Interview
"Enough already with the breathless predictions and sci-fi scenarios about AI. For leaders trying to navigate the now, the real question isn't about sentient robots. It's much simpler yet infinitely more complex: What are people actually doing with these tools?"
That's one of the many hard-hitting questions David Priede posed this year, and it still remains relevant as we head into a new year.
Priede's take on AI in the healthcare industry offers a multitude of insights for those who want to learn how to separate hype from reality and become better leaders. Let's take a look at some of his biggest takeaways of 2025:
1. Don't Wait Around for 'Neat' AI
New data shows AI adoption happening fast, messy and far outside the bounds of neat corporate strategies. As Priede put it in his "What Actual AI Usage Data Tells Leaders About the Work Ahead" piece, “the revolution isn't arriving as a neat package. It’s infiltrating. Task by task.” Anthropic’s analysis shows 79% of Claude Code interactions were full automation, not suggestions — evidence that AI is acting as “a digital worker executing tasks.” Startups are leading the charge, using specialized agents for real competitive advantage.
At the same time, AI’s most talked-about uses have shifted into deeply personal territory. HBR’s analysis found people relying on AI for “therapy and companionship,” “organizing my life” and even “finding purpose.” Priede warns that leaders sticking to slow, top-down rollouts are missing the real story: “AI adoption isn’t neat, and it isn’t waiting for your permission.”
Related Article: Generative AI Adoption: Top-Down or Bottom-Up?
2. Move Beyond Layer 1 Thinking
OpenAI’s six AI primitives may map today’s enterprise use cases, but Priede argues they’re only “the kiddie pool” compared to what’s coming.
These foundational patterns — content creation, research, coding, data analysis, ideation and automation — represent millions of real workflows, but leaders shouldn't confuse current usage with the finish line. As Priede writes, “That’s Layer 1 thinking in a Layer 3 world.”
The real shift is the rise of autonomous agents that plan, execute and collaborate with minimal oversight. Priede outlines exactly how each primitive will evolve into multi-agent systems, from “synthetic studios” in marketing to “self-healing systems” in engineering and “autonomous business units” across operations. The warning is blunt: “If you’re not preparing for this agentic shift now… you’re becoming a fossil.”
3. Avoid the Danger of Stagnation
AI is encroaching on the territory long reserved for top experts. It's a topic Priede covers in his article, "My PhD Took Years. Now AI Can Do Parts of My Job in Hours."
“Is the deep expertise I… painstakingly acquired becoming irrelevant?” Tools like Sakana AI’s AI Scientist-v2 aren’t just summarizing papers or drafting proposals — they’re beginning to “autonomously hypothesize, design experiments, interpret results and discover novel scientific insights.” The core loop of scientific discovery, once the defining domain of PhDs, is now being replicated in hours by machines.
But the threat isn’t obsolescence — it’s stagnation. The real danger is clinging to rigid academic and corporate structures that can’t adapt. As Priede puts it, “The revolution isn’t about replacement; it’s about redefinition.” Humans remain essential as strategists, ethical governors and cross-domain synthesizers, even as AI accelerates discovery. The challenge for leaders is to dismantle bureaucratic systems, retrain teams for human-AI collaboration and build organizations capable of evolving as fast as the tools now reshaping expert work.
4. Become the Augmented Executive
AI isn’t a threat to executives. It’s a lifeline.
As Priede puts it, “the modern leadership role is a direct assault on the brain,” one that drains focus, memory and decision-making capacity. After years of cognitive strain, he argues AI has become “my cognitive operating system,” a toolkit that protects deep focus and restores mental stamina. Tools like Brain.fm, Motion, Otter.ai, Gemini and Oura don’t just boost productivity, they “save the executive mind.”
The shift, he argues, is bigger than personal efficiency hacks. It’s a leadership mandate. “We are depleting our most critical asset — our own and our teams’ cognitive capital,” he writes. And AI is now the most practical way to rebuild it.
The augmented executive becomes the new standard: someone who offloads cognitive burdens to intelligent systems and reserves human energy for judgment, creativity and strategy.
Related Article: Don’t Wait for the AI Flood: How to Build Your 'Ark' Now
5. Don't Fall for Silicon Valley's Fantasy
Leaders are being “sold a fantasy on a two-year timeline when the reality is a decade-long slog,” says Priede.
The current AI boom is driven less by technological certainty and more by “a high-stakes narrative designed to fuel massive investment.” Behind the glossy demos lies a return to tech oligopoly, where Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon act as “the new feudal lords,” controlling models, chips, data and pricing — and turning enterprises into dependent tenants rather than independent innovators.
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But the bigger alarm is what’s coming: automated social control, a harsh market correction and an energy crisis that could cripple AI’s growth. "The physical and financial realities of AI are about to crash the hype party,” Priede warns, urging leaders to reclaim agency before Silicon Valley’s vision becomes the default future.
