Ethan Mollick | How to build an AI-first organization

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Jun 6, 2025

Join Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor and AI expert, as he discusses the transformative potential of AI in organizations. He argues that many companies are underestimating AI's capabilities, focusing too much on efficiency rather than innovation. Ethan explores the need for AI-native organizational redesign and the shift from traditional job roles. He also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between humans and AI and reimagining education to prepare future professionals for an AI-driven landscape.

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INSIGHT

Organizational Design Fails AI Era

Early organizational charts designed for human-only intelligence are breaking with AI integration.
Companies must rethink structures around AI's unique capabilities and scaling options.

INSIGHT

LLMs Simplified AI Revolution

The original AI idea involved complex models but LLMs succeeded by learning from language data.
This simplicity overturns decades of complex AI approach assumptions.

INSIGHT

AI as Job Augmentation

AI augmentation means offloading weaker parts of jobs, boosting productivity rather than replacing creativity.
Jobs remain bundles of varied tasks not designed for total AI substitution.

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Most companies are using AI to cut costs. Ethan Mollick argues that the biggest mistake companies make is thinking too small.

In the first episode of Strange Loop, Wharton professor and leading AI researcher Ethan Mollick joins Sana founder and CEO Joel Hellermark for a candid and wide-ranging conversation about the rapidly changing world of AI at work.

They explore how AI is not just an efficiency tool but a turning point—one that forces a choice between incremental optimization and transformational scale. The discussion covers the roots of machine intelligence, the relevance of AGI, and what it takes to build organizations designed from the ground up for an AI-native future.

What’s in this episode

Why most companies are underestimating what AI makes possible
The tension between using AI for efficiency vs. scaling ambition
How traditional org charts, built for a human-only workforce, are breaking
The collapse of apprenticeship and its long-term implications- How prompting is becoming a foundational business skill
Why “cheating” with AI may be the new form of learning
The risks of using AI to optimize the past instead of inventing the future
What it means to build truly AI-native teams and organizations

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Transcript: https://sanalabs.com/strange-loop/ethan-mollick

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About Strange Loop

Strange Loop is a podcast about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the systems we live and work in. Each episode features deep, unscripted conversations with thinkers and builders reimagining intelligence, leadership, and the architectures of progress. The goal is not just to follow AI’s trajectory, but to question the assumptions guiding it.

Subscribe for more conversations at the edge of AI and human knowledge.

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Timestamps

(00:20) Origins: AI in the early days at MIT

(01:53) Defining and testing intelligence: Beyond the Turing test

(06:35) Redesigning organizations for the AI era

(08:56) Human augmentation or replacement

(14:58) Navigating AI's jagged frontier

(17:18) The 3 ingredients for successful AI adoption

(23:31) Roles to hire for an AI-first world

(33:41) Do orgs need a Chief AI officer?

(39:45) The interface for AI and human collaboration

(43:50) Rethinking the goals of enterprise AI

(49:15) The case for abundance

(52:30) Best and worse case scenarios

(58:51) Avoiding the trap of enterprise AI KPIs

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Where to find Ethan

Newsletter: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emollick/
X: https://x.com/emollick

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Where to find Joel

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-hellermark/
X: https://x.com/joelhellermark