The article’s content results from my curiosity and inquiry into the topics of interest to me, and presumably to many others. It is offered to instigate dialogue and invite joint thinking and collaboration. It is not deemed right or “true” — I am sharing my point of view and recommendations on the way forward based on my experience.
The pressure is mounting. CEOs globally are facing an urgent mandate to deliver tangible results from Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration, with a recent Harris Poll revealing that many feel their jobs could be at risk within two years if they fail to execute. This fear is triggering predictable, yet counterproductive, organizational responses.
This article was inspired by an inquiry into C-suite behaviour following the “Reimagining Work: Meaning, Purpose and Productivity” session hosted by the Altruistic Capital Lab at the London School of Economics on October 20. Professor Nava Ashraf shared some powerful findings, and her endeavour to develop Altruistic Capital is centred on democratising knowledge: generating scientific knowledge together, coming up with the questions together, and learning from the data together.
The data suggests the value of having a relatively clear sense of what gives people meaning and designing work around that. Furthermore, the session offered a perspective that goes far beyond this, urging us to reimagine work:
- As coherence — not fragmented, not siloed, and without polarisation.
- As contribution — moving away from individualistic aims.
- As devotion — working in a way that feels deeply connected.
In this new world, we must consider work that extends beyond traditional organisational boundaries. The Professor’s words fuelled a critical reflection: “As soon as you start serving a purpose you begin to build altruistic capital.” This necessitates a radical mindset shift, demanding that leaders let go of the rigid design of traditional job specifications. We must instead embrace a framework where contributions — fully leveraging an individual’s talent, passion, and core values — can seamlessly translate into new outcomes that directly enhance a company’s value chain.
The Current Reality: The Pitfalls of Panic-Driven Change
Recent industry chatter has focused on a flawed idea: merging the HR and IT functions, likely sparked by nuanced leadership alignments at companies. While the driving principle — to strategically integrate AI across the organisation — is sound, the organisational response often is not. Merging these two functions is a sign of conventional thinking, not smart strategy. Support functions must be aligned and collaborative to deliver business outcomes and simply placing them under one “Head of Both” box doesn’t magically create synergy. Teams work well together when the context allows no other way to succeed.
The challenge of integrating AI is massive, but many organisations are treating it as a simple plug-and-play exercise. It’s been shown that a third of CEOs believe they can simply drop off-the-shelf AI into existing jobs. This is a profound misunderstanding. It requires working with current employees — who fear job loss — to identify which tasks AI can assist with, training the systems, and fundamentally rearranging jobs. This isn’t a technical task; it’s a massive change management effort that requires buy-in from line and operating managers, not just pressure from the top, rolling down through HR or IT.
The problem isn’t the reporting line — it’s getting managers to champion the integration. HR’s role is to scope out the organisational change required. Second-guessing where to apply pressure is often met with irritation and the resulting practice is often superficial reporting (“Yes, I’ve used AI today…”) and subservient actions that don’t improve anything.
The Existential Cost of C-Suite Consolidation
The overwhelming expectations around AI are likely to trigger a shake-out and a consolidation at the C-suite level. Some may view this alongside the analogy of market forces — increased demand for those who deliver, and obsolescence for those who cannot. Another analogy from science could be natural selection — adapt or become extinct. The problem with both presumed analogies is the huge cost at stake: C-suite changes can sideline successful contenders, collapse entire organisations, and carry an existential cost for the workforce. Given the scale of impact on lives and the ripple effect in a stakeholder economy, this is a sunk cost scenario that must be actively mitigated, not simply written off.
Many top-level decisions seem to be driven by power dynamics and are reactive — natural human responses to intense pressure. The danger is when this coping mechanism becomes institutionalised and poisons the culture, leading to debilitating and counterproductive effects across the organisation. For a deeper understanding of the pressures executives are facing, I recommend reading The Global AI Confessions Report: CEO Edition, a Harris Poll survey conducted on behalf of Dataiku. “The data reveals real pressure, real risk, and real blind spots at the top of the corporate hierarchy.”
CEOs need strong, clear-thinking teams to navigate this perpetual change. At the top, human qualities like integrity, trust, accountability, and inclusion are indispensable. Core skills — the ability to unleash potential, grow talent, and comfortably lead change and transformation — are absolutely required. These aren’t new skills; they have always been the top requirements for effective leadership. Now the stakes are exponentially higher.
The Antidote: Strategic Agency and C-Suite Candour
The typical corporate response to pressure — merging functions, pulling boxes on the org charts, demanding AI usage, or rolling an avalanche of pressure down the hierarchy — is fundamentally flawed. These tactics lead to performative, not transformative, practices that drain focus and deliver no real value.
The true path to success, highlighted by research from the London School of Economics’ Altruistic Capital Lab, lies in addressing Estranged Labour and cultivating employee agency.
The dynamics of technological change, AI, alienation and agency must be viewed together in the workforce context. Starting from the notion that Estranged Labour, a metaphor of “Early Diagnosis”, and the definition from Marx from the 19th century, the alienation of labour — the loss of creative essence and autonomy — undermines efforts to integrate AI. The research warrants that AI adoption is bottom-up: workers seek agency, not only efficiency. They want to create and control, not just comply.
The challenge is immense, and CEOs must demand candid views and strong leadership at the top. Their success starts at bold influencing and boundary management to shield the organisation from reactive pressure and irrational investments. For their organisations to adapt and thrive, they must prioritise strategic agency and continuous learning as the critical differentiators between success and obsolescence.
