Sangeet argues that we are currently repeating the early mistakes of the Cloud era, viewing AI through the narrow lens of productivity and intelligence benchmarks (like GPT-5) rather than the structural reorganization of work itself.
Lauren and Sangeet dive deep into why the next 18 months will bring a massive "narrative correction" as organizations move from asking what AI is to what it does to their capital allocation and organizational architecture.
In this episode, you will learn:
The Intelligence Trap: Why focusing on brute-force AI performance is a distraction from true system restructuring.
The Workforce Split: How to lead through the divide of "Blind Believers" and "Blind Rejectors."
The Reshuffle Framework: Why AI is the "missing glue" for complex systems and how to redistribute work now that knowledge is no longer scarce.
AI-Native vs. AI-Adopter: How to tell if a company is truly transforming or just "tacking on" tools (The Adobe vs. Figma distinction).
Sangeet Paul Choudary breaks down the fundamental shift from AI-adopting to AI-native, and unpacks the most relevant issue in 2026:
In an AI-adopting company, the person is the "node" and AI is the tool. In an AI-native company, the system is the node, and work is redistributed based on where intelligence (human or artificial) is most effective.
Here is a sharp, condensed way to state that principle:
The true shift isn't about augmenting individuals; it’s about rethinking the architecture of the organization itself. If you assume work must still be organized around individual silos, you aren't being AI-native. Real transformation happens when you stop asking how AI helps the person and start asking how work should be redistributed and restructured now that intelligence is a decentralized utility.
Quick Jump:
00:00 – Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of Reshuffle, 2025 Thinkers50 Strategy Award winner
01:30 – The Problem with the "Intelligence-First" AI Narrative
02:50 – Beyond Intelligence: How AI Restructures Organizations
04:00 – The Winners and Losers of the AI Value Pie
05:10 – Moving from Task-Level AI to System-Level Assumptions
06:20 – Lessons from the Cloud: Why History Rhymes with AI
08:00 – Adobe vs. Figma: A Case Study in Native Architecture
09:40 – Reimagining Returns: Breaking the Productivity Optimization Loop
11:15 – 2025 Prediction: The Tension, Transition, and Transformation Phases
12:50 – Avoiding the Split: Blind Believers vs. Blind Rejectors
14:10 – The 18-Month Narrative Correction: From GPT-5 Hype to ROI Reality
15:30 – How to Spot a Genuinely AI-Native Company
17:00 – Rethinking Organizational Design: Distributed vs. Individual Work
18:40 – Why AI is a Strategy and Capital Allocation Decision (Not IT)
19:50 – Closing: Aligning Sales and Leadership with the New AI Architecture
