We’re now more than two years past the launch of ChatGPT, and the world of work is already different. If you’ve been waiting for the hype to fade or the pace of innovation to slow, it’s time to accept that it won’t. Even if progress froze today—even if this were the most capable version of AI we’d ever see—businesses would still spend years unlocking its potential. Most organizations haven’t come close to the full potential of today’s frontier models, let alone explored what’s emerging at the cutting edge of reasoning and problem-solving.

And yet, many leaders still hesitate. Part of the problem is definitional. The term “AI” has been stretched to cover everything from toothbrushes that log brushing habits to algorithms that accelerate drug discovery. That kind of jargon-creep creates confusion, and confusion makes it easier to retreat into familiar ways of working.

A New Era of Work

But make no mistake: we’ve entered a new era. Knowledge work is being automated, augmented, and reimagined at a speed not seen since the rise of the internet. As McKinsey put it in Superagency in the Workplace: “AI now is like the internet many years ago: The risk for business leaders is not thinking too big, but rather too small.”

Too small is asking how AI can write emails or summarize meetings. Big enough is asking how AI can help your B players become A players—and your A players become superstars.

That’s the shift Moderna made when it gave every employee access to ChatGPT. What followed wasn’t just faster tasks, but a cultural change. Experimentation flourished. Productivity rose. Ideas surfaced faster and were tested more broadly. The workforce wasn’t replaced—it was elevated.

Democratizing Expertise

And here’s the part that excites me most: the tools that enable this transformation are accessible to everyone. For twenty dollars a month, you can create custom GPTs that act like co-strategists, co-marketers, even co-financial analysts. You can test campaigns, refine negotiation strategies, role-play sales conversations, and run complex financial models—without code and without specialized expertise.

Which is why hesitation is so dangerous. If AI isn’t on your agenda at every leadership meeting, you’re falling behind. If you don’t have an AI council or an AI champion inside your organization, you’re falling behind. McKinsey puts it plainly: “Success in the era of AI hinges not just on technology deployment or employee willingness but also on visionary leadership.”

The path forward is clear. Stop waiting. Pick one area where AI can deliver meaningful impact and start today. The companies that win in this new era won’t be the ones that asked what AI could do for them—they’ll be the ones that asked what AI could help them become.