You can’t cut your way to growth. You can’t automate your way to innovation. AI is forcing every organization to reveal what it really believes about people. Do leaders see AI as a way to shrink the company into a more efficient version of yesterday? Or do they see it as a way to expand the organization’s capacity to learn, imagine, decide, create, and grow? That is the fork in the road. I call this moment AI Darwinism: the new…
The Tech Humanist Show: AI Augmentation vs. Automation
The Tech Humanist Show Listen: Spotify Apple Podcasts Youtube Are leaders thinking big enough—and human enough—in the AI era? Explore how AI and technology shape the human experience with Kate O’Neill and guest Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow. Discover the concept of cognitive Darwinism, AI transformation stories, leadership in the AI era, and how to drive growth while staying human-centric. Topics Covered: AI augmentation vs. automation Cognitive Darwinism and self-awareness Capacity and capability overhang in AI adoption…
Accounting Today: AI in the Tax Department
This isn’t the first time you’ve heard of, or read about, AI. Its implications for virtually every sector are completely rewriting the script. Companies are investing in AI and implementing it day-to-day. We are at the same pivotal point with the Internet in the late 21st century. It’s an uncertain time. Will this replace jobs? Will work be replaced with computers? Done right, AI is not automation. It is augmentation. In the book Mindshift, author Brian Solis observes that most…
Are We Inventing Tomorrow or Optimizing Yesterday? Guy Kawasaki and I unpack the tension at the center of AI, innovation, and leadership today
What a gift to spend time with an old friend (meaning we’ve been friends for a long time. He’s not old!) My latest conversation with Guy Kawasaki on his show, Remarkable People, reminded me that the future is never just a technology story. It is a human one. AI may change how we work, compete, and create, but it also exposes something deeper: whether we are using new tools to do yesterday more efficiently, or to imagine something genuinely better….
ScaleX Insider: The Mindshift Every Leader Must Make
Thank you, Brendan McGurgan. What a privilege to spend time with you. What if the greatest challenge facing leaders today isn’t technology itself — but how we think about it? In this episode of ScaleX™ Insider, Brendan McGurgan is joined by world-renowned digital anthropologist, futurist, and author Brian Solis for a powerful conversation on mindset, leadership, and navigating growth in an era defined by AI, acceleration, and constant disruption. Brian shares why meaningful scale begins not with tools or tactics,…
Chief Executive: The Mindshift CEOs Can’t Ignore – and why they need a mindset shift now
There’s a familiar pattern that plays out in C-Suites and boardrooms in every industry around the world. Something big happens…an economic shock, a geopolitical event, a climate disaster, a technological leap, like ChatGPT or tomorrow’s big quantum event, and for a moment, everything feels…different. Urgent. Unavoidable. “We need to do something!” becomes the prevailing mantra. And then, almost quietly, we drift back into business as usual. Not because leaders don’t care. Not because they’re not paying attention. But because the…
Rotman School of Management: What it takes to thrive in ‘the Novel Economy’ – Q&A with Brian Solis
The biggest risk in 2026 is leaders using 2016 mindsets to lead…but mistaking it as a 2026 mindset. I’ve been meaning to share my interview with University of Toronto – Rotman School of Management Magazine. This is a “Novel Economy,” where disruption is constant, compounding, and *always* novel (AI, climate, geopolitics, quantum, spatial intelligence… all evolving, emerging, and colliding). And when leaders talk about a “new normal,” it’s often a tell: they’re trying to steer back to business as usual…
“We’re Not Building a Phone”: Steve Jobs’ Leadership Lesson for Reframing the Future
The beauty of this moment is that every one of us gets to be a leader of what’s next. Why now? Because the only playbook that exists is for yesterday. There is no playbook for tomorrow. No proven answers. No “best practice” to copy and paste. No “quick win” use cases that unlock new value. And that’s exactly the point. Right now, I define leadership in a simple (and slightly uncomfortable) way: a leader is someone willing to think differently…
Rethinking Leadership and Innovation in an AI-First World
Brian Solis recently spent time with David Kirkpatrick, CoreX, exploring the new world with AI and how leaders, at every level, can rethink their way forward. Artificial intelligence represents a new era of thinking. Few people capture this shift as sharply as Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, bestselling author, and renowned digital anthropologist. With his latest book, Mindshift: Transform Leadership, Drive Innovation, and Reshape the Future, Solis challenges leaders to move beyond fear and efficiency toward curiosity, creativity, and reinvention….
Here’s What Makes Change Agents and Leaders Successful
I meant to share this from InnoLead….I hope it adds value to your day. In my work with change agents over the years, one thing has become clear: leadership is a decision you make about the future you are willing to fight for. When I wrote “The Digital Change Agent’s Manifesto” back in 2019, I interviewed leaders driving transformation at brands like The Coca-Cola Company, Starbucks, Samsung Electronics, Visa, and others. They were not always in big roles. Many were…