Beyond Efficiency: How AI is Fundamentally Reshaping Work

Joined by three visionary leaders - Arvind Jain (CEO of Glean), Varun Mohan (CEO of Codeium Windsurf) and Sandy Carter (COO of Unstoppable Domains) – I had the privilege of moderating a dynamic panel discussion at SXSW 2025 on AI's transformative impact on work. We were very intentional in sidestepping surface-level efficiency narratives that tend to dominate AI discussions. We took a more nuanced approach, choosing to focus on the secondary and tertiary impact AI is having on the workplace DNA.

We discussed the notion of enterprise search and the difficulty employees have in accessing timely, accurate and relevant information. According to Coveo, 89 percent of respondents traverse up to six systems to collect necessary data for a specific task. Ultimately, these efforts consume two to three hours per workday. Advanced AI-powered enterprise search systems (such as Glean) deliver capabilities that fundamentally address this challenge. Their impact also triggers a ripple effect throughout the organization. For example, employees' ability to more quickly access information, and therefore their ability to more quickly complete tasks, disrupts existing workflow equilibrium. Beyond reevaluating work consumptions, we discussed the criticality of reimagining talent strategies, technology infrastructure and governance frameworks to fully capitalize on the potential for this rhythm of collaboration shift.

Similarly, AI coding assistants (showcased brilliantly by Codeium Windsurf's Varun Mohan) are augmenting developers' ability to more quickly generate high-fidelity code. Varun shared that with Codeuium Windsurf's extensions, approximately 50 percent of all committed software was generated by Codeium Windsurf. Its recently announced next-generation AI IDE (Windsurf) is expected to increase that output to 80 percent. Cascade agentic platform is the AI code platform that does multi-step code edits. These development accelerations will create profound ripple effects, forcing organizations to recalibrate their entire product delivery ecosystem as code that once took months will soon (if not already) materialize in days. We discussed the potential secondary impact this acceleration creates: security teams struggle to maintain thorough reviews without becoming bottlenecks, quality assurance (QA) processes currently designed for slower release cycles buckle under the new pace, marketing teams struggle to develop compelling messaging and customer education materials to the detriment of brand awareness and differentiation and, ultimately, sellers struggle to appropriately message a product's capabilities because of constrained sales enablement. Organizational structures will need to be reimagined in this new, intensified rhythm.

Four transformative shifts emerged that every business leader should consider:

1. The evolution from tool to teammate: We're witnessing AI transition from productivity tool to genuine workplace collaborator. This demands organizations rethink their structures to accommodate AI as a "teammate" rather than just another application in the tech stack.
2. The dissolution of professional boundaries: Traditional role distinctions are fading as AI democratizes specialized capabilities. Teams that previously operated in silos are now collaborating in ways that weren't possible before, creating entirely new workflows.
3. The reimagining of skills development: Consider how AI is disrupting traditional apprenticeship models in knowledge work. In investment banking, junior analysts historically learned by conducting research and building financial models—tasks increasingly handled by AI. This forces a complete rethinking of professional development pathways and compensation structures.
4. The emergence of human-AI partnership roles: We're seeing entirely new positions focused on maximizing human-AI collaboration, creating career opportunities that didn't exist even months ago.

What became abundantly clear throughout our discussion is that we're not merely witnessing material process efficiency improvements - we're experiencing a fundamental reimagining of how work gets done. WWT has been implementing enterprise AI for more than a decade, developing not only the technical proficiency to deliver on customers' strategic objectives but also the change management expertise to navigate these complex workplace transformations. We have a proven track record across industries and geographies to map out the organizational adaptations required to realize AI's full potential.

Organizations that recognize and prepare for AI's second and third-order effects will create entirely new forms of value, while those focused solely on efficiency gains risk missing the bigger transformation.