!

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