15/02/2026

ON SUNDAY February 15, 2026 theSunday Special VII

It is not magic, because this is what happens when technology finally meets human usability.”

L HDGHUVKLS KDV WR OHDG This transformation is not a tech depart ment issue. It is a leadership issue. The real challenge is not whether AI is powerful – it is whether your leaders are prepared to guide others through change, to ask better questions, to model experimentation and to permit people to rethink their daily routines without fear of doing it wrong. Good leaders will not just talk about AI, they will redesign meetings, reviews and H[SHFWDWLRQV WR UHÀHFW D QHZ SDFH RI ZRUN A quick Google search will now give you dozens of AI courses. But the problem is not access. It is designed. Too many trainings are still focused RQ ³KRZ WR XVH WKLV WRRO´ LQVWHDG RI ³KRZ WR WKLQN GL̆ HUHQWO\ ´ :H GR QRW MXVW QHHG SURPSW HQJLQHHUV :H QHHG SHRSOH ZKR can frame better problems, spot false assumptions and use AI as a thinking partner – not a shortcut machine. Judgment, critical thinking and contex tual understanding are and always will be WKH GL̆ HUHQFH EHWZHHQ VRXQG RXWSXW DQG great decisions. If you are running a business, here is the hard truth: AI will not replace people. But it will make visible all the gaps you have ignored – the poor onboarding, the lack of mentorship, the training that stopped after probation, the silos that have never been dismantled. This is a rare moment. AI gives us a chance to reimagine work, not just speed it up, to empower, not just automate. But only if we are willing to do the deeper work. The real transformation begins when leaders stop asking what the tools can do and start asking what kind of organisation they want to become.

AI is revealing what we have neglected BY MUHUNDHAN KAMARAPULLAI

A new tool arrives. Someone in the office experiments with it, maybe not. A few dismiss it outright. Others try it after hours, half expecting it to be underwhelming. But slowly, in odd pockets across the company, things begin to shift. Reports get written faster. Emails read better. Spreadsheets look cleaner. And almost no one has yet gone for formal training. This is the quiet revolution of gen erative AI, not crashing through with dramatic job losses or machines replacing humans, but exposing which roles, teams and companies have become too comfort able for too long. It is not that people cannot adapt. It is that the systems around them – job scopes, expectations, training approaches, leadership mindsets – are still stuck in a pre-AI world. The biggest shift with today’s AI is not the technology. It is that the bar rier to entry has collapsed. You no longer need to be a coder, a data scientist or even particularly tech-savvy to leverage AI. A cleaner prompt can yield smarter results. A drag-and-drop interface can summarise what once took hours and this new accessibility is what is shaking up organisations – not the AI itself, but the uneven preparedness of people to use it meaningfully. Employees who once needed help writ ing a report are suddenly drafting better insights. Junior execs are analysing data that once required a full department and DGPLQLVWUDWLYH VWD̆ DUH DXWRPDWLQJ URX tines that used to take entire afternoons. It is not magic, because this is what KDSSHQV ZKHQ WHFKQRORJ\ ¿QDOO\ PHHWV human usability.

T KH H[SRVXUH H̆ HFW Contrary to alarmist headlines, AI is not instantly making people obsolete. But it is exposing outdated systems and revealing roles that have not changed, maybe in ten years. Training that focuses on compliance rather than critical thinking and leadership WKDW YDOXHV Ḣ FLHQF\ RYHU HPSRZHUPHQW In many companies, AI is highlighting who is learning along the way and who is just showing up. This is what some call “the exposure H̆ HFW ´ ,W LV ZKDW KDSSHQV ZKHQ D QHZ WRRO enters a stagnant environment. Those who have cultivated learning mindsets and are curious by nature suddenly race ahead. Not because they are smarter. But because they are ready. Those who have been boxed into static job descriptions, who have been measured on output instead of insight, get left behind, not for lack of intelligence, but for lack of adaptability. AI as a mirror There is a bigger truth here: AI is less of a PRQVWHU DQG PRUH RI D PLUURU ,W UHÀHFWV how ready your organisation truly is, not

in words, but in action. Are managers encouraged to rethink ZRUNÀRZV RU DUH WKH\ VWLOO REVHVVHG ZLWK time-tracking? Is training built around real problem solving, or is it just about learning how to click buttons? Are teams allowed to experiment, fail and share ideas or are they punished for not sticking to SOPs? The promise of AI can only be realised if the culture around it is equally willing to change. One of the most common mistakes companies make is assuming they can AI enable existing roles without redesigning them. This often leads to resistance and inconsistent results. You cannot expect a customer service DJHQW WR DGRSW $, H̆ HFWLYHO\ LI WKHLU .3,V are still built around rigid scripts. You cannot ask your marketing team to use AI creatively if approvals still take three weeks. True integration happens when roles HYROYH ZKHQ UHVSRQVLELOLWLHV DUH UHGH¿QHG and when outcomes, not hours worked, measure performance.

Shaped by years in technology, Muhundhan Kamarapullai explores the uncomfortable space between innovation and execution. He writes for people who suspect the problem is never the technology.

AI in action … Technology meets human usability.