4 hours ago - Business
Axios C-Suite: Your org chart for the AI era
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
At Axios, we're probably in the top 5% of non-AI companies in using AI at every level. We're young, lean and non-bureaucratic, so I want to share what we're seeing in our own lab. Hopefully, it inspires use cases for YOU.
Here's how we can think about categorizing our team's AI sophistication, based on what I'm seeing inside Axios and hearing from other CEOs in non-AI-native companies:
- Product, design, tech teams: Everyone in PDT better be exceptionally AI-sophisticated NOW. These are tech jobs. AI is tech.
- Super-builders: We all 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. Our top 1%. They're pure gold in this AI phase. Find 'em. Unleash 'em.
- Builder-users: There's another group of employees 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 our help. They're why we need AI trainers now. This is 10% or so of non-tech staff.
- Highly informed super-users: Many jobs will need to use AI a lot and know how to use it with great sophistication. Think: data visualization, research, marketing. But their interest and our expectation should be helping them to use, not build.
- Highly informed passive users: There are some jobs — face-to-face sales or, in Axios' case, reporting — where AI will never be the bulk of the job. But our ask — and our responsibility — is to make sure everyone understands AI: how we use it, where and how they can leverage it.
📬 I've sent two memos to staff on this topic. Check them out (here and here). Hopefully they help you think through wording for your own teams.
📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: Ask to join Jim's new weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter.
