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Reinventing Work in the Age of AI: How Teams, Skills, and Mindsets Must Transform
In Episode 3 of Creative Intelligence, host Kartik Hosanagar is joined by Keith Ferrazzi (author of Never Lead Alone) and Gautam Tambay (CEO of Springboard) to explore what it really means to prepare the workforce for an AI-driven future. Their conversation spans leadership, skill development, team culture, and what’s required to truly redesign work, not just roles.
Here are the most compelling insights:
1. AI Isn’t Just Changing Jobs, It’s Changing How Work Happens
The conversation opens with a crucial distinction: most workforce initiatives are focused on re-skilling individuals, but few organizations are rethinking how teams collaborate or how workflows are structured in light of AI. AI isn’t just a tool for individual productivity. It’s rapidly becoming a larger force, embedded across systems like Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Slack. This calls for a rethink of how teams share information, make decisions, and even conduct meetings.
“We’re asking how to re-skill roles, but not how to re-engineer workflows from the ground up.” — Keith Ferrazzi
2. Formal Training Isn’t Enough — Peer-Led Learning Is Critical
Upskilling efforts often rely on formal learning paths or top-down mandates. But what’s driving real behavior change, according to the guests, is peer sharing, where colleagues show each other how they’re actually using AI to get work done.
Springboard hosts weekly “AI show-and-tells” across internal departments where employees share with each other new use cases or advancements using AI. At Wharton and Penn, faculty and staff share custom GPTs and tools during monthly syncs. This kind of informal, community-based learning creates a culture of experimentation and accountability.
“The people who are most excited about AI become internal evangelists. That’s how you scale change.” — Kartik Hosanagar
3. Mindset Shift: From Threat to Opportunity
AI anxiety is pervasive. Employees fear automation, irrelevance, or even that they’re “training” the AI that will replace them. But as Keith and Gautam point out, the key to navigating this moment is reframing AI as a tool for agency, not obsolescence. Leaders play a role here too, not just by talking about efficiency, but by connecting AI to growth, innovation, and purpose.
“When you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed, can you get curious instead?” — Gautam Tambay
4. The Next Disruption Isn’t Individual Roles — It’s Entire Functions
Rather than thinking narrowly about how a job will adapt to AI, Keith encourages companies to step back and rethink entire functions and processes. A hiring example came up: AI can now write job descriptions, post them, screen applicants, schedule interviews, and even manage onboarding, all with minimal human input.
“The first screening, scheduling, and even parts of the interview process — AI can already handle all of that.” — Keith Ferrazi
5. New Social Contracts Must Accompany the Technology
Even as new opportunities emerge, millions of workers will be displaced — not just call center staff or warehouse employees, but also middle- and upper-tier knowledge workers. The job market won’t evolve fast enough for everyone to reskill in time. Gautam argues that we’ll need new forms of societal scaffolding: universal basic income, tuition-free upskilling programs, and job transition support. Kartik adds that AI design itself should include human-alignment goals — not just efficiency metrics.
“The steel workers in Pittsburgh never got re-skilled into autonomous vehicles. We’re going to leave people behind again, unless we act.” — Keith Ferrazzi
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