AI creates a paradox that is hard to live with: it is both urgent and not. Organizations that manage to hold both perspectives tend to move fastest over time.
The issue of pace appears in almost every AI conversation. Some argue the organization must work around the clock to catch up. Others warn against panic and poorly considered decisions. Both are partly right and that is precisely the challenge, SAYS Carl Heath.
It is urgent in the sense that organizations that fail to start experimenting now will lack the experience needed to make sound decisions later.
– AI capability is built through practice, not analysis. Those who never begin will lack judgment when stakes rise.
Manage the pace paradox
At the same time, urgency is dangerous. When it leads to large procurements without clear requirements, rollouts without training, or promises that cannot be delivered, both trust and agency erode. The pace paradox cannot be solved, it must be managed.
Organizations that allow themselves to genuinely learn from experiments often move faster in the long run than those that rush forward without reflection, says Carl Heath. This requires discipline, not slowness.
What to scale first
For leadership teams seeking speed, the critical question is what to scale first. Carl Heath’s experience suggests the smartest acceleration lies in scaling competence.
– Tools without competence produce license costs without value. Governance without competence produces policy documents without traction. Competence without tools, however, often leads employees to find their own solutions and drive change from below. This can feel uncomfortable but it is often more productive.
This raises a concrete question: what should the leadership team itself do differently?
Do the (AI) work
Often, the most effective step is the most mundane: to start using AI in their own work, Carl Heath proposes.
– Not by delegating to staff functions, but by writing, analyzing, preparing meetings, and challenging their own ways of working. This has two effects: leadership develops firsthand judgment about capabilities and limitations, and it sends a clear signal: this matters.
Build resilience
Looking further ahead, beyond the next budget cycle, the perspective sharpens. Organizations that have optimized away all redundancy in the name of efficiency are extremely vulnerable.
– The most resilient organizations invest in their ability to absorb shocks, adapt under pressure, and transform through learning.
Over a 30‑year horizon, it is unlikely that technology itself will be the decisive factor, Carl Heath believes.
– What will matter is whether organizations preserve human judgment, ethical compass, and agency, while automating the rest.
The principle that endures regardless of technological change is authority: the ability to understand one’s situation, make decisions under uncertainty, and act on them.
– Organizations that own their development can shape their future conditions. Those that hand it over surrender their agency along with it.
Three questions for the executive team:
- Where are we learning fastest right now — in practice, not on paper?
- Are we scaling tools, governance, or competence first?
- What are we doing today that strengthens our authority, not just our efficiency?
Carl Heath is a senior researcher at RISE and a doctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg, focusing on leadership, AI and digital resilience. His work explores how organisations can navigate technological change while strengthening human judgement, trust and agency. He approaches AI not as a technical issue, but as a leadership and organisational challenge rooted in learning and everyday practice.