Taming the AI Scare

Staying Human in Agentic Organizations

Scary?

Your conversation opens by naming the uncertainty many workers feel: Will AI take my job? And if so, will it affect men and women differently?
Rather than relying on alarming headlines, you argue for deeper evidence. Current signals show that AI is reshaping jobs more than eliminating them — and the real impact depends on how leaders and OD practitioners choose to respond.

What AI Actually Automates

AI excels at the transactional layer of work — the repetitive, data-driven, and routine tasks.
But jobs also have emotional and relational dimensions where empathy, judgment, trust, and imagination matter.
AI automates tasks, not entire jobs. This shift frees humans to focus on creativity, problem-solving, and relationship-building — areas machines cannot replicate.

New Roles, New Skills

Emerging patterns show that AI is:

• Creating entirely new kinds of roles

• Requiring new human–AI collaboration skills

• Increasing the need for critical thinking, prompting, and data literacy
  Whether AI empowers or displaces people depends largely on leadership intent. Augmentation leads to capability-building; cost-cutting leads to displacement.

The OD Imperative

The central question is no longer whether AI replaces humans — but how organizations redesign work so humans and AI bring out the best in each other.
This is an OD challenge. Human-centered AI emphasizes empowerment, not replacement.
In agentic organizations, the future of work is not humans versus AI — it is humans with AI.

Here is a video explaining the difference between transactional and emotional work. It argues that work is fundamentally emotional, and it outlines strategies leaders can use to engage people beyond simple transactions.

NOTES

Forthcoming Ed Canela’s AI Seminar Series

1. “The Integration of AI Technology in Electrical Engineering Industry,” for the 50th Anniversary Convention of the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers of the Philippines, Inc. (IIEE), the sole Accredited Professional Organization (APO) by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) for electrical engineering practitioners, from November 26, 2025 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City.

2. Towards Agentic Organization for a large accounting BPO’s Q4 Thought Leadership Series, Zoom, November 26, 2025. Invitations only.

3. Save the date and join our 2026 AI courses: (a) Hiring and Nurturing AI Talents in 2026 (January 27, Tue), (b) Advanced AI for Trainers and Facilitators (Feb 17) and (c) Advanced AI for Senior Government Executives (Mar 21) via Foldeography Academy. Pre-register here and we will send you the brochure.

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