AI Revolution: The Imperative and Opportunity to Redesign Everything

In 1983, a young Steve Jobs stood before a gathering of designers in Aspen, Colorado, his jacket cast aside, and delivered an impassioned plea. He implored them to help shape the nascent personal computer era, warning that without their deliberate intervention, the industry risked creating “one more piece of junk object.” Jobs understood a fundamental truth: major technological shifts are not merely about accelerating existing trends, but profound opportunities for wholesale redesign. How we choose to shape these revolutions dictates who benefits, who is excluded, and what society gains or loses.

Today, artificial intelligence presents a similar inflection point, emerging at a time when public trust in established systems is remarkably low. Only 36% of people believe the next generation will be better off, two-thirds feel society is on the wrong track, and populist movements are gaining traction globally. The trajectory of the AI revolution thus carries immense weight. Will it exacerbate the concentration of wealth, power, and societal dissatisfaction, or will it foster an abundance of scientific discovery, educational opportunity, energy, and optimism? Design, in essence, is the deliberate application of intention to shape life, systems, and the future itself. This moment presents a challenging paradox: we are compelled to redesign everything, yet simultaneously, we are granted the extraordinary opportunity to do so.

Technical revolutions open unique windows of time during which new social norms are forged, and institutions alongside infrastructure are fundamentally rethought. This period will profoundly influence daily life, from how individuals find partners to whether children write essays, which jobs require applications, how people navigate cities, and even how medical diagnoses are delivered. Each of these outcomes represents a design decision, not a predetermined natural progression. The responsibility for these choices falls to every company, organization, and community contemplating the adoption of AI – a group that almost certainly includes you. Congratulations, you are now an unwitting architect of a revolution. Successfully navigating this profound transformation hinges on clarity, bravery, and the creativity to inspire collective engagement.

To achieve this, clarity is paramount, beginning with asking fundamental questions. In stable times, incremental inquiries about market share, operational efficiency, or process refinement suffice, premised on the assumption that the future will largely mirror the past. However, such “small-minded questions” can stifle radical progress. As the late Harvard professor Clayton Christensen observed, “finding the right answer is impossible unless we have asked the right question.” In extraordinary times, more expansive questions yield greater insights. Organizations exploring AI’s potential might begin by asking: “What constitutes ultimate success?” “What are people truly yearning for?” or “How could AI fundamentally reinvent this category and company?” Leaders often find their perspectives on current performance, obstacles, and future visions diverging significantly, underscoring that clarity is crucial to avoiding organizational stagnation. Christensen also highlighted the importance of understanding the “job to be done” for customers—whether they seek merely a coffee or an experience, a diagnosis or a compassionate conversation, features or the alleviation of fear. Defining success for all stakeholders, not just customers, is the foundational step in any redesign, acknowledging that yesterday’s definition of success may no longer apply. Many business leaders possess a strong instinct for quick answers based on industry best practices, but this can inadvertently perpetuate outdated ideas. Eras of reinvention demand more questions and deeper listening to forge truly brave new paths.

Beyond clarity, bravery becomes essential, especially given the profound uncertainty surrounding AI’s trajectory. While some, like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have offered broad conceptual frameworks for AI’s potential, even they concede the possibility of being entirely wrong. Amodei himself advocates for concerted exploration, emphasizing the need for a genuinely inspiring vision—“something we’re fighting for,” a positive-sum outcome rooted in hope, not just fear. In the nascent stages of the AI era, the only rational approach is to embrace the courage to explore multiple potential futures rather than presuming a singular one. Businesses often favor forecasts, as they offer a comforting illusion of control and diligence, yet they inherently assume the future will largely resemble the past. Such predictions fail to account for transformed user behavior, disrupted marketing channels, or, most damagingly, the vast “adjacent possibles”—the unexplored opportunities available to a company at any given moment. While uninspired companies seek solace in predictable forecasts, truly inspired organizations relentlessly explore beyond established formulas, especially now that AI has unleashed an explosion of these uncharted opportunities. As economist Tim Harford notes, the problem with forecasts isn’t their imprecision, but their tendency to short-circuit further thought. Serious contemplation of the future, even without perfect foresight, cultivates wisdom. Exploring various future scenarios can be remarkably productive, freeing organizations from the pressure of “accuracy” and allowing them to envision beyond the expected, fostering a lightness, joy, and curiosity often absent in rigid annual planning processes.

Finally, true transformation hinges on emotional connection. Traditional business culture often prioritizes rational thought, yet humans are fundamentally emotional beings making emotional decisions. Employees are increasingly disengaged, and customers are losing trust. Google’s research, for instance, found that psychological safety is the leading determinant of high-performing teams, yet typical C-suite training in economics, engineering, and finance rarely equips leaders to connect emotionally. Starbucks recently acknowledged it had “over-rotated” on technology, diminishing the human element of service and leaving both baristas and customers dissatisfied. Similarly, the current excitement around AI could lead many leaders to prioritize “productivity-enhancing” technology adoption over a more inspiring, human-centric vision. Marketers, artists, and designers inherently understand emotional connection, yet their voices are too often brought in late in the decision-making process, after critical choices have been solidified by finance-driven forecasts and engineering-led product development. These emotionally attuned voices must be reintroduced to company strategy, product management, and the boardroom itself.

Every leader, regardless of their logic-based discipline, can cultivate more emotionally attuned leadership, provided they are freed from the confines of “business as usual.” As Rick Rubin observes, everyone is a creator, and the best work is that which excites us. If that excitement is missing, the solution lies in returning to bigger questions, deeper listening, and broader exploration, thereby inviting others into the journey. The recent headlines about Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million signing bonuses for AI engineers pale in comparison to the reported $6.5 billion OpenAI paid to enlist Jony Ive’s design expertise. Sam Altman’s rationale for such an investment was clear: “AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world.” This profound insight echoes Steve Jobs’s original plea at the dawn of a previous revolution. As we stand at the precipice of another, where we must, and indeed get to, redesign everything, ensuring this critical intersection is deeply embedded in business principles and practice is paramount.