A few weeks ago, I wrote an email about AI and corporate succession.

Remember that one? It’s the one where I referred to AI as the crusher of white-collar labor costs, like the steam engine was the crusher of manual labor costs, and how that means the bottom of your organization’s pyramid will become narrower, and how that means your organization’s future leaders are going to need to come from 50% of the base, not 10% of the base.

The graphic was:

A number of you have asked me to clarify my meaning, so here goes…

AI, you absolutely need to be using it, no doubt about it. After all, look at the steam engine and manual labor. Manual labor didn’t go away completely, but the companies that insisted on avoiding steam engines and keeping their manual labor around, well, they’re pretty much gone.

But at the same time, you need to keep in mind that it will cause problems for your organization.

With AI, the bottom of your organization’s pyramid will not be as wide as it used to be. With the narrower base, a higher percentage of the base is going to show up at the top in a few years, which means the customer communication skills typically making up a large part of the skill set at the top will need to be stronger at the bottom than they currently are.

In other words, you’ll have fewer to choose from, so you better clean them up nice.