AI Moment Podcast - How AI Is Already Shaping Teams & Org Design
Today’s post is today's AI Moment podcast (my 2x a week AI leadership podcast where my cohost Jonathan and I dive into an AI topic in under 10 minutes), as it includes one of my favourite CPO and CMO coaching exercises - The AI Circles exercise.
Happy Monday! Kicking off this week, Jonathan and I dive into one of my predictions that will impact businesses in the very near future.
The Exec Summary:
In my view, we are no longer talking about a hypothetical future; AI is already influencing how teams and departments operate and for the most part positively.
I firmly believe we’re entering a critical period where leaders will be compelled to reorganise and reshape their teams. This pressure won’t just come from the top down from leadership teams or investors demanding efficiency but importantly also from the bottom up too.
Our own teams are realising how powerful these new AI tools and systems are, and they will demand changes to how they work.
My core prediction is that this shift will also force a change in talent, where many deep specialists will need to adapt and become effective generalists, capable of leveraging AI across a broader set of tasks.
The Circles Exercise
The AI Circles Exercise is straightforward you add your teams in the circles which apply most. Powered by AI will be teams like Digital, App Marketing, Paid media, where there are a huge number of tools and the tools can do a lot of the heavy lifting and recommendations to the outer rings, which will not have as many tools and much money investment into these areas of Marketing & Growth.
Having run through this exercise with Marketing, Growth and Product leaders it’s something that really makes leaders think deeply and understand how to reshape their year ahead.
Right click and save / download and complete the exercise
If you take the first image, you will be able to add your own teams within your business or Departments and then have your own custom document, this will allow you to reshape departmental plans and in some instances, allow you to map out your strategy and how it may be disrupted.
I have included:
My Marketing Department example from the recent Beyond The AI Hype conference talks.
The way agents and agentic is going to reshape how many teams will be assited by AI or leaning more heavily into their own agents and then
A question to ponder: Are you or team members ready to complete tasks set by agents and AI bots - it is no different than automated audits etc, but the new framing is important as it now feels like you could be working for AI…
The Key 6 Points Discussed:
The Inevitable Re-Org: My main point was that department leaders must start planning for organisational redesign based on AI tools and workflows. This isn’t an optional “if” but a mandatory “when”, driven by both internal and external pressures.
Tasks, Not Jobs: Jonathan built on this, making the excellent point that we should stop the “AI will take your job” panic. Instead, his view is that AI will replace tasks. Smart leaders are already analysing roles to see which tasks can be automated or augmented by AI, thereby supercharging what their people can do.
My ‘Cicle’ Model for Teams: I shared a practical exercise I use with leaders. It involves drawing concentric circles (like a dartboard) to categorise teams:
Powered by AI (Centre): Teams leaning heavily on AI.
Assisted by AI: Teams whose work is improved by AI.
Using AI: Teams who will use it, but less centrally.
Limited AI (Outer Ring): Teams with minimal AI impact for now. This helps leaders visualise where to focus their transformation efforts.
Applying ‘Agentic Layers’: The second part of that model is to think about “agentic layers”. This means identifying which roles will benefit most from AI agents that can go out and autonomously perform tasks and manage systems on the team’s behalf.
Mapping the User Journey: I shared a second exercise: mapping out a typical user journey (I used the example of a persona named ‘Aisha’ going from sourcing to procurement). Leaders should then analyse that map to pinpoint exactly where an AI agent or bot could assist that user, and then apply that same logic to their own processes.
Fluid Org Design: Jonathan concluded by suggesting that this won’t be a “one-and-done” re-org. He anticipates that organisational design will become incredibly fluid, and we may face two or three distinct waves of structural change over the next few years as AI capabilities rapidly evolve.
Top 3 quotes:
“I believe we’re gonna enter a period where many department leaders are gonna have to reshape and reorg based around aI tools, AI workflows...”
- Danny Denhard“I don’t think AI will replace jobs. I think it will replace tasks.”
- Jonathan Wagstaffe“...a lot of specialists are gonna have to become generalists.”
- Danny Denhard
The core takeaway to action:
The key takeaway is that you must move from passive observation to active planning. Waiting to be told to change will be too late.
You need to be proactively analysing your teams and processes now. Use practical frameworks—like the ‘circle’ model (shared above) to see which teams are most affected, or the user journey map to find where agents can add value.
Start having these conversations with your teams to understand the tasks, not just the job titles.
This will allow you to thoughtfully redesign your organisation to augment your people, rather than being forced into a panicked reaction later.
Other Important Supporting Reads
Please consider signing up to our bite-sized AI pod (the newsletter sends you the podcast and an extended breakdown like this for every pod) for leaders delivered in -10 minute pods every Monday and Friday
Danny Denhard & Jonathan Wagstaffe.
