Brian Solis's Recent LinkedIn Posts

I just got a text from my publisher, Wiley. Following SXSW, Mindshift hit #1 on Amazon in Business Management, which is HUGE! Thank you, everyone...from the bottom of my heart! ❤️ Please join us on this journey? 🙏📖 https://a.co/d/06iOookw

This was broadcast all across China. The rapid acceleration of robotic capabilities is astonishing. As NVIDIA's Jensen Huang said, physical AI is having its "ChatGPT" moment. By 2035, we will be working and living with 1 billion physical AI robots. 🤖Unitree Robotics

Dream bigger 💭

AI isn’t failing because models aren’t smart enough. It’s failing because most organizations still haven’t built the architecture that connects intelligence to action, workflows, governance, and real business outcomes. THIS IS KEY! Too many companies are mistaking copilots and isolated agents for transformation, when in reality they’re creating more fragmentation, more complexity, and as a result, limited ROI. The real opportunity goes beyond automating tasks. Leaders will redesign how humans and AI work together to create entirely new value. In my latest Forbes article, I explore why closing the gap between knowing and doing requires a unified AI platform that connects data, decisions, execution, and accountability at scale! Please read and share! https://lnkd.in/gZ9PKYhG

Most companies are using AI to move faster. Too few are using it to think better. In my first SXSW keynote in 7 years, I explored the difference between automated intelligence and augmented intelligence, and why that distinction will define the next era of leadership, innovation, and competitiveness. This is the talk and I’m also sharing the slides for anyone who wants to go deeper. ⬇️

Too many leaders are confusing jobs with tasks. The question isn’t, “Which jobs will AI replace?” It’s, “How do we redesign work so humans and AI create outcomes neither could achieve alone?” By asking the wrong questions, they’re turning AI into a cost-cutting strategy instead of a growth strategy. That's not how you future-proof. In my latest article, I explore why the real opportunity isn’t replacing knowledge workers, but reimagining work, outcomes, and leadership for an age of AI Darwinism. Please read and share! 🙏 #AI #FutureOfWork #Leadership #AIDarwinism #Innovation

Efficiency is not a strategy. If your AI efforts only make yesterday faster, you’re not innovating, you’re iterating and optimizing. It's a good start, but not enough in an era of AI Darwinism. In my latest newsletter, I share a practical playbook to stop drowning in noise and start creating new value, with a simple test for iteration vs. innovation, a signal filter, and a better way to win hearts and minds! 💡 Bonus: If you're drowning in the AI firehose of information, I'll share some 'AI floaties!' 🛟 Please read, let me know what you're seeing and feeling, (and share!) #Leadership #Strategy #Innovation #AI #AIDarwinism

Most companies won’t lose to a competitor “with more AI.” They’ll lose to a competitor that redesigns work faster. I just published a short newsletter based on my keynote at the Baker Hughes conference in Florence. Let's explore why the next renAIssance isn’t about “more AI,” it’s about using intelligence with intention. If you’re leading transformation, please watch: 1) the keynote (embedded in the post), 2) two short interview clips that go deeper on the non-negotiables: governance + humanity, and why physical AI changes the operating model. Remember, nothing interesting begins with knowing...It begins with curiosity. #AI #Leadership #PhysicalAI #AIAgents #AutonomousEnterprise #BHAM2026 #TheEnergyEquation

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AI is becoming a $250B line item… and for most companies it’s still not showing up in the numbers that matter. As someone I know very well famously said, "there's no ROI in AI," at least in how it's deployed when yesterday's mindset drives AI strategy. A new international survey of ~6,000 CEOs, CFOs, and senior leaders across the US, UK, Germany, and Australia reveals some surprising or not so surprising findings: ~70% of firms say they’re actively using AI, yet ~89% report no productivity impact. And 90%+ report no employment impact over the last 3 years. Even among leaders, AI usage averages just ~1.5 hours per week with ~28% not using it at all during a typical workweek. Said another way, they’re adopting AI, but they are not transforming work. This is the AI version of the old productivity paradox, “we see the technology everywhere, except in the productivity statistics.” Can we agree that adoption is not ROI and that “People are using it” is really just a vanity metric? ROI can only be measured in gains: How is AI being used inside real workflows? What work is it augmenting (speed + quality)? What time is it freeing up? And most importantly… what value is created with that freed capacity? Time saved isn’t value created, unless you reinvest it intentionally. If you want AI to show up on a dashboard, stop tracking logins and start tracking outcomes. An AI ROI dashboard should answer three questions: 1)Work Augmentation (leading indicators) Cycle time ↓ (draft-to-approve, ticket-to-resolve, quote-to-cash) Rework/errors ↓ (defects, compliance flags, escalations) Throughput ↑ (cases closed, campaigns shipped, releases delivered) 2) Capacity Redeployment to Value Creation % of time saved that’s reinvested) Where unlocked capacity focuses: customers, innovation, learning, backlog burn-down, etc. 3) Business Impact (lagging indicators) Revenue per employee (RPE) / margin per employee Cost-to-serve ↓ Retention ↑ / conversion ↑ / CSAT ↑ Risk incidents avoided One more stat that should wake everyone up: Across all firms, leaders report AI boosted productivity by only ~0.29% over three years, so far. That sounds more like a rounding error. The takeaway isn’t “AI doesn’t work.” So, let's stop the doomsday headlines. It’s that AI won’t deliver ROI until we redesign work around it. It's up to us! Remember, innovation isn't just about tech, it's about mindset, creativity, and imagination! Ask...are you simply making yesterday more efficient or are you looking to create new value or unlock new possibilities tomorrow? Where are you reinvesting the time AI gives back and what measurable value is coming from it? #AI #FutureOfWork #Leadership #Productivity #Innovation

"The world is full of magical things...patiently waiting for our senses to grow Sharper." – W.B. Yeats ✨ p. 104, Mindshift, https://a.co/d/0a9QyTDm

Companies are driving AI adoption and fluency and yet frontier models can do so much more than how people use them at large. At the same time, people are reporting an AI tax and AI "brain fry," finding that as productivity increases, so does their pace of work and overall output. Add to that, the volume of AI slop is so pervasive, that it's crushing attention spans and genuine curiosity. If you're following so far, this video is for you. I’m calling the moment we’re in AI Darwinism. It's not survival of the biggest company, but survival of the most adaptive. I believe that the real risk isn’t “AI replacing people,” at least not yet. Right now, it’s leaders falling behind their own teams, while a small group of power users pulls away with a compounding advantage. Here's something to think about...OpenAI found the typical power user taps roughly 7x more advanced “thinking capabilities” than the typical user. And the curve is changing fast. OpenAI has described a model as being “instrumental in creating itself.” Said another way, AI is starting to create itself. 🤯 Can we keep up!? In this short video, I break down: The AI fluency gap most companies refuse to measure The 3 moves leaders must make to thrive in AI Darwinism Watch it. Share it with your teams and leadership. And tell me in the comments: Where is your organization feeling AI Darwinism the most? 🙏 #AIDarwinism #Leadership #AI #FutureOfWork #ChangeManagement #Innovation

Two realities are happening inside the same company. CEOs say AI is making their work more efficient. Employees say… not so fast. This is creating an “AI Divide” within organizations around the world. That gap is a leadership signal. If AI saves the C-suite hours each week, where is that time going? Better decisions? Faster reinvention? Clearer outcomes? Or just more meetings about AI? Meanwhile, teams are dealing with an “AI tax” More checking. More rework. More anxiety. Faster pace. AI slop. Less trust. The truth is that AI is changing work. And at the same time, it’s revealing leadership (or the lack thereof). If we agree that AI will evolve roles for employees, then the same is true for the C-Suite. AI-fluent CEOs will replace those who treat AI like a tool instead of a redesign of work. Watch this before your next AI steering meeting. Comment “FLUENCY” and I’ll share the 5 questions every CEO should ask this quarter. #AI #Leadership #FutureOfWork #ExecutiveLeadership #CIO #CHRO #COO #CEO #leader #AITransformation #ChangeManagement #innovation

🚨Please read. What an interesting time it is to live in a world where AI is becoming foundational in all we do in our personal lives and in our work. I really do believe the future is ours to shape and any leader who doesn't see a future where productivity, output, and new value creation are the results of augmenting people with AI, will be locked into automating yesterday toward efficiency gains tomorrow. And for a short while, profitability and share prices will go up. But that's a finite play. Over the long term, fortifying yesterday's models and capacity will debilitate innovation, which is rarely effective as a reactive strategy, but instead one that requires parallel investment. Now that's leadership. Because this is an "and" story for people + AI agents and not an "either/or" story. The future is unwritten. And the future either happens to you or because of you. Before you lock in automating yesterday, also ask, what do we want to become with AI? What new value can we create with people + AI that isn't possible with AI alone? The answers will help you write the playbook that outlines the future of work. And my new ServiceNow report published out of our Innovation Office, offers a 7-phase framework to help you design work that's genuinely exponential, where humans and AI agents unlock what wasn't possible without this unprecedented collaboration! It's a free download without an email gate! Please review and share your thoughts! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g4bYCsnF

In 1927, the first "talkie" debuted in Hollywood. By 1930, the same number of silent and talkies were released. A few years later, sound technology became the industry standard, effectively ending the silent era. 2026 will be the year we saw the trailer for Hollywood 3.0. AI hasn't delivered Hollywood's "The Jazz Singer" event...yet, but here's just one example of what AI can do today.🎬⌨️ This clip was created by The Dor Brothers (X: @thedorbrothers) supposedly in 1 day, with 100% AI.

Remember the days of BYOD (bring your own device) to work? Now it's BYOAI (bring your own AI) aka shadow AI. And, leadership is 40% more likely to use unapproved AI tools than junior staff. This is according to Deloitte's TrustID Workforce Index. Research found that the barrier to AI adoption isn’t the tech, it’s trust. When trust in AI is high, workers are 2.8x more likely to use genAI daily for work. They save 2x more hours per week overall. And, they're 1.3x more likely to only use approved genAI for work.

#WWAID - What Would AI Do? This is a mental model I use to shift from AI fluency to AI creativity. Most people prompt AI from inside their current worldview. WWAID changes the frame.  It asks: if intelligence were native to this moment, this problem, this opportunity, what would AI do?  That question pushes beyond your assumptions into the unknown, imagination, experimentation, and better prompts. This opens the door to what I call AIQ (Augmented Intelligence). https://lnkd.in/gGJBiRpz

The AI jobs debate is asking the wrong question. Headlines talk about how AI will take jobs. But the early signals suggest something else is already happening: the career ladder might be shifting first. Anthropic’s latest labor-market research shows no clear spike in unemployment...yet. Instead, the first measurable changes are appearing in entry-level roles and task-level automation, the very places where careers traditionally begin. If leaders wait for unemployment numbers to move, they’ll be reacting to the past. The real signals are starting to appear. In my latest newsletter, I break down what the data is saying and what leaders should be doing now. Please read, share your thoughts, and subscribe below. #AI #FutureOfWork #Leadership

Packing and then headed to LAX to present at the ServiceNow Government Summit in Wellington and then our AI Summit in Auckland on the 5th. I'm also looking forward to spending time with our customers and members of the press! 🙌 Please RSVP and hope to meet you there! https://lnkd.in/guD-k7M3 https://lnkd.in/gEE68NfS

For the first time since 2019, I will be back on stage at SXSW. Who's in Austin this year? Please join me? https://lnkd.in/gk6vugFE

If you're at SXSW in Austin, please join me on Sunday, 15 March, at 10:00am CT at the JW Marriott, Salon D. It's my first time speaking in at the event in 7 years, an event where Stephanie Agresta and I used to help program, host, and keynote for over 10 years. It's very special to be back. Session Link: https://lnkd.in/gk6vugFE Stay tuned also for special announcements around pop-up events, panels, and book signings! I'll also post on social channels (@briansolis on all, except TikTok, @thebriansolis). If you'd like to see my last session at SXSW (probably more relevant today!), here you go! https://lnkd.in/gnF5Hc-9

The first dozen or so people to arrive at their seats to my SXSW session Sunday will find a free copy of #mindshift on their chair. It is a gift from me to you.

#showup 🙏🫶

Contrary to recent headlines, the future of work is not a headcount story. It’s a design challenge. And we're not talking about it nearly enough. I'm proud to announce my latest ServiceNow report for CHROs and HR leaders on how to reimagine work with humans + AI, "Work Reimagined: The Human + AI Blueprint for Exponential Performance." Please read the post and download the report (No email gate!) Can't wait to hear your thoughts! 🙏 #AI #FutureOfWork #CHRO #HR #Innovation #AIDarwinism

these are true... AI is here. AI is changing how we work. AI is changing what it means to be a company. AI is a test of leadership. These are also true... Finite companies are disguising layoffs because of AI vs. over-hiring, efficiencies, profitability. Finite companies are using the "automation playbook" to optimize yesterday at the expense of employees and innovation. Finite leaders are not exploring potential for net new value creation where AI can unlock possibilities between people and AI agents that wasn't possible before. Ultimately, you grow yesterday's model, but that's finite. Or, you extend yesterday through optimization while exploring the exponential outcomes of augmentation (people + AI). One model is finite, the other, isn't. The truth is that the future is unwritten. Some will use yesterday's playbook. Others will write a new playbook. Where do you want to be?