My grandfather said “pony up” to me a lot when I was a kid. I was one disappointed kid waiting for that pony.
Too many of us are still either talking about LLMs, ChatGPT, and hallucinations as the coming of the end of the world or exclaiming “cool” every time we farm something out to AI regardless of the returning quality or consequences to ourselves or those around us.
At this point it is neither of those things and our either-or thinking is stifling our curiosity and engagement. AI is a tool that some are using for good, some are using for bad, and far too many of us are ignoring even as it moves into running the back end of daily tasks from our workplace business systems, to how our dental hygienist diagnoses a plaque problem, or to how our favourite pickles get to the grocery store.
For the conversation we desperately need to have, we need to move beyond whether we like AI or not; if the water use and environmental argument is based on valid data or not; and if it is a financial bubble built out of tech-bro hubris and our shared greed or not. Although regarding the latter, I wouldn’t put all my money on that mark if I were you.
I’m not dismissing AI wariness or excitement, but pointing out that regardless of what we feel about AI and regardless of the disagreements among scientists and philosophers as to the possible existence or real-world uses of transformative, generative, general, and agentic AI, AI is here and now.
We are already living and working with it and will, sooner than many of us are prepared for, be experiencing the more physical or tangible aspects of AI through how it will increasingly work smarter, faster, and smoother with automation and robotics.
I’m not all that tech savvy or comfy (I denied the early existence of email, convinced that it was just a fad, much to the frustration of my manager), but I know a boogey man when I see it and I see it not in AI, but in our disengagement with fulsome and curious conversations about AI.
We need courageous leaders engaging in conversations, at our places of work, in our communities, and with our friends and family about how the wise, unwise, ethical and unethical uses of AI will inform our cognitive, creative, and social future as humans. (See Leadership, AI, and Writing Lousy Poetry – notably my least read post of 2025)
For the record, anything you read from me, is just from me. I don’t use AI for my writing, whether it’s here, coaching emails, strategic plans, or that brilliant governance or 360 review report you received last week. This is not so much a moral principle as it’s just that I know myself and as such I know that if I don’t face the blank page, research the information, develop the content, and make the spelling and grammar mistakes, then I don’t learn about me, us, and the world we are navigating together.
Further Reading:
Insights on Artificial Intelligence, QuantumBlack, AI, by McKinsey and Company (2025 review).
- “From machine learning operations and organizational change to ethical considerations and emerging use cases, this is QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey’s latest thinking on how organizations can most effectively and responsibly use AI to create business value.”
“AI Sessions #7: How Close is “AGI”?, And does the concept even make sense?”, (January 9, 2026), by Dan Williams, Conspicuous Cognition (January 9, 2026).
The Case That A.I. Is Thinking, by James Somers, New Yorker (November 3, 2025).
- Paywalled, but maybe your library has access. I think my own limitations in fully understanding AI led me to “oh, this is like the well-worn Data discussion on Star Trek Next Generation”.
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want – Exposing Surveillance Capitalism and Artificial Intelligence Myths in Information Technology, by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna (2025).
Is AI dulling our minds?, by Liz Mineo, Harvard Gazette, (November 13, 2025).
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Other Things We Are Talking About in 2026
Think of the following more as a gathering than a list. There is no particular order and I know there is more to come, after all we have barely gotten our toes wet in the tides of the year. Send me what is on your mind for talking about in 2026, and I’ll keep the list rolling along as well as taking deeper dives into what can bring greater ease, confidence, and joy into our work and life.
- Building trust. If we don’t do the internal work of knowing and managing ourselves, we won’t be able to build trust with others. Why? Because without that work we aren’t truly present and available and that sits in the air around us like a bad stink that everyone can smell and even if they can’t quite place it, they know not to trust it. (Reflections on Asking “How Am I Doing?”)
- Being decisive. This does not get in the way of being collaborative, facilitative, or relational leaders. In fact, it is an underlying strength of leadership and builds trust (see above).
- Ditching advocacy for relationship building. Whether for yourself or for the organization, the old-school advocacy paradigm is just shouting into the wind. I bet you dollars to doughnuts that any advocacy success, whether it was moving a project forward or an organization benefitting from a policy or funding change, was rooted in the influence of relationships. I once had dinner with a premier and cabinet minister who rolled their eyes about an advocacy campaign as apparently the money had already been decided on because of relationships with and influence from people they knew and trusted (hmmm … trust again). The advocacy campaign was to them, “just a lot of needless noise”. (Choose to Have Good Conversations and Reflections on Having Leadership Pals)
- Leading with psychological safety. So you tried it for a while; it felt cumbersome and at times downright awkward, even phoney. Give it another try, but do it differently. Like maybe focus on building relationships and trust. (Hey Babs: Talking About Psychological Safety and Feeling Humiliated by Staff)
- Bringing compassion and grit together like peanut butter and honey or two halves of one heart – you know, better together than apart. Compassion moves us beyond blame and creates a space where we can face our stress, anxiety and fear with some gritty intention and action – like head-on watch out I’m coming for it action – and come out the other end better, stronger, and whole. (A Bit of Finish Sisu for Your Workday and Leadership Practice: Being in the Now)
- Seeking out help from others. Sometimes it isn’t about pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and setting our attitude to max for strength. Sometimes we need the help of wise people such as therapists, counsellors, faith leaders, and others in our lives who know how to listen for hearing and how to care for healing. (Leadership Practice: Sleep)
- Doing the work of knowing why we are here and how we want to show up. None of the above is possible without this.
I’m here for you,
Babs
PS: Last week while closing a stepladder I caught my thumb and shouted “sugar pie” over and over again. Then I laughed. Apparently we can change our habits. Part one of this story can be found at Reflections on Being a First Timer with a New Year’s Resolution which is mostly about kaizen, swearing, and life journeys.