Antonym: Emergency Edition

AI - are you led by Catalysts or Delegators?

Boardrooms can easily distract themselves with other issues.

Dear Reader

In a gentler version of this newsletter, I might write:

“The limiting factor in realising the value of AI is leadership. Leadership teams must set a direction of urgent action, foster psychological safety for innovation, and promote shared learning. Indecisive and fearful leaders will stifle innovation and compromise success.”

But we’re out of time for nuance. Economic signals, the astonishing pace of AI development in 2025 – even by expert standards – and what I’ve seen within my team and clients compel me to speak plainly. Starting now.

Recently, I spoke with a friend about the already significant AI upheaval in their sector. They were exasperated by their own organisation’s sluggish response. Despite two years of internal discussion, progress had trickled rather than surged. Still, we agreed, there was time to act – just.

There will come a day when it’s too late to take decisive action. Move before that day and you remain in the game. Miss it, and you face either slow decline or sudden collapse.

You’ll only know that day has passed in retrospect. It probably hasn’t arrived yet. But it’s on its way.

I’m taking a week away from screens to soak my brain in what remains of analogue reality. Before I vanish, I’m lighting this flare – less an argument, more a warning. If you need gentle persuasion, stop after Section 1. The rest is for those ready to act.

1. Act Now

Generative AI has caused a wave of disruption that compresses every prior upheaval – search, social, mobile – into one and is accelerating through the economy on a curve sharper than any we’ve yet faced. Choosing inaction is choosing extinction.

Those who fail to act decisively now will run out of market, money, or relevance before they run out of excuses.

2. Two Types of Leadership Behaviour

There are two kinds of leadership in the AI era: those who understand it, and those who only want to appear as if they do.

(As for the outright deniers? They’ve abdicated leadership entirely. If they’re still in a corner office, it’s by inertia. Advice for Type B below loosely applies, though the odds of conversion are poor.)

Catalysts (Type A)

• Learn rapidly

• Pilot relentlessly

• Cut bureaucracy

• Measure innovation and value creation, not just productivity

• Say: “Team X are excelling – here’s how they did it.”

Delegators (Type B)

• Commission a strategy deck

• Provide access, but no training or culture shift

• Postpone AI until next quarter

• Treat AI like an IT upgrade

• Focus on cost-cutting metrics

• Say: “Why isn’t anyone using it?”

If your leadership sounds busy but nothing changes in six weeks, you’ve got Delegators. Time to declutter the boardroom – or quietly exit.

3. What to Do. Now.

3.1 For Boards

• Diagnose leadership culture. If you’ve got Catalysts, support them with clear mandates and risk mitigation. Don’t be the reason they falter.

• Demand a wartime posture. Reallocate capital swiftly. Change leadership if required.

• Set a 100‑day clock for an AI roadmap; review progress fortnightly.

• Evaluate the team collectively. If Delegators dominate, restructure.

3.2 For CEOs & Leadership Teams

• Focus ruthlessly. Eliminate projects that don’t accelerate AI leverage or cashflow.

• Build personal AI competence. Pair each executive with an AI power user; mandate weekly, hands-on learning.

• If you can’t keep up, step aside. Don’t obstruct.

• Don’t delay for hires. System change is faster than waiting for new talent.

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A note on the importance of personal literacy for leaders

This came through in an interview between Ethan Mollick, Wharton School professor and Nicolas Tangen (full video at the bottom of this newsletter):

Mollick emphasises that leaders need to actively demonstrate AI usage rather than just mandating it. He suggests that leadership effectiveness with AI adoption depends on personal engagement rather than just issuing directives.

"A leader who uses AI makes sure AI seems critical. Someone who doesn't use AI but tells you to use it – that's a problem."

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3.3 For Employees

• Diagnose your leaders. If they’re Catalysts, lean in – bring ideas, data, and execution. If not, update your CV and explore alternatives.

• Upgrade yourself. Curate your personal AI toolkit. Share your learning. If work bans it, learn on your time and showcase results. Help peers. You’ll be needed elsewhere.

4. Everyone’s To-Do List

Whether you’re in the boardroom or on the ground, you need personal practice. Read Co-intelligence by Ethan Mollick. Take free courses (Anthropic’s new one on AI fluency looks particularly good for us non-technical people). Most of all: use AI. Deliberately. Often.

No perfect playbook exists. But you can’t go wrong with these three steps, regularly repeated:

• Experiment daily: small bets, short cycles, public learnings.

• Document openly: internal wikis beat hearsay; transparency drives speed.

• Teach sideways: share knowledge peer-to-peer; consultants will slow you down.

5. Ignore the Distractions

Debates about AGI sentience, utopia or doom matter – but not to this quarter’s cashflow. If your organisation hasn’t mastered Gen-AI-at-work, park the metaphysics.

If you shape policy or culture at scale, yes – fight for fair regulation, copyright and data justice. Big Tech must pay creators and taxes. But that’s no excuse to ignore AI’s positive potential right now.

6. Practical Action

• Identify: Are your leaders Catalysts or Delegators?

• Act within 30 days; measure at 60; double-down or pivot at 90.

• Fairness is irrelevant. Speed is your only edge.

The right moment wasn’t yesterday: it’s today.

That’s all for this week.

If you read this far, I hope it helps you. It is how I see things. I needed to tell anyone ready to listen.

I return now to my analogue sabbatical. When I resurface, the wave will be closer. The revolution, seven days further along. I hope your boardroom has already begun to move.

Yours in urgency,

Antony

Brighton, 22 June 2025

PS. In this interview, Ethan Mollick, a professor and expert on how artificial intelligence (AI) works in the workplace, talks with Nicola Tangen, the CEO of Norway's wealth fund. They discuss how AI is changing the way people work and how businesses can use it effectively. It is excellent.