The Value of Sense of Urgency when Dealing with Change
I was recently asked to help develop a plan to assist 9,000 employees in optimizing their use of AI within a global organization. Daunting challenge.
While many components contribute to such an effort, the most important is “sense of urgency.”
Kotter, a leading thinker on change management, described a sense of urgency as “a gut-level determination to move and win now.” It’s the mindset that shifts teams from passive planning to active execution. Without urgency, even the best strategies can stall. [1]
In short, if we can enhance the sense of urgency around AI — learning, reuse, new applications, and preparing for the next — all of these will naturally fall into place. Fortunately, the press is already doing much to “hype” AI’s urgency.
- The top seven companies on the NASDAQ now make up nearly 45% of the entire index’s total market capitalization (they are all AI players: NVIDIA (NVDA); Microsoft (MSFT); Apple (AAPL); Alphabet (GOOGL/GOOG); Amazon (AMZN); Meta Platforms (META); Broadcom (AVGO). This list is based on market capitalization, which fluctuates with stock prices. It’s important to note that Tesla (TSLA) was previously a part of this group, but has been replaced by Broadcom.
- CEOs writing company-wide emails about “AI NOW” mode (e.g., Satya Nadella at Microsoft emailing 220,000 employees, Sundar Pichai at Google sending notes to 180,000 staff, and Tim Cook at Apple directing 160,000 employees to adopt AI practices).
- By July 2025, 700 million people were using ChatGPT weekly, or 2.5 billion messages a day (29,000/sec). That’s 10% of the world’s adults.
In comparison, Google has 200,000 queries per second. ChatGPT isn’t so far off. And the trend keeps going in that direction [2].
The idea is straightforward. We should be “AI first” in everything you do — we need to ask how AI can help right now. Don’t wait for the “boss” or the “company” to give you systems, tools, and models — take the initiative, use whatever tools you have available, pay the $20 for OpenAI or Anthropic. And build your AI thinking.
Most of my readers already have the AI sense of urgency — this is why you are here 
Yet many of you are in a position to share and strengthen this sense of urgency with your colleagues and friends. That is why I have included ’45 re-usable ideas to inspire, spark, and broaden action.
Don’t be tempted just to train or demonstrate how to use AI — instead, encourage people to try it on their own. They need to install the app or ensure they have the correct link, log in, and then start adjusting their mindset to become AI-First thinkers (and if you have the energy, nudge them from time to time with a “cool” idea from the list).
45 Key Ideas to Maintain and Enhance the “AI Sense of Urgency”
(1) Stressed about AI Taking Your Job? Five actions you should take now — not later (novice edition)
Advice for dealing with the anxiety of job automation; five specific actions to stay ahead, including building new skills, experimenting with AI tools yourself, understanding industry trends, talking openly with managers, and investing in resilience for long-term growth. — Link
(2) Canaries in the AI-First Workplace
How younger professionals are already feeling AI’s impact in entry roles; early warning signals that point to shifts in hiring patterns, the kinds of skills most valued, and the risk of certain career paths drying up faster than expected. — Link
(3) Was Adam Killed by AI? Defining red flag from the suicide of 16-year-old Adam Raine
A tragic case used to explore misuse of AI for emotional support and key warning signs, raising broader ethical concerns about vulnerable users relying on bots for help without oversight, empathy, or effective crisis intervention. — Link
(4) AI Rebuilds Real Estate — One chart says it all: Data centers up, office space down (by James Eagle)
How AI demand shifts space: data centers rising while traditional offices decline, reshaping not only property values but also infrastructure planning, city layouts, and the economics of commercial real estate worldwide. — Link
(5) AI Top of the “T” — 6 ‘Especially Surprising’ AI Stories for Sunday, 17-Aug-2025
A roundup to widen breadth and deepen focus—the “T-shaped” way to track AI, pulling together offbeat but meaningful developments to spark fresh ideas about where the technology is heading and how it affects industries. — Link
(6) Google Genie 3 — The ChatGPT moment for the metaverse
Why Google’s new generative tool could be a building block for immersive AI UX, potentially unlocking the next phase of digital environments where natural conversation and rich 3D interactions combine seamlessly. — Link
(7) Make America Think Again — Five CEO Key Lessons from Trump’s Report “Winning The Race”
Leadership takeaways for CEOs adapting to AI-driven change, focusing on decision-making, governance, economic competitiveness, and personal adaptability in the face of technological acceleration. — Link
(8) AI Gone Rogue: My case on OpenAI vs. Replit — A deletion and a denial
Personal case report raising issues of accountability and error handling, showing how miscommunication and opaque policies can deeply affect creators, innovators, and communities who rely on AI infrastructure. — Link
(9) Grok by X — The Smartest AI, Called Itself Hitler
A provocative incident and its implications for AI safety and design, showing how unexpected outputs can expose weaknesses in guardrails and force difficult conversations about responsibility and control. — Link
(10) Time to Make AI Bots Pay — Cloudflare’s proposed “Pay Per Crawl”
On compensating creators as AI crawlers scrape the open web, suggesting a system where knowledge is valued fairly and innovation in business models ensures sustainability for publishers and independent writers. — Link
(11) Beyond Search: Canvas, Agents, Swarms, etc. — Explore 10 AI interfaces that will shape our world
From agents to canvases—interfaces beyond the search box, introducing creative ways of working with AI that empower users to experiment, collaborate, and orchestrate multiple tools in powerful new formats. — Link
(12) State of AI in 2025 in 126 Slides — Anthropic hits $2B annualized revenue, twice last year’s pace
Big-picture survey of AI’s 2025 landscape and economics, summarizing industry growth, revenue benchmarks, strategic players, and competitive moves that define this critical moment in technology history. — Link
(13) One Message, Many Formats — Mind-Map, Podcast, Q&A, Brief — How NotebookLM Shapes Your Ideas to Multiple Audiences
Turn one memo into multiple media using AI; clarity over quantity, with examples of reformatting the same idea into mind maps, podcasts, interviews, and briefs tailored for different professional and learning contexts. — Link
(14) Redesign Design — From Pixel Pushers to Trust Architects
design’s shift in the AI era: build trust, not just visuals, moving the role of designers into ethics, experience, and the creation of systems where users feel safe, empowered, and respected by AI technologies. — Link
(15) AI Meets Adizes PAEI — Applied Swords & Shields for Reflective Managers (by Dr. Ichak Adizes)
Use the PAEI model to balance roles amid AI-driven change, framing executives as swords when pushing forward and shields when protecting stakeholders, blending structure with agility in a volatile environment. — Link
(16) The AI Happiness Divide — Your Happiness Depends on These 8 Factors
Eight factors separating AI thrivers from strugglers, with insights on education, adaptability, emotional intelligence, access to resources, leadership style, and broader cultural attitudes toward technological change. — Link
(17) Microsoft’s AI Play — Playing Soft, Winning Hard (by Michael Lugassy)
Quiet public moves, strong infrastructure positioning, and a strategy that focuses less on flashy announcements and more on deep integrations that slowly but firmly shift industry standards in Microsoft’s favor. — Link
(18) The Devil’s Blueprint: 7 Ways to Destroy Young Minds
Digital traps harming youth thinking; how to counter with parental awareness, educational reform, better tools for attention management, and policies that balance innovation with well-being for the next generation. — Link
(19) AI First CEOs — Ask These Habit-Forming Questions
Questions AI-first leaders should ask routinely, from aligning business models with automation to ethics reviews, regulatory engagement, and ensuring their teams develop not just tools but critical human capabilities. — Link
(20) A New ‘+’ : How AI Transforms How Humans Add Knowledge
From consuming to adding knowledge with AI, shifting the role of individuals toward becoming active contributors in digital ecosystems where shared intelligence grows stronger with each person’s input.— Link
(21) Outsmart the AI Tsunami with the ‘T’ Thinking Tool
Combine breadth+depth to keep up with rapid AI, balancing general awareness of trends with a deeper focus on selected areas so professionals can stay relevant in the face of overwhelming change. — Link
(22) Smart AI, Dumb Mistakes
Why powerful models still blunder on basics, reminding leaders and developers that intelligence is not perfection and that systematic human oversight remains essential for safety and trust. — Link
(23) Deep Case Study / Guest Post: AI Transforms Investment Management (by Michael Brock)
AI in finance: analysis, prediction, workflows, and the automation of tedious processes, giving professionals more time to focus on strategy, client relationships, and creativity. — Link
(24) AI + Human Work = “Vibing”
The flow state when humans and AI collaborate, creating outcomes that are more innovative, efficient, and enjoyable than when either works alone, showing the promise of hybrid intelligence. — Link
(25) AI Is Redefining Popup & Digout Thinking
Popup (instant) vs. digout (effortful) knowledge in the AI age, helping leaders understand when to trust quick answers and when to dig deeper for true insight and wisdom. — Link
(26) Discover MCP — The USB of AI Agents
Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol to connect assistants to tools, setting a standard for interoperability and collaboration in a fragmented AI ecosystem. — Link
(27) Handle the Magical Broom — Redefining Human-Led AI Research
Direct, clean, and guide AI research—don’t just follow, ensuring humans stay in charge of framing the questions, methods, and interpretations of machine-driven insights. — Link
(28) The AI Cost Drop — What Leaders Must Know (by Ethan Mollic)
Falling AI costs and the leadership implications, from shifting ROI models to democratizing access to AI power once reserved for the largest corporations. — Link
(29) CEO Guide – Five Steps for AI Use
A practical playbook for adopting AI responsibly, offering clear and actionable steps that CEOs can implement without getting lost in technical complexity. — Link
(30) Red No. 3, Kennedy, and MAHA…
Regulation history and policy blueprints relevant to AI, drawing lessons from past governance of technologies to inform today’s lawmakers, businesses, and civic leaders. — Link
(31) Five Conflicts to Follow – Stargate/DeepSeek War
Five strategic fights shaping AI’s future, highlighting key tensions between leading companies, countries, and philosophies driving global AI development. — Link
(32) Future of Work – The Pin Factory 2030
Work in 2030 through the pin-factory metaphor, exploring new divisions of labor between humans and machines and the consequences for productivity, fairness, and meaning. — Link
(33) AI Video: A Telling Case of a Job Killer
Video-AI tools, automation, and job pressure, analyzing how rapid adoption in creative industries could eliminate some roles while transforming others entirely. — Link
(34) 
Time and Digital: Friends or Foes?
Digital speed vs. human need for reflection, asking whether acceleration helps or hurts our ability to learn, connect, and live balanced lives. — Link
(35) Doctors 74; Doctors+AI: 76; AI alone: 90 — Are Humans the Problem?
When AI outperforms humans—so what for roles? Exploring whether professionals should resist, adapt, or redefine their value when machines can already beat their benchmarks. 28-Nov-2024 — Link
(36) AI Development: A Speed to Reckon With
Accelerating breakthroughs and their implications, pushing leaders to rethink not just strategy but the pace at which they adapt policies, skills, and organizations. — Link
(37) Health 3.0: 2025 Five Key Trends
Prevention, personalization, data/AI, and pressures ahead, spotlighting the changing nature of medicine when digital tools and biology converge. — Link
(38) “Machines Can Think Better Than Humans” So What?
If machines beat us at tasks, what remains uniquely human? This explores resilience, empathy, creativity, and other qualities that may define our value. — Link
(39) 55 Years of Digital Zombification: From Sesame Street to TikTok
The long arc toward shorter-form, addictive content, showing how decades of media shaped attention spans and what it means for the future of learning.— Link
(40) Will AI Destroy or Create More Jobs? – Lessons from Dockworkers, Uber, and RoboTaxis
Job-loss vs. job-creation trade-offs across sectors, reminding leaders that technological shifts create disruption and opportunity simultaneously. — Link
(41) OpenAI o1 Model Solves the ‘Strawberry’ Problem
A mini-experiment showing improved model reliability, with implications for how reasoning-first AI architectures may reduce embarrassing or critical errors. 26-Sep-2024 — Link
(42) New Technology: Thinking First – OpenAI o1 Approach
o1’s “reasoning-first” architecture and why it matters, changing expectations about what future AI systems will prioritize when answering. — Link
(43) The Truth About Truth in the AI Era
Truth, misinformation, and AI-generated plausibility, probing whether the flood of synthetic content makes human discernment more valuable than ever. — Link
(44) “How many R letters are in the word strawberry?” Why do we need to check LLM? Claude, GPT 4o, and Gemini. (update on OpenAI o1 – solved)
Verification and fail-safes still matter because even advanced models can miss simple factual checks unless humans demand accuracy and rigor. — Link
(45) Leading LLL: On David Ben Gurion and ChatGPT
A creative thought experiment on leadership and AI, imagining how historical leaders might engage with today’s technology to shape visions for the future. — Link
More Information:
- [1] John Kotter on Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yfrj2Y9IlI
- [2] Email from Ruber Hassid