Axios C-Suite: AI angst and clarity for the Axios newsroom
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
I sent the following memo to Axios staff on April 17, 2026 ...
Our world — and Axios in particular — is evolving so fast and in so many ways. We are committed to communicating with as much clarity as possible, as often as possible. Today, I want to address some AI angst and bring some clarity to how we think about AI usage and employee expectations.
Why it matters: We hear your questions, and it's our responsibility to guide you through this epic AI epoch wisely and transparently.
Important context: We DO NOT expect everyone to be building products with AI. Most of you will simply be users of it. But we DO expect you to enthusiastically learn about AI. We predict there will be five categories of employees here and eventually at all non-AI-native companies.
- Product, design, tech teams: Everyone in PDT is expected to be exceptionally AI-sophisticated. These are tech jobs. AI is tech. (This also applies to heavily-tech oriented jobs in other departments!)
- Super-builders: We already have a few non-tech super-builders. They're individuals with natural AI passion and sophistication who've demonstrated the ability to build useful tools and products. Think of this as the top 1% of users.
- Builder-users: There's another group who use AI a lot and are just starting to build small, targeted tools, usually to automate or improve workflow. These are people hungry to learn more and build more, but need help. We are providing this help. This is 10% or so of non-tech staff (but we assume and hope it grows).
- Highly informed super-users: Many of you will need to use AI or AI-equipped tools a lot — and with great sophistication. But your interest and expectation is in using, not building.
- Highly informed passive users: There are some jobs — probably face-to-face sales or reporting — where tools will never be the bulk of your job. But our ask (and our responsibility) is to make sure you understand AI, especially where and how you can leverage it.
Reality check: You may not realize it, but you are already in the top 5% of white-collar workers in terms of AI knowledge. We're that far ahead of peers. And there's lots more training and action coming.
What you can expect from the leadership team in the coming months:
- Near-term/ongoing: More communications and guidance around LLMs, tooling access, usage and safety.
- The next few months: More details on AI competencies and how those align with your role and function. We'll make it clear exactly where we think you need to fall in the five groups above and chart a path to get there.
- This summer: Every department has drafted its own AI plan with a heavy emphasis on the most important things to automate that will make the biggest difference for their team and the company. Our leadership team will lead on AI and teach you in real time what we all learn. We will share finalized plans to all of you this summer.
The bottom line: We are here to support your journey as we lead Axios through this time of transformation.
📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: Request to join Jim's new Axios C-Suite weekly newsletter.
