The pace of AI can be overwhelming, but the real differentiator is the willingness to act without having all of the answers.

At LLR’s 2025 CEO Collaborate, Ethan Mollick, Professor at The Wharton School and one of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People in AI, discussed how leaders can approach AI with a sense of agency. Below are the highlights from Ethan’s discussion.

How to Embrace AI with Agency

1. AI demands agency from leaders – there is no blueprint.

AI is undetectable, ubiquitous and transformative. Leaders have more control over what happens next than they realize. The pace of AI change can feel overwhelming, but the real differentiator is the willingness to act without having all of the answers. AI is already everywhere, and because the tools are universal, advantage comes from how leaders choose to experiment and apply them within their own companies. Waiting for “everyone to figure it out” is no longer a viable strategy.

Key Takeaway: Embrace agency by taking control of your organization’s AI learning curve. Pilot use cases, share what works across teams and make AI experimentation a leadership priority. The future of AI is being built by those who start.

Treat AI as a catalyst for organizational redesign and a reimagination of how work gets done.

2. Focusing on process and role reimagination will be the differentiator.

Traditional organization charts, operating rhythms and management structures were built around human capacity. AI can perform at scale across functions and changes the basic unit of work. This means leaders must reimagine roles, workflows and collaboration models to match this new reality.

Simply using AI to “do more” misses the mark, and productivity for its own sake shouldn’t be considered progress. The real opportunity lies in rethinking how work gets done, not producing more of it.

Key Takeaway: Treat AI as a catalyst for organizational redesign: integrate it into decision-making, empower teams to use it daily and focus on the quality of outcomes over the quantity of output. Process innovation, not just productivity gains, will define the next wave of growth.

Define a clear vision, empower teams to experiment, and establish a central “lab” to capture and spread what works.

3. Adoption requires three forces: Leadership, The Crowd, and The Lab.

Organizational AI adoption should be centered on three groups in every company: Leadership, which must set vision and risk tolerance; The Crowd, employees using AI daily to boost productivity; and The Lab, an internal hub to test and deploy use cases. Together, this ensures AI learning happens across all levels of a company, not just in R&D.

Key Takeaway: Build the conditions for scalable AI learning. Define a clear vision for how your company will use AI, empower teams to experiment and establish a central “lab” to capture and spread what works. The goal is alignment across leadership, people and process.

Guiding AI systems depends on knowing what problem to solve, information to provide and how to evaluate the result.

4. AI works best when treated as a colleague – not a tool.

AI ROI isn’t about coding or mastering prompts. It’s about thinking like a manager when interacting with it. AI works more like a colleague than a tool. Managing it well requires the same skills that drive great leadership: clear thinking, communication and the ability to course-correct when things go off track.

For example, AI engines are now responding more effectively to principles of influence and human communication than to clever prompt tricks. The ability to guide these systems depends on knowing what problem to solve, what information to provide and how to evaluate what comes back. Prompt engineering is a people skill, not a technical skill – and every trick you’ve learned about prompt writing more than 30 days ago is probably already outdated.

 

Key Takeaway: Treat AI as a member of the team and provide it with the same guidance to succeed you do with employees. Build a culture where employees use and embrace AI to challenge thinking and test ideas like a colleague would.

5. Questions every employee should ask themselves.

  • What bold move can you make today that others think is impossible?
  • What are you building that’s not quite there yet – but close?
  • Where in your organization are the forces of AI adoption (Leadership, The Lab and The Crowd)?
  • What part of your current expertise is considered to be “losing value” in the age of AI?

Here’s the bottom line.

Leaders who embrace AI with the willingness to rethink how their organizations operate will set the pace. True advantage lies in embedding AI across every level of the business, empowering teams to learn, test and adapt. Sustainable growth won’t come from doing more; it will come from reimagining how the work gets done.

This GrowthBit is featured in LLR’s 2026 Growth Guide, along with other insights from our portfolio company leaders and Value Creation Team. Download the eBook here.