For decades, social impact followed a predictable model: identify a problem, raise funds, deploy resources, measure progress. Corporates ran CSR programs, governments launched initiatives, and NGOs filled the gaps.

But in the AI age, the rules of impact are changing.

For decades, we were trained to row in still waters.

Strategy was predictable. Market forces were manageable. The fastest, most synchronized team won. Management was about efficiency, alignment, and optimization—refining processes to ensure steady, controlled growth.

But now?

AI adoption isn’t about technology. It’s about psychology. Most AI strategies fail because they ignore human behaviour. Employees don’t resist AI because they can’t use it—they resist it because they don’t see why they should. And unless you change that mindset, no amount of AI investment will matter.

For centuries, work was our purpose.
In the industrial age, purpose was simple: production, efficiency, and scale. In the corporate age, it was profits, promotions, and shareholder value. Even when it felt unfulfilling, we kept going—because work itself was the necessity, the survival instinct, the unchallenged structure of life.

Then AI came along.

Most companies celebrate AI adoption too soon. They think that giving every employee ChatGPT access means they’re "AI-first." That’s like thinking giving every employee a calculator makes them a finance expert.