Two Truths About AI That Changed the Way I Lead

Two Truths About AI That Changed the Way I Lead

By Eric Stavola

Before we dive into frameworks or fancy terminology, I want to offer you two core concepts that continue to shape how I think about AI and business:

1. Speed is the new value driver.

2. Technology, when misapplied, is worthless.

If you anchor to those two truths—speed and intentionality—you begin to see AI not as magic, but as a multiplier.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert at AI . I approach this topic with the same posture I encourage in others: curious, disciplined, and humble. But after spending years in tech, security, and business transformation, I’ve seen how AI breaks down into systems we can actually lead.

So let me walk you through the way I was taught to understand this—and how I’m helping others apply it.

Most Organizations Have Been Doing AI—They Just Didn’t Call It That

For years, many companies have taken advantage of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Machine Learning (ML). That’s been the backbone of a lot of the “digital transformation” efforts you’ve heard about.

But here’s the thing: AI is not one thing. It’s better understood as a system of eight dimensions—from how it perceives the world to how it reasons and interacts.

Here’s the breakdown:

The Eight Dimensions of AI (At a Glance)

1. Perception – Seeing and interpreting (e.g., computer vision, voice recognition)

2. Reasoning – Making logical decisions from rules or constraints

3. Knowledge Representation – Storing and retrieving facts, relationships, and models

4. Planning – Sequencing steps toward a goal

5. Learning – Adapting based on new data or outcomes

6. Natural Language Processing (NLP) – Understanding and generating language

7. Interaction – Engaging users through interfaces, voice, or chat

8. Autonomy – Taking action without ongoing human instruction

What’s interesting here is this: Conversational AI isn’t the same as “chatting with AI.” You’ll get very different results depending on the tools, architecture, and design of the conversation.

The Future Is Teams of AI Agents That Reason Together

Now here’s where it gets exciting—and humbling.

We’re moving from tools to personas, then from personas to agents, and now toward AI teams.

• A persona is a role-based design—think “Digital Sales Engineer.”

• An agent takes that persona and gives it purpose, autonomy, and task execution.

• But a team? That’s where things evolve. AI agents start reasoning with one another—challenging ideas, trading context, reconciling inputs. It’s not just collaboration; it’s cognitive distribution.

When AI agents begin acting like functional teams, you’re no longer just automating tasks—you’re scaling decision-making.

This is the type of development that forces leaders to rethink team design, accountability, and even ethics.

Every Day I Find a New Use Case

That’s the beauty—and the challenge—of this moment in history.

One day it’s a marketing agent rewriting messaging in our tone.

The next, it’s a security agent summarizing threats from ten sources.

Then it’s a research assistant that actually understands the context of a sales call.

AI is not a one-and-done deployment. It’s a leadership discipline.

What to take away from this

I started this article with two big truths. Let me leave you with one more:

You don’t need to be an expert in AI to lead with it.

But you do need to be fluent in how it drives value, risk, and behavior.

So stay humble. Stay curious. And keep challenging yourself to ask the better question—not “What does this tool do?” but:

“What part of my business could move faster, safer, or smarter if I applied this intentionally?”

That’s how we lead AI—not with hype, but with purpose.